Appeal No. 2006-2851
Application No. 09/844,501
DISCUSSION
35 U.S.C. § 103
Claims 123-128, 130, 135, 143-145, and 147-151 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) over Grosveld.
According to the examiner Grosveld teaches each of the claimed steps, with
particular reference to column 8, lines 1-25, column 15, lines 43-47 and column 21,
lines 18-20 and claim 1 (Answer, pages 3-4).
Upon review of the disclosure of Grosveld, we do not find the examiner has
provided sufficient evidence to support a prima facie case of obviousness of the method
of claim 123.
We agree with the Examiner that Grosveld describes steps (a)-(d) of the method
of claim 123 at Column 8, lines 1-25, we do not find that Grosveld describes a method
consistent with steps (e)-(f) of the claimed method.
In particular, claim 123, step (e) recites, “contacting the DNA fragments obtained
in step (d) with a population of vector molecules, wherein the vector molecules comprise
a first end that is compatible with the first enzyme and a second end that is compatible
with the second enzyme, under conditions favorable to ligation of compatible ends.”
Grosveld at column 8, lines 16-32, describes deproteination steps and digestion
with a second enzyme to generate fragments, such as BgIII, consistent with steps (c)
and (d) of claim 123. Then, the “exact location of the DNaseI hypersensitive site[s] of
the 3’ of the adult β-globin gene were determined using two single copy DNA probes
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