Appeal No. 2007-0055 Page 2
Application No. 10/053,299
The instant application provides a method for blocking adherence of microbes to
eukaryotic cells “by applying isoleucine to the surface of the cells.” Id., page 1, line 29-
page 2, line 1.
Discussion
Claim construction
The pending claims in the application are claims 1-16, 18, 25, 31, 32, 34, and 41-
44. All pending claims are appealed. Br. 2. The claims stand rejected under two prior
art rejections under § 103, each relying on a different prior art reference:
(1) Claims 1-6, 8-16, 18, 25, and 41-44 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as unpatentable over Pederson1; and
(2) Claims 1-13, 18, 25, 31, 32, 34, and 41-44 rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as unpatentable over Zeng.2 Br. 2, 24.
The claims do not stand or fall together because Appellants provided separate
reasons for patentability for certain claims within each rejection.
The first step in an obviousness analysis is to determine the meaning and scope
of the claims at issue. For this purpose, we focus on independent claims 1 and 11:
1. A method of blocking microbial adherence to a eukaryotic cell surface in a
mammal by applying to said surface a pharmacologically acceptable composition
consisting essentially of an amino acid component selected from the group
consisting of at least one of the following: L(+-) isoleucine, DL-isoleucine, D(-)-
allo-isoleucine, L(+)-allo-isoleucine, and active analogs of isoleucine present in a
microbial blocking quantity.
11. A pharma[c]ologically acceptable composition consisting essentially of:
1 Pederson, U.S. Patent 6,607,711 B2, issued Aug. 19, 2003.
2 Zeng, U.S. Patent 6,770,306 B1, issued Aug. 3, 2004.
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