Appeal No. 2007-0057
Application No. 10/174,586
30. An isolated polypeptide comprising:
(a) the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 32;
(b) the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 32,
lacking its associated signal peptide; or
(c) the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the full-
length coding sequence of the cDNA deposited under ATCC accession
number 209392.
Claim 25 is directed to an isolated polypeptide at least 80% identical
in sequence to, among other things, SEQ ID NO:32 and having thioredoxin
protein activity. Claims 26, 27, 28, and 29 are independent claims that are
identical to claim 25 except that they are directed to polypeptides 85%, 90%,
95%, and 99% identical, respectively, to SEQ ID NO:32 and having
thioredoxin activity.
Claim 30, the last independent claim, is directed to a polypeptide
comprising SEQ ID NO:32, SEQ ID NO:32 minus its signal sequence, or the
sequence encoded by the PRO270 cDNA deposited at the American Type
Culture Collection.
2. UTILITY
Claims 25-32 and 35-37 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. §§ 101 and
112, first paragraph, as lacking patentable utility. The Examiner argues that
the disclosed similarity between PRO270 and thioredoxin is not enough, by
itself, to establish PRO270’s utility:
[T]he mere identification that a protein belongs to a family of
proteins, while indicative of evolutionary relatedness, is not
indicative of function, nor by extension of utility. . . . [W]ithout
any information as to the specific properties of the protein, the
mere identification of such as having homology to thioredoxin
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