Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The rejection of the claims under 35 USC 102 as being anticipated by El Richani et al is hereby overcome in response to Applicant’s arguments when taken together with the claim amendments.
Claims 51-53, 67, 70-75, and 83-86 are allowed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 87-90 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El-Richani et al (USPGPUB20180291392).
The claims are drawn to a composition comprising a casein micelle comprising at least one recombinant casein protein and a plant component, wherein the plant component is a protein or a carbohydrate or an oil and wherein the plant component is from soybean wherein the casein micelles are more abundant than any other component in the composition after water, wherein the composition further comprises DNA encoding a selectable marker imparting herbicide resistance or antibiotic resistance or a screenable marker wherein the marker is a color protein that is fluorescent.
El-Richani et al teach transforming soybean plants with nucleic acid sequences encoding bovine kappa-casein, bovine alphaS1-casein, bovine alphaS2-casein and beta-casein (See claims and Figures 4-10, for example) operably linked to a promoter, including tissue specific promoters, including seed-specific promoters (see “Tissue-Specific or Tissue preferred Promoters”), as well as targeting the polypeptides to Subcellular compartments including the vacuole (see Expression Vectors for Plant Transformation: Signal Sequences for Targeting Proteins to Subcellular Compartments), they further teach that casein proteins arrange into micelles (see first paragraph under Bovine Milk Protein). El-Richani et al also teach using marker proteins with their invention including the color marker green fluorescence protein as well has herbicide resistance and antibiotic resistance (see paragraphs 2-7 under Marker genes).
El-Richani et al do not teach the composition expressly.
It would have been obvious as of the time of filing for one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the teachings of El-Richani et al to arrive at the instant composition. The specified combination of claim 87 would be an obvious design choice clearly envisioned by El-Richani et al.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 03/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for all of the claims.
Applicant’s urge that the amended claims require a gene encoding for oxalate decarboxylase which El-Richani et al do not teach (see pages 8-9 of response).
This is not persuasive because the claims are drawn to a composition that is not required to comprise such a gene. The claims appear to be a product by process type claim, however, to the extent the process does not impart a structural difference, the resulting product would be indistinguishable from a product taught by El-Richani et al.
Claims 51-53, 67, 70-75, and 83-86 are allowed.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENT T PAGE whose telephone number is (571)272-5914. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7-4 EST.
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/BRENT T PAGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1663
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