DETAILED ACTION
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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 31-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 31-33 depend upon canceled claim 27, thus, the metes and bounds of the claimed subject matter cannot be determined.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 5-8, 12-16, 18-20, 22-26 are allowed. The prior art does not teach or fairly suggest flanking a reporter gene with SEQ ID NO:16 (RSV P gene start) and SEQ ID NO:17 (RSV NS2 gene end) and placement between the P and M genes in a viral vector. The closest prior art is Rameix-Welti et al (2014, of record) which teaches such a vector but with a P gene start sequence and an N gene end sequence. Further, SEQ ID NO: 16 differs from a canonical RSV P gene start (Collins et al, 2016, Fig. 3) by one residue:
1 ggggcaaataaatca 15 SIN:16
ccccguuuauuuacu complement RNA of SEQ ID NO: 16
ccccguuuauuuagu rsv P start of Collins et al.
Further, previous fluorescence-based RSV reporter virus antibody neutralization assays teach a different placement of the reporter gene in the “first position” next to the NS1 gene, as represented by Fuentes et al (Vaccine, 2013) and Remmerden et al (2012), or between the RSV G and F genes (Remmerden et al).
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/MICHAEL D BURKHART/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1638