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 .
Status of Claims
The claim listing filed on September 27, 2023 is pending. Claims 1-30 are currently under examination.
Priority
The present application filed 9/27/2023 is a 371 of PCT/US2022/024639 filed 4/13/2022 which claims benefit of US Provisional Patent Application 63/174,432 filed 4/13/2021. The benefit is acknowledged and the claims examined herein are treated as having an effective filling date of 4/13/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) was submitted on 6/2/2025 before the mailing of a first office action. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 2 and 30 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 2 is objected to for incorrect numbering of SEQ ID NO assigned to the sequence “AQTSVVTPVGAQ”. It is suggested to amend the sequence identifier number as SEQ ID NO: 17. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 30 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 30 is objected to for missing a period at the end of the claim. It is suggested to amend the claim sentence.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 5-18 and 20-27 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim cannot depend from any other multiple dependent claim. See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claims 5-18 and 20-27 have not been further treated on the merits.
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 1-4 and 19are 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.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “sequence as provided in Table I or FIG. 1”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim because there is no reference to AAV capsid protein sequence prior to independent claim 1 and it is uncertain as to which is being referenced. Furthermore, if the limitation is referring to Table 1 and Fig 1 in the instant specification, claim 1 is indefinite because the sequences in Table 1 and Fig. 1 can be readily incorporated into claim1. 1; thus, reference to the specification in claim 1 is improper.
Claims 2-4 which depend from claim 1 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as these claims incorporate by dependency the indefiniteness of claim 1.
Claim 19 recites the limitation “nucleic acid sequence encoding a peptide sequence as provided in Table 1 or FIG. 1”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim because there is no reference to nucleic acid sequence for AAV capsid protein sequence prior to independent claim 19 and it is uncertain as to which is being referenced. Furthermore, if the limitation is referring to Table 1 and FIG 1 in the instant specification, claim 19 is indefinite because the sequences in Table 1 and FIG. 1 are amino acid sequence ; thus, reference to the specification in claim 1 is improper.
Allowable Subject Matter
An AAV capsid protein consisting of amino acid sequence AQANTVRNTAQ (SEQ ID NO: 2) or comprising an insertion sequence selected from SEQ ID NOs: 3-20 would be supported by the specification, fully enabled and are free of the prior art.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed
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/KOYELI BANERJEE/Examiner, Art Unit 1658
/LIANKO G GARYU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1654