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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim 1 is pending and examined on the merits.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because the status of U.S. application needs to be updated. For example, U.S. application is recited on page 1.
The specification is objected to under 37 CFR 1.821(d) as failing to refer to a sequence by use of its sequence identifier preceded by “SEQ ID NO:”. The nucleotide sequences in Figures 8 should be identified as SEQ ID NOs, respectively. Alternatively, the brief descriptions of those figures on page 11 can be amended to recite the identifiers.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
3. Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a naturally-occurring nucleic acid or fragment thereof, that is not patent-eligible pursuant to the Supreme Court decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., --U.S.-- (June 13, 2013). In this case, the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 58 occurs naturally in rice.
It is suggested that claim 1 be amended to recite that the promoter is operably linked to a heterologous sequence, to identify a product that is not found in nature.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
Instant invention is free of the prior art for the failure of the prior art to teach or fairly suggest SEQ ID NO:58. The closest prior art is US patent 5,412,085, which teach a pollen-specific promoter from maize (claim 1) with no significant sequence homology to instant SEQ ID NO:58.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LI ZHENG whose telephone number is (571)272-8031. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (9-5).
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/LI ZHENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1662
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