Biotech Claims Found to Be Over Combinations of Prior Art References.

Mondaq Business Briefing, March, 2003 by Jennifer Yokoyama

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Board of Patent Appeals, rejecting the appellants' application for "Mutated Recombinant Collagens" as obvious. In re Berg, Case Nos. 02-1120, -1160 (Fed. Cir. February 20, 2003). Uncharacteristically, the Court appears to have applied the substantial evidence standard with some care and given a high degree of deference in this complicated art to the "persons of scientific competence" at the USPTO.

Collagen is a natural protein found in humans that can be produced as a recombinant protein. In order to synthesize collagen, one typically starts with a precursor known as procollagen. Procollagen consists of collagen with additional peptide extensions at...