Patent decision

BL number

O/326/17

Concerning rights in

GB1211237.1

Hearing Officer

Mrs S E Chalmers

Decision date

13 July 2017

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 14(3)

Keywords

Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to naturally occurring inhibitors of cyclin-dependent protein kinase 5 (Cdk5). These inhibitors are disclosed as compounds isolated from the root of the natural herbal plant Rhodiola rosea. The inhibitors have various uses, in particular therapeutic uses in the treatment of conditions including pain and the management of type 2 diabetes.

Objections regarding insufficiency were maintained throughout the examination that the invention was speculative, unsupported across its full breadth and insufficient due to excessive claim breadth, the invention being defined in claim 1 by a Markush formula to a range of compounds. In a decision based solely on the papers, the hearing officer found that the invention was not disclosed in a manner which was clear enough and complete enough across the breadth of the claims for the invention to be performed by a person skilled in the art. The hearing officer found that if the claims were restricted in scope to a specific novel compound disclosed then the application would be sufficient and offered the applicant the opportunity to thus amend, otherwise the hearing officer held that the application would be refused.

Full decision O/326/17 123Kb