Patent decision

BL number

O/422/12

Concerning rights in

GB0916723.0

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

26 October 2012

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute et al

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(1) (b); Section 14(5)(b)

Keywords

Clarity, Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

1 The application relates to a method for expressing antigens of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) in insect in vivo by using recombinant baculovirus and seeks to provide a recombinant vaccine for combatting foot and mouth disease in cloven-hoofed animals, specifically bovines, which is an improvement over traditional foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines. It is purported that the method as described in this invention produces FMDV antigens safely and highly effectively by a baculovirus expression system, namely the silkworm baculovirus (eukaryotic) expression system, and thus provides means of addressing short-comings such as high cost of production, short period of immunity, and security issues around escape of the virus during preparation of the vaccine leading overall to a FMD vaccine with higher security and efficacy.

The Hearing Officer found that whilst Claim 1 of the 1st Alternative claim set demonstrated an inventive step over the prior art, she found that the claim was unclear and did not satisfy section 14(5)(b). The Hearing Officer provided the applicant with an opportunity to amend the claims and description to bring it into line with the claims as amended.

Full decision O/422/12 94Kb