Patent decision

BL number

O/035/21

Concerning rights in

GB 2007535.4

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

14 January 2021

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Tate and Lyle Technology Limited and Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas LLC

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 Section 1(1)(b)

Keywords

Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention concerns a protein comprising a polypeptide that has at least 90% sequence identity with but is not identical to a peptide sequence identified as SEQ ID NO: 6 and which has psicose 3-epimerase activity. Nucleic acids encoding this peptide, vectors and host cells comprising the encoding nucleic acid are further claimed. This enzyme catalyses the interconversion of fructose to allulose.

The examiner, based on the prior art disclosure of SEQ ID NO:6 in protein databases and the common general knowledge of the skilled person, asserted that the invention was obvious. The applicants disagreed with the examiner-™s starting point for assessing obviousness and assessment of the common general knowledge and maintained their assertion that there was an inventive step to arrive at the claimed invention.

Having carefully considered the arguments, observations and evidence presented, the Hearing Officer agreed with the applicants-™ assessment of the common general knowledge of the skilled person and the starting point for assessing obviousness. In the light of this following the Windsurfing/Pozzoli approach, the Hearing Officer found that the claims 1-9 required an inventive step over the prior art.

The application was remitted back to the examiner for completion of the examination process and grant.

Full decisionO/035/21  317Kb