Bulk Sequence Documents
Patent applications for Arabidopsis bulk sequences made by Ceres Inc.
The following is an example of a recent patent application by Ceres towards a large group of Arabidopsis sequences. Whilst there are many-more-than 100 sequences in this application (2523 sequence IDs listed), approximately half of these are for the corresponding protein sequence, and some sequences are from corn, soya bean, wheat, brassica, and others. This patent document also provides an example of a more recent bulk sequence application, than those of Paradigm or Mendel. The focus of this application is towards Arabidopsis polypeptides and the sequences encoding them,…
| Patent or Publication No. | Title, Independent Claims and Summary | Applicant | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
US 2006/0057724 A1
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Title – Nucleotide sequences and polypeptides encoded thereby useful for modifying plant characteristics and phenotypes
The claims are generally drawn to:
The 85% sequence identity at the peptide level is broad, opening the possibility of finding prior art (although this might require analysis tools that may not be available to examiners). The hybridization language used here also allows the possibility of very broad claim scope. Again opening up the possibility of finding prior ar. The language used, and the 40° C to 48° C below Tm stipulation make it extremely difficult to do a thorough analysis of prior art. However, tools that allow such analysis might very-well lead to prior art discovery. The patent text defines the hybridization temperatures (-40 to -48° C from Tm) of this claim to be equivalent to “low stringency” conditions!
One interpretation of this is that claims over the orthologs listed in FIG 1 are also being made, and sequences 85% identical to them. This again broadens the scope of the claim – and may be enough to read on prior art. Discovery of such prior art would require a thorough analysis of not only sequences that are 85% identical to the SEQ ID No., but also of the orthologs in the alignment in Fig1. Are examiners able to do this effectively, given the time and resources available to them? |
Original Applicant: CERES, INC., Thousand Oaks, CA (US) For information regarding this application and possible licensing, we would suggest contacting: Dr Peter Mascia |
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| Remarks | The scope of claimed sequences for this Ceres application relies on “hybridization language”, as does the Paradigm Genetics applications discussed previously. Such claims scope are difficult to quantify. In this case Ceres has provided a temperature range (compared to Tm) for their hybridisation conditions. Unfortunately, by comparing this range to the literature (and their own) definition of stringency, their definition constitutes “low stringency” conditions. Thus their claims to Arabidopsis sequences almost certainly will cover the same or similar sequences from many dicots. | |||
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Other patent documents of interest |
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| US 2006/15970 A1 | Nucleotide sequences and polypeptides encoded thereby useful for modifying plant characteristics | ~65 Arabidopsis sequences |