THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMADownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardMay 26, 202013859811 - (D) (P.T.A.B. May. 26, 2020) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 13/859,811 04/10/2013 William H. Hildebrand OAKU.004P13C1 4149 20995 7590 05/26/2020 KNOBBE MARTENS OLSON & BEAR LLP 2040 MAIN STREET FOURTEENTH FLOOR IRVINE, CA 92614 EXAMINER DIBRINO, MARIANNE ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1644 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 05/26/2020 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): efiling@knobbe.com jayna.cartee@knobbe.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE __________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD __________ Ex parte WILLIAM H. HILDEBRAND and STEVEN CATE __________ Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 Technology Center 1600 __________ Before FRANCISCO C. PRATS, TAWEN CHANG, and DAVID COTTA, Administrative Patent Judges. PRATS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Appellant1 appeals from the Examiner’s decision to finally reject claims 1, 3, 5, 7, and 12–21. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We AFFIRM. 1 We use the word “Appellant” to refer to “applicant” as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.42. Appellant states that the real parties in interest “include the assignee of the patent application, The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma; as well as the exclusive licensee of the patent application, Pure Transplant Solutions, LLC.” Appeal Br. 2. Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE The following rejections are before us for review: (1) Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, and 18–21, under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hildebrand2 and Kalandadze3 (Final Act. 2–4;4 Ans. 3–9); (2) Claims 14 and 15, under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hildebrand, Kalandadze, and Rhode5 (Final Act. 6; Ans. 9–10); and (3) Claims 14–17, under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hildebrand, Kalandadze, and Prilliman6 (Final Act. 7; Ans. 10–11). Claim 1 is representative and reads as follows: 1. A method of producing isolated, HLA class II trimolecular complexes, wherein the isolated, HLA class II trimolecular complexes comprise a soluble, glycosylated alpha chain, a soluble, glycosylated beta chain, and a non-covalently associated, endogenously produced peptide ligand, the method comprising the steps of: culturing a recombinant immortalized mouse antigen-presenting cell line selected from the group consisting of dendritic cells, macrophages, and B cells and further comprising a first isolated nucleic acid segment encoding a soluble form of an alpha chain of a HLA class II molecule, the alpha chain comprising a first leucine zipper domain, and a second isolated nucleic acid 2 US 2008/0145872 A1 (published June 19, 2008). 3 Avtandil Kalandadze et al., Expression of Recombinant HLA-DR2 Molecules, 271 J. BIOL. CHEM. 20156–20162 (1996). 4 Final Action entered December 20, 2018. 5 US 6,232,445 B1 (issued May 15, 2001). 6 Kiley Prilliman et al., Large-scale production of class I bound peptides: assigning a signature to HLA-B* 1501, 45 IMMUNOGENETICS 379–385 (1997). Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 3 segment encoding a soluble form of a beta chain of the HLA class II molecule, the beta chain comprising a second leucine zipper domain, wherein the recombinant immortalized mouse antigen-presenting cell line is cultured under conditions that allow for expression of the soluble class II alpha and beta chains, association of the soluble class II alpha and beta chains, glycosylation of the soluble class II alpha and beta chains, and loading of an antigen binding groove formed from the soluble class II alpha and beta chains with an endogenously produced, non- covalently associated peptide ligand, thereby producing soluble class II trimolecular complexes; and isolating the soluble class II trimolecular complexes secreted from the recombinant immortalized mouse cell line, whereby each trimolecular complex so isolated comprises identical recombinant, individual soluble alpha and beta chain molecules of the HLA class II. Appeal Br. 11. OBVIOUSNESS— HILDEBRAND AND KALANDADZE The Examiner’s Prima Facie Case In rejecting claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, and 18–21, the Examiner cited Hildebrand as describing a process of producing isolated HLA class II trimolecular complexes from a recombinant immortalized mouse antigen presenting cell line, Hildebrand’s process having nearly all of the steps and features recited in the rejected claims. Ans. 4–7. The Examiner found that Hildebrand’s process differed from the process recited in the rejected claims in that Hildebrand “does not disclose wherein each chain of the HLA class II trimolecular complex also comprises Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 4 a leucine zipper motif capable of tethering the alpha and beta chains.” Ans. 7. The Examiner cited Kalandadze as evidence that, despite the difference between the process of the rejected claims and Hildebrand, the claimed process would have been obvious to a skilled artisan. See Ans. 7–8. In particular, the Examiner cited Kalandadze as disclosing that, when yeast and mammalian cells were engineered to express a construct in which leucine zipper motifs replaced the transmembrane domains of each of the alpha and beta subunits of an HLA class II molecule (HLA-DR2), the cells were capable of secreting the HLA-DR2 alpha/beta dimers in a form that was stable in solution. Id. Based on references’ combined teachings, the Examiner reasoned that a skilled artisan would have considered it obvious to replace the transmembrane portions of the alpha and beta subunits of the HLA class II molecules produced by Hildebrand’s cultured mouse cells with the leucine zipper motifs taught by Kalandadze. Ans. 8. The Examiner determined that the posited modification of Hildebrand according to Kalandadze’s teachings would result in trimolecular complexes composed of the leucine zipper-modified alpha/beta subunits and an endogenous peptide ligand, that would be secreted in soluble form by the cultured mouse cells, as recited in the rejected claims. See id. As to motivation for the asserted combination, the Examiner reasoned as follows: One or ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this in order to continuously produce large quantities of stably associated, soluble HLA-DR/endogenous peptide complexes (of higher purity in initial non-downstream Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 5 processing) than can be produced by detergent solubilization of HLA from cells, for use in applications disclosed or taught by the art references such as for removal of anti-HLA class II antibodies from a patient as is taught by [Hildebrand] (which would require larger amounts of HLA molecules than for an immunoassay) while avoiding contamination with human shed HLA molecules by use of mouse APCs for expression of the complexes. Ans. 8. Analysis As stated in In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445 (Fed. Cir. 1992): [T]he examiner bears the initial burden . . . of presenting a prima facie case of unpatentability. . . . After evidence or argument is submitted by the applicant in response, patentability is determined on the totality of the record, by a preponderance of evidence with due consideration to persuasiveness of argument. Claim 1 is representative of the claims subject to this ground of rejection. Having carefully considered the evidence and arguments presented by Appellant and the Examiner, Appellant does not persuade us that the Examiner’s conclusion of obviousness as to claim 1 is not supported by a preponderance of the evidence. Hildebrand discloses that “[b]ecause HLA molecules mediate most, if not all, adaptive immune responses, and because of their tremendous diversity, large quantities of individual HLA proteins are required in order to effectively study transplantation, autoimmunity disorders, and for vaccine development.” Hildebrand ¶ 11. Pursuant to that objective, as the Examiner found, and Appellant does not dispute, Hildebrand discloses a process in which a mouse antigen presenting cell line, transformed with a nucleic acid vector encoding human Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 6 HLA class II alpha and beta chains, is cultured to express trimolecular complexes composed of the vector-encoded alpha and beta chains and an associated endogenous antigen in properly glycosylated form, as recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1. See Hildebrand ¶¶ 53–57 (describing general process); id. ¶¶ 80–87 (Examples 1–3 describing expression of HLA class II in mouse NS-1 cells). Hildebrand explains that expressing human HLA proteins in mouse cells simplifies the purification procedure. See Hildebrand ¶ 56 (“The purification of HLA extracted from non-human cells will be much less complex and require fewer purification steps because other competing HLA/human proteins will not need to be subtracted or otherwise selected out during the purification process. Purification of the selected HLA protein will be simplified.”). As to representative claim 1’s requirement for the trimolecular complexes to be in soluble form, the Examiner finds that an application (US 11/591,118) incorporated by reference in Hildebrand describes preparing HLA proteins in soluble form to avoid issues associated with detergent- based methods of isolating the proteins from cell membranes. See Ans. 5–7. Appellant did not enter a Reply Brief disputing the Examiner’s findings as to Hildebrand’s incorporated disclosure of the desirability of obtaining soluble HLA class II trimolecular complexes, nor does Appellant otherwise assert error in the Examiner’s findings as to Hildebrand’s incorporated disclosures. We note, moreover, that Hildebrand discloses that it was desirable to isolate the expressed trimolecular complexes away from the cells that produced them. See, e.g., Hildebrand ¶ 69 (“HLA trimolecular complexes purified away from the non-human cells may be utilized.”); id. ¶ Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 7 72 (describing detection or removal of anti-HLA antibodies using “functionally active, individual HLA trimolecular complex . . . directly or indirectly linked to [a] substrate”). Given Hildebrand’s teaching that it was desirable to isolate the expressed trimolecular complexes away from the cells that produced them, we agree with the Examiner that a skilled artisan had a good reason for preparing Hildebrand’s trimolecular complexes in a soluble form, as recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1. As to the other disputed limitation of claim 1, we also agree with the Examiner that a skilled artisan would have considered it obvious to configure the vectors encoding the alpha and beta chains of the HLA II complexes to express leucine zipper domains. Specifically, Kalandadze discloses that when expressing recombinant HLA class II molecules (HLA-DR2) in host cells, expression of leucine zipper domains on each of the alpha and beta chains, as recited in Appellant’s claim 1, allows the alpha/beta dimers to be secreted in soluble form. See Kalandadze 20161 (“Replacement of the hydrophobic transmembrane regions by the Fos and Jun leucine zipper dimerization motifs resulted in the assembly and secretion of αβ heterodimers, both in Chinese hamster ovary [(CHO)] cells and in yeast [(Pichia pastoris)].”). Kalandadze discloses, moreover, that the secreted alpha/beta dimers efficiently incorporate antigenic peptides. See id. 20156 (“Kinetic and quantitative peptide binding experiments demonstrated that recombinant DR2 molecules [produced in P. pastoris] were efficiently loaded with an antigenic peptide.”). Thus, to summarize, Hildebrand taught that it was desirable to isolate its expressed HLA class II trimolecular complexes away from the mouse Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 8 cells that produced them, and Kalandadze taught that expression of leucine zipper domains on each of the alpha and beta chains of HLA class II proteins allowed the HLA II proteins to be secreted away from two species of host cells, in a dimerized form capable of loading antigenic peptides. Given these teachings, we agree with the Examiner that a skilled artisan had a good reason for, and a reasonable expectation of success in, modifying the vector encoding the alpha and beta chains of Hildebrand’s HLA II trimolecular complexes to include a leucine zipper motif, as taught by Kalandadze. We therefore also agree with the Examiner that the process recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1 would have been prima facie obvious to a skilled artisan. Appellant’s arguments do not persuade us to the contrary. Appellant contends that a skilled artisan would have lacked a no reasonable expectation of combining Hildebrand and Kalandadze because Kalandadze expressed empty alpha/beta heterodimers in yeast, which were loaded with antigenic peptides after expression, whereas Hildebrand’s methods, like the process of representative claim 1, require the alpha/beta heterodimers to be loaded with an endogenous peptide when expressed. Appeal Br. 6. Therefore, Appellant contends, a skilled artisan “would expect that expressing the same leucine zipper-modified soluble HLA complexes in another cell type, APCs [(antigen presenting cells)], would also express empty HLA complexes, without loaded endogenous peptides.” Id. The Examiner responds that, in addition to yeast, Kalandadze reported producing secreted, leucine zipper-modified, alpha/beta heterodimers in CHO cells, which are mammalian cells. Ans. 12. The Examiner reasoned, moreover, that a skilled artisan would not have interpreted Kalandadze as Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 9 describing expression of empty alpha/beta heterodimers as argued by Appellant, but instead would have viewed Kalandadze’s secreted alpha/beta heterodimers as being associated with lower affinity endogenous peptides. See id. at 12–13. Specifically, the Examiner reasoned that a skilled artisan would have viewed Kalandadze’s secreted alpha/beta heterodimers as being associated with endogenous peptides based on Kalandadze’s disclosure that lower affinity peptides present in the yeast cell secretory pathway could readily be exchanged for a higher affinity peptide. Ans. 13 (citing Kalandadze 20162). The portion of Kalandadze cited by the Examiner reads as follows: Availability of (low affinity) peptides in the secretory pathway may be the limiting factor in the assembly of αβ heterodimers; this may be overcome by coexpressing a DR-binding peptide in the secretory pathway (under the control of the AOX1 promoter as fusion with the α-mating factor secretion signal). The invariant chain peptide (CLIP) may be suitable for this purpose since it could be later exchanged with other DR2 binding peptide(s). Kalandadze 20162 (citation omitted) Appellant did not enter a Reply Brief asserting error in the Examiner’s interpretation of Kalandadze’s page 20162 as describing its secreted alpha/beta heterodimers as being associated with endogenous peptides. Therefore, the Examiner’s assertion in that regard is undisputed. Moreover, given Kalandadze’s disclosure on page 20162 that its alpha/beta heterodimers can be coexpressed with a heterodimer-binding peptide that can later be exchanged with a higher affinity peptide, we discern no error in the Examiner’s finding that Kalandadze suggests that, when making the leucine zipper modification to alpha and beta chains of HLA class II Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 10 molecules, the resulting secreted alpha/beta heterodimers are associated with endogenously coexpressed antigenic peptides. Thus, to summarize, Kalandadze suggests that when making the leucine zipper modification to alpha and beta chains of HLA class II molecules, the resulting secreted alpha/beta heterodimers are associated with coexpressed antigenic peptides. Appellant does not persuade us, therefore, that making the leucine zipper modification to Hildebrand’s HLA-encoding vector as posited by the Examiner would have been expected to result in a trimolecular complex lacking the endogenously produced peptide antigen required by Hildebrand, and recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1. Appellant also does not persuade us that the Wettstein7 reference demonstrates that a skilled artisan would have lacked a reasonable expectation in making Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification to Hildebrand’s HLA-encoding vector. See Appeal Br. 6–7 (citing Wettstein 220, 221, 225). As the Examiner found, Wettstein describes a very different alteration than Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification; Wettstein modifies the alpha and beta chains of the HLA molecule to include enzymatically cleavable regions allowing release of the molecule in soluble form from the cell surface. See Wettstein 219 (abstract). Appellant, moreover, identifies no specific teaching in Wettstein relating to Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification, nor does Appellant identify in Wettstein any teaching that 7 Daniel A. Wettstein et al., Expression of a Class II Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Heterodimer in a Lipid-linked Form with Enhanced Peptide/Soluble MHC Complex Formation at Low pH, 174 J. EXP. MED. 219–228 (1991). Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 11 explains specifically whether Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification would be expected to work in Hildebrand’s process. Nor does Appellant identify any teaching in Wettstein suggest that any type of modification to the alpha and beta chains of HLA class II molecules would eliminate loading of endogenous peptides to recombinantly expressed alpha/beta heterodimers. We acknowledge that, at least in one instance, Wettstein discloses that a particular modification to the HLA molecules might affect the ability of the expressed alpha/beta heterodimers to associate with endogenous antigens. See Wettstein 225 (“Peptides generated by endogenous processing of cytochrome c are available to Ek expressed in CHO cells, but not (or very poorly) to GPI-linked Ek expressed in CHO cells, indicating that the chimeric molecules are not treated as native molecules by the recipient cells.”). Again, however, Wettstein’s modification is not the leucine zipper modification described by Kalandadze and recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1. As discussed above, Kalandadze suggests that endogenously coexpressed peptides will be associated with leucine zipper-modified alpha/beta heterodimers. See Kalandadze 20162. Thus, even assuming that Wettstein somehow tangentially suggested that Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification might affect loading of endogenous peptides into alpha/beta heterodimers, Kalandadze itself provided at least a reasonable expectation that applying the leucine zipper modification to Hildebrand’s process would result in alpha/beta heterodimers associated with endogenous peptides as required by Hildebrand, and as recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1. As our reviewing court has explained, “[o]bviousness does not require absolute predictability of success. . . . For obviousness under § 103, all that is Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 12 required is a reasonable expectation of success.” In re Kubin, 561 F.3d 1351, 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (quoting In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 903–04 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (emphasis removed). In sum, for the reasons discussed, Appellant does not persuade us that a skilled artisan would have lacked a reasonable expectation of success in combining Hildebrand and Kalandadze in the manner posited by the Examiner. Appellant also does not persuade us that a skilled artisan would have lacked motivation for combining Hildebrand and Kalandadze. Specifically, Appellant does not persuade us that, because Hildebrand described its process as successfully producing isolated HLA class II trimolecular complexes, a skilled artisan would have lacked motivation for modifying Hildebrand’s process to produce isolated trimolecular complexes. See Appeal Br. 7 (asserting that evaluation of MHC/peptide/TCR interaction and associated induced signals posited by Examiner as providing motivation for making soluble complexes “could have been studied by analyzing the HLA complexes expressed on the surface of the APCs as taught by Hildebrand without introducing modified HLA complexes which may or may not reflect what actually occurred with normal complexes”); see also id. (“Hildebrand ’872 teaches that trimolecular complexes could be used to successfully detect specific anti-HLA class II antibodies, and points to no need for making the trimolecular complexes soluble as argued by the Examiner. See Hildebrand ’872, at ¶¶ [0090]-[0095].”); id. at 8 (“[T]he work was considered a success, and there would have been no need to go to all the extra work of making the HLA molecules soluble when the current process was already successful.” (citing Hildebrand ¶¶ 88-94)). Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 13 We acknowledge Hildebrand’s disclosure in its examples of preparing HLA class II trimolecular complexes on the surface of mouse NS-1 cells, and then using the complexes isolated from the cells to screen for anti-HLA antibodies. See Hildebrand ¶¶ 80–95. At best, however, Appellant has shown only that Hildebrand’s process differs from the process of Appellant’s representative claim 1 in that Hildebrand does not employ the claimed leucine zipper modification. It is well settled, however, that “the mere existence of differences between the prior art and an invention does not establish the invention’s nonobviousness.” Dann v. Johnston, 425 U.S. 219, 230 (1976). Moreover, because Appellant’s arguments are directed to the alleged deficiencies in the Hildebrand viewed in isolation, rather than in the combination with Kalandadze advanced by the Examiner, Appellant’s arguments are insufficient to demonstrate nonobviousness. See In re Merck & Co., Inc., 800 F.2d 1091, 1097 (Fed. Cir. 1986) (“Non-obviousness cannot be established by attacking references individually where the rejection is based upon the teachings of a combination of references. . . . [The reference] must be read, not in isolation, but for what it fairly teaches in combination with the prior art as a whole”). In the present case, as discussed above, Hildebrand taught that it was desirable to isolate its expressed HLA class II trimolecular complexes away from the mouse cells that produced them (see, e.g., Hildebrand ¶ 69), and Kalandadze taught that expression of leucine zipper domains on each of the alpha and beta chains of HLA class II proteins allowed the HLA II proteins to be secreted away from two species of host cells, in a dimerized form capable of loading antigenic peptides (see, e .g., Kalandadze 20161). Given Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 14 these teachings, Appellant does not persuade that a skilled artisan lacked motivation for modifying the vector encoding the alpha and beta chains of Hildebrand’s HLA II trimolecular complexes to include a leucine zipper motif, as taught by Kalandadze. In short, Kalandadze provided a way to make molecules having properties considered desirable by Hildebrand. Because the motivation for making the combination posited by the Examiner comes from the references themselves, we are not persuaded that the Examiner’s conclusion of obviousness is based on improper hindsight. We are also unpersuaded by Appellant’s argument that modifying Hildebrand’s process to include Kalandadze’s leucine zipper modification would have yielded “unnecessary complexity [that] would run counter to the teachings of Hildebrand ’872 which alleges, for example, that the methods taught therein will make purification of HLA much less complex, and that purification of the selected HLA protein will be simplified.” Appeal Br. 7 (citing Hildebrand ¶ 56). As noted above, the simplification described by Hildebrand in its process relates to the fact that recombinant production of human HLA proteins in mouse cells makes purifying the human protein easier. See Hildebrand ¶ 56 (“The purification of HLA extracted from non-human cells will be much less complex and require fewer purification steps because other competing HLA/human proteins will not need to be subtracted or otherwise selected out during the purification process.” (emphasis added)). Indeed, producing secreted trimolecular complexes, which undisputedly do not require detergent-aided purification steps, as posited by the Examiner (see Ans. 8) is consistent with Hildebrand’s suggestion that its purification process be simplified. Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 15 In sum, for the reasons discussed, Appellant does not persuade us that the Examiner erred in determining that a skilled artisan had a reasonable expectation of success in, and ample motivation for, combining Hildebrand and Kalandadze in the manner posited by the Examiner. We therefore agree with the Examiner that the process recited in Appellant’s representative claim 1 would have been prima facie obvious to a skilled artisan. Because Appellant does not advance any specific objective evidence of nonobviousness that might outweigh the evidence of prima facie obviousness presented by the Examiner, we affirm the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 over Hildebrand and Kalandadze. Claims 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, and 18– 21 fall with claim 1. OBVIOUSNESS— HILDEBRAND, KALANDADZE, AND RHODE In rejecting claims 14 and 15, which depend from claims 1 and 5 discussed above, the Examiner cited Hildebrand and Kalandadze for the teachings discussed above, and cited Rhode as evidence that the additional features recited dependent claims 14 and 15 would have been obvious variations of the process suggested by Hildebrand and Kalandadze. See Final Act. 6; Ans. 9–10. Appellant contends only that Rhode fails to remedy the deficiencies in the combination of Hildebrand and Kalandadze, addressed above. See Appeal Br. 8–9. As discussed above, we do not find the combination of Hildebrand and Kalandadze deficient. Accordingly, for the reasons discussed above, we affirm the Examiner’s rejection of claims 14 and 15 over Hildebrand, Kalandadze, and Rhode. Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 16 OBVIOUSNESS— HILDEBRAND, KALANDADZE, AND PRILLIMAN In rejecting claims 14–17, all of which depend from either claim 1 or 5 discussed above, the Examiner cited Hildebrand and Kalandadze for the teachings discussed above, and cited Prilliman as evidence that the additional features recited dependent claims 14–17 would have been obvious variations of the process suggested by Hildebrand and Kalandadze. See Final Act. 7; Ans. 10–11. Appellant contends only that Prilliman fails to remedy the deficiencies in the combination of Hildebrand and Kalandadze, addressed above. See Appeal Br. 9–10. As discussed above, we do not find the combination of Hildebrand and Kalandadze deficient. Accordingly, for the reasons discussed above, we affirm the Examiner’s rejection of claims 14 and 15 over Hildebrand, Kalandadze, and Prilliman. CONCLUSION In summary: Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed 1, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 18– 21 103(a) Hildebrand, Kalandadze 1, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 18– 21 14, 15 103(a) Hildebrand, Kalandadze, Rhode 14, 15 14–17 103(a) Hildebrand, Kalandadze, Prilliman 14–17 Overall Outcome 1, 3, 5, 7, 12–21 Appeal 2019-006632 Application 13/859,811 17 TIME PERIOD No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a). AFFIRMED Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation