1. Third Party Observations under Article 115 of EPC

TKDL third party submission under Article 115 EPC brought to the notice of examination division the prior art references on the use of Prunus avium (sweet cherry), Prunus cerasus (sour cherry) and Apium graveolens (celery) for the treatment of gout, Kidney Stone, Stone in Urinary Bladder / Urolithiasis / Urinary Calculus and Nephrolith/Renal Stone from the books – Khazaain-al-Advia, Vol. I by Mohammad Najmul Ghani Khan (Unani, Exhibit 1), Kitaab-al-Haawi-fil-Tibb, Vol.XI by Abu Bakr Mohammad Bin Zakariyya Al-Razi (Unani, Exhibit 2 & 4), Al-Qaanoon-fil-Tibb, Vol.II by Abu Ali Ibn-e-Sina (Unani, Exhibit 3), Al-Qaanoon-fil-Tibb, Vol. V by Abu Ali Ibn-e-Sina (Unani, Exhibit 5), Ilaaj-al-Amraaz by Mohammad Shareef Khan (Unani, Exhibit 6), Bayaaz-e-Kabir, Vol. II by Mohammad Kabiruddin (Unani, Exhibit 7), Qaraabaadeen Azam wa Akmal by Mohammad Akmal Khan (Unani, Exhibit 8), Qaraabaadeen Azam wa Akmal by Mohammad Akmal Khan (Unani, Exhibit 9), Caraka Samhita by Agnivesa (Ayurveda, Exhibit 10) and Yogaratnakarah (Ayurveda, Exhibit 11).

2. Relevant extract of EPO Examination Report

EPO Patent Examiner(s) took cognizance of TKDL references. Extract of examination report are reproduced below.

“Cited documents

Reference is made to the following documents; the numbering will be adhered to in the rest of the procedure.
D1 “Nushka-e- Sang-e- Gurd”,
     TKDL, 1 January 1909 (1909-01-01), XP003028851,
Relevant to claim 1-15

Third party observations (Article 115 EPC)

The examining division notes that third party observations have been filed on 01.06.2011 with a letter of 24.05.2011.
The Examining Division has taken the translated references and the corresponding comments into consideration. However none of these exhibits discloses a composition comprising a combination of the three active ingredients as presently claimed – an extract of celery, an extract of cherry, and a lithium salt. Exhibit 9 (Mohammad Akmal Khan) discloses compositions comprising two out of the three active ingredients – celery extract and cherry extract. This document is cited herein as D1.
The other documents that disclose the use of single ingredients – celery or cherry- for the treatment of gout, renal stones, urinary calculus, etc. have been considered, they are however not cited herein as they do not add any information to the prior art documents on file.

Inventive Step (Article 56 EPC)

Furthermore, D1 solves the same technical problem as the present application – treatment of nephrolit/ renal stone, and cystolith, which are conditions falling within the scope of symptoms associated with uric acid crystals, by a formulation comprising inter alia extract of celery seeds and extract from sour cherry stones. Taking D1 as the closest prior art, the presently claimed subject-matter differs over the solution of D1 in that a lithium salt is added to the composition. However, it is known from the prior art that lithium carbonate is effective in the prevention and treatment of renal calculus (D7), therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art to combine the teachings of D1 and D7 and the claimed solution cannot be considered inventive. Moreover, the addition of (a) lithium salt to the composition of D1 is not shown to provide any technical effect which would not have been already provided by the composition of D1. As the feature distinguishing the claimed subject-matter over the closest prior art does not bring any technical effect, no inventiveness can be acknowledged for the subject-matter of independent claims 1 and 9.”

Full examination report can be referred at EP2303302.pdf

3. Outcomes of Third Party Observations & Examination Report.

As the outcome of TKDL third party and other documents cited in examination report, the examination is under process and reply is still awaited from the Applicant Truscott, Kent, Abernathy, Susan, 166 Dunham Court, Hercules, CA 94547-3702 / US.