DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.1 7(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/09/2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Claim 1 has been amended. Claim 2 has been cancelled. Claims 19-23 have been withdrawn. No new claim has been added. Claims 1 and 3-23 are pending. Claims 1 and 3-18 are examined herein.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Remarks/Arguments and Amendments to the Claims both filed 03/09/2026 have been fully considered. It is noted the claim 1, an independent claim from which all of the claims ultimately depend, has been amended to recite that “a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material;” in the context of a sorbent material sheet product as claimed.
Applicants argue that: The cited prior arts, Greenbank (WO 2018/144588 A1) and Jensen (US 2006/0283996 A1), fail to teach, suggest or disclose the feature of the claimed invention as amended. Especially, the features of the unitary sorbent sheet comprising “a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material;” is not taught by the Greenbank and/or Jensen reference(s), this is because while Jensen discloses that suitable material for the one or more reinforcement means includes plastic, rubber, wood, metal, fiberglass, composites, paper, compressed paper, paper board, fiber board, cork, or combinations thereof (see Jensen at [0026]), Jensen does not teach or suggest that these reinforcement materials function as sorbent materials or are intended to provide any adsorption functionality. To the contrary, Jensen explicitly discloses that a suitable structure for the reinforcement means includes strips, ribs, rods, ribbons, or combinations thereof "of any suitable dimension that imparts the desired stiffness and/or rigidity to the absorbent structure." Jensen at [0027] (emphasis added). The purpose of Jensen's one or more reinforcement means is expressly limited to imparting mechanical stiffness and rigidity, not adsorption. See Remarks, pages 6-8, filed 03/09/2026.
In response, applicant's arguments direct a newly amended claim limitation which is a new issue. Therefore, the arguments are considered moot.
Applicant's amendment necessitated a modified ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Upon further consideration and search, a modified ground of rejections to claims 1 and 3-18 are presented in the instant Office action.
MODIFIED REJECTIONS
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 1 and 3-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 1, the recitation “a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material” recited in line 7 is not supported by the specification or previously presented claims. A thorough review for the specification or previously presented claims did not locate any relevant information that discloses or suggests the limitation “a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material” recited in claim 1.
In the Applicant’s specification, it is noted that the specification discloses: (i) In certain materials, one or more of the substrate sheet 101 or the spacer sheet 102 is positioned adjacent to, in contact with, or enveloped by a reinforcing material that does not adsorb any compounds (Specification, paragraph [0089]); (ii) one or more separate reinforcing layers can be incorporated into or surround the overall arrangement of the sorbent material sheet(s) (Specification, paragraph [0096]); (iii) In general the reinforcing materials that form the reinforcing layers do not have sorbent properties and will not perform as sorbents (Specification, paragraph [0096]); (iv) However, the disclosure contemplates that in some embodiments, the reinforcing layer can have sorbent material incorporated to add some sorbent functionality. For example, the reinforcing material can in some embodiments include a sorbent such as powdered activated carbon (Specification, paragraph [0096]); and (v) The reinforcing material can be in the form of a sheet having no pores, a sheet having pores, a netting, a mesh, an open cell foam, or a closed cell foam (Specification, paragraph [0097]).
However, the specification does not teach “a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 3-18 are also rejected under 35 U.S. §112 by virtue of its dependence on claim 10.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 3-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regard(s) as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “wherein the sorbent material sheet product exhibits a net pressure drop of less than about 0.10 kPa at a flow rate of 70 L/min of dry air, and wherein the sorbent material sheet product has a thickness of less than about 2.5mm” in lines 10-13. This is considered indefinite for the following reason: It is known in the art that when a pressure drop is measured for a sorbent material sheet (i.e., a membrane), the flow of fluid is denoted in a unit of flux (volume/unit area/unit time), i.e., a unit area based, as evidenced by McDonogh (WO 2019/018587 Al, paragraph [0089]), or Bian et al. (Experimental and modeling study of pressure drop across electrospun nanofiber air filters, Building and Environment 142 (2018) 244–251, see pages 245-246, Section 2.1 Theoretical Model). In the claim limitation, a unit area of the sorbent material sheet product is missing, thereby renders the recitation indefinite.
In the Applicant’s specification, it is noted that the pressure drop experiment (paragraph 0204), Table 5B) was conducted for a sorbent material sheet product with a dimension of 2.2 cm [Symbol font/0xB4] 7.5 cm (16.5 cm2) (Specification, paragraph [0192]).
Consequently, it is the examiner’s assessment that the recitation is amended as, for example, “wherein the sorbent material sheet product having a dimension of 2.2 cm [Symbol font/0xB4] 7.5 cm (16.5 cm2) exhibits a net pressure drop of less than about 0.10 kPa at a flow rate of 70 L/min of dry air, and wherein the sorbent material sheet product has a thickness of less than about 2.5mm”.
Claims 3-18 are also rejected under 35 U.S. §112 by virtue of its dependence on claim 10.
Allowable Subject Matters and Allowed claims
Claims 1 and 3-18 in the instant application are allowed if previously presented 35 U.S.C. 112(a) rejections to claims 1 and 3-18, and 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejections to claims 1 and 3-18 are resolved.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: A thorough search for pertinent prior art did not locate any prior art that discloses or suggests the invention recited in claims 1 and 3-18. A sorbent material sheet product comprising:
a unitary sorbent sheet including:
a substrate sheet;
a spacer sheet having a plurality of spaced apart strips and a plurality of intervening spaces formed by cutting and removing a plurality of sections from a solid material sheet; and
a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material,
wherein the substrate sheet and the spacer sheet are arranged as adjacent touching layers and each of the substrate sheet and the spacer sheet are made from sorbent material,
wherein the sorbent material sheet product exhibits a net pressure drop of less than about 0.10 kPa at a flow rate of 70 L/min of dry air, and
wherein the sorbent material sheet product has a thickness of less than about 2.5 mm (claim 1), is considered novel.
A closest prior art to Greenbank (WO 2018/144588 A1) discloses a sorbent material sheets for enhanced performance in vapor adsorbing applications over conventional canisters and other emissions control equipment (Abstract). Greenbank discloses sorbent material sheets product comprising (paragraph [0008]; see embodiment 1, page 2): (i) at least two sorbent material sheets, each of which has a defined upper surface and lower surface which have a combined total surface area, and (ii) wherein each sorbent material sheet comprises a sorbent material and a binder, and wherein each sorbent material sheet is stacked and arranged such that adjacent upper and lower surfaces of the separate sheets are substantially parallel and are aligned to allow fluid flow at least between the adjacent upper and lower surfaces. But Greenbank does not discloses the features of (i) a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material; and (ii) the sorbent material sheet product exhibits a net pressure drop of less than about 0.10 kPa at a flow rate of 70 L/min of dry air, and wherein the sorbent material sheet product has a thickness of less than about 2.5 mm.
Other pertinent prior art to Jensen (US 2006/0283996 A1) discloses a reinforced absorbent article that includes one or more reinforcement means (Abstract). Jensen discloses the applications of the absorbent pads is to absorb liquid or fluid with an application in the fields of food packaging, medical, environmental, industrial, and the like (paragraph [0005]). Jensen discloses a reinforced absorbent article comprising: one or more top sheets; one or more bottom sheets; an absorbent core disposed between said one or more top sheets and said one or more bottom sheets; and one or more reinforcement means, wherein said one or more reinforcement means is disposed between said one or more top sheets and said one or more bottom sheets, wherein said one or more reinforcement means comprises material selected from the group consisting of plastic, rubber, wood, metal, fiberglass, composites, paper, compressed paper, paper board, fiber board, cork, and any combinations thereof, wherein said one or more reinforcement means has a structure selected from the group consisting of one or more strips, ribs, rods, ribbons, and any combinations thereof and, wherein said one or more reinforcement means has a length between about 10% to about 100% of a total length of said absorbent article (paragraphs [0026]; [0036]; page 4, claims 1-5).
Other pertinent prior art to Rezai et al. (US 5,713,881) discloses a non-continuous absorbent composite having a length, width and thickness, comprising a plurality of interconnected strands separated by voids, wherein the voids extend completely through the plane of said composite. said inter connected strands comprising: a) at least one absorbent macrostructure comprising a multiplicity of interconnected absorbent gelling particles wherein at least a portion of the surfaces of said particles are crosslinked, and b) at least one substrate attached to said absorbent macrostructure.
Other pertinent prior art to Dauber et al. (US 7,291,208 B2) discloses an adsorbent assembly for removing contaminants within an enclosure comprising: a) an adhesive; b) an adsorbent media having a bottom surface adjacent to said adhesive, a top surface, and at least one side surface; and c) a filter media covering the adsorbent, wherein the filter media is adjacent to the top surface and at least one side surface of said adsorbent media and said adsorbent media includes at least one groove in the top surface of said adsorbent media.
The cited prior arts, alone or in combination, do not teach or suggest a sorbent material sheet product comprising: a unitary sorbent sheet including: (i) a substrate sheet; (ii) a spacer sheet having a plurality of spaced apart strips and a plurality of intervening spaces formed by cutting and removing a plurality of sections from a solid material sheet; and (iii) a reinforcing layer comprising an adsorbent material, wherein the substrate sheet and the spacer sheet are arranged as adjacent touching layers and each of the substrate sheet and the spacer sheet are made from sorbent material, wherein the sorbent material sheet product exhibits a net pressure drop of less than about 0.10 kPa at a flow rate of 70 L/min of dry air, and wherein the sorbent material sheet product has a thickness of less than about 2.5 mm, as recited in claim 1 of claimed invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOUNGSUL JEONG whose telephone number is (571)270-1494. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/YOUNGSUL JEONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1772