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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 2026 February 4 is acknowledged. The rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112 and 102 are overcome for the following reasons: Berndt (cited in previous action) does not describe an acrylamide, acrylic acid, methacrylamide, or a methacrylate unit; Liles and Wang do not describe either of these units either; lastly, the new method of connection is enabled in claim 1.
Claims 34-49 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2025 April 10.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2025 April 10 was submitted in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 10-12, 19-20, and 25-33 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 (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 10-12, 19-20, 25, and 33 lack antecedent basis to parent claims 1 and 26 respectively. In amended claim 1 the repeating units of an oligomer are limited to acrylamide, acrylic acid, methacrylamide, and methacrylate. Claim 26 does not recite the metes and bounds of a oligomeric module. In the dependent claims poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) is recited. Hence the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) in claim 33 lacks antecedent basis.
The metes and bounds of each oligomer module are not recited in the specified claims. Additionally, can the oligomeric modules be the same, or are they required to be different? How are the two oligomeric modules joined together? The claims only specify at a bend or hinge location but now how they are connected.
Conclusion
Claims 1-9, 13-18, and 21-24 are allowed. Claims 10-12, 19-20, and 25-33 are not allowable.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: BERNDT (Langmuir, 2006, 22, 459-468) describes the properties of a poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-poly-N-isopropylmethacylamide core shell microgel changes when the lower critical solution temperature (referred to as LCST) is varied (abstract; page 459, second column, paragraph 2; page 462, second column, fourth paragraph to page 468, second column, first paragraph). Through the use of small-angle neutron scattering, the structure of the poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-poly-N-isopropylmethacylamide core shell microgel was analyzed. As an example, figure 4 shows the SANS scattering data at high temperatures (page 463; page 463, second column, paragraph 3 to page 464, first compound, paragraph 2). In this reference the stimulus is temperature change. This reference does not anticipate or render obvious a system of claim 1 because poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-poly-N-isopropylmethacylamide is not permitted due to the new claim amendments with respect to the recited repeating units of an oligomeric module.
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/NOBLE E JARRELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1699
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