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 .
Claims 1-11 and 13-15 are pending. Claim 12 has been cancelled. Claims 11 and 13-15 have been amended. Applicant's election with traverse of claims 1-10 in the reply filed on October 10, 2025 is acknowledged. Applicant has amended the non-elected claims to be process claims dependent upon claims, therefore the restriction requirement is moot. Claims 1-11 and 13-15 are now a single invention drawn to a single process and will be examined together as a group.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-5,7,9,11,13 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marialma (Bed Sheets: How We Turn Seaweed into Luxury Fabrics) in view of Qin (Alginate fibers: an overview of the production process and applications in wound management), Rioux (Characterization of polysaccharides extracted from brown seaweeds.) and Meister (EP0860522A1).
Marialma teaches producing harvesting seaweed (raw plant material containing polymer-bound uronic acids from marine plant stalks), extracting part of the seaweed, using a lyocell process to incorporate seaweed into a natural cellulose fiber and preparing textile fabrics from yarns such as bed sheets (furniture containing a portion of the seaweed fiber).
Marialma does not teach extracting the raw material using an extractant in order to provide extracted polymer-bound uronic acid-containing plant material and spinning the spinning solution. Marialma does not teach 0.1-15% extracted, polymer bound uronic acid containing plant material combined with cellulose calculated based on the weight of the cellulose contained in the spinning solution.
Qin teaches that alginate fibers are conventionally made from sodium alginate which is a natural polymer extract from brown seaweeds (abstract) and are made into woven, non-woven and knitted textiles (page 171, right column, introduction, first paragraph). Qin teaches the seaweed stalks are harvested and alginate extracted wherein the alginate contains uronic acids such as β-D-mannuronic and [Symbol font/0x61]-L-guluronic acids (page 172, right column). Qin teaches the alginate is spun into fibers (page 173, left column, preparation of spinning solutions), extruding the solution into a calcium chloride (alkaline earth metal salt having a water solubility of at least 100g/L at 20°C) or zinc chloride containing coagulation bath (page 172, left and right column, production of calcium alginate fibers).
Rioux teaches brown seaweeds can be extracted by treating with 85% ethanol.(extractant, organic solvent, alcohol) and using the residual seaweed (components of the raw plant that do not dissolve in extractant), treating with CaCl2 (alkaline earth metal salt having a water solubility of at least 100g/L at 20°C) at 2% w/v to precipitate the alginates (page 531, section 2.2).
Meister teaches that making fibers from uronic acid containing polysaccharides (abstract, paragraph 0013, claim 3, claim 24) wherein the polysaccharides are combined with the 1-99% of the cellulose (paragraph 0015) leaving 1-99% for the polysaccharide.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Marialma by extracting the alginates from seaweeds using a 85% ethanol in water solvent, taking the extraction residue that did not dissolve in the extractant and adding calcium chloride to precipitate the alginate and use the alginate to form a spinning dope which is spun into a 2% calcium chloride coagulating bath for preparing fibers for bed sheets as Qin teaches alginate fibers are conventionally prepared by extraction from brown seaweeds and spinning of the alginate extract and the alginates contain polymer-bound uronic acids containing plant material and Rioux teaches the claimed water ethanol solvent extraction, addition of CaCl2 before spinning and also in the coagulation bath to solidify the alginate fibers. Marialma invites the inclusion of extracting seaweed to produce luxury fibers for bedding material and Qin teaches a method for extracting alginate from seaweed and spinning into fibers which can be woven, non-woven or knitted into textiles. Using the extraction mechanism of Rioux and coagulation of the spinning dope in CaCl2 into fibers would be an effective method to incorporate into the method to isolate and spin the alginate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Marialma by using a 1-15% polymer-bound uronic acid-containing plant material combined with cellulose based on the amount of cellulose in the spinning solutions as Meister teaches the uronic acids and cellulose added at these amounts provide the fibers with bactericidal and fungicidal properties and shape-giving supporting function.
Claims 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marialma (Bed Sheets: How We Turn Seaweed into Luxury Fabrics) in view of Qin (Alginate fibers: an overview of the production process and applications in wound management), Rioux (Characterization of polysaccharides extracted from brown seaweeds.) and Meister (EP0860522A1).and further in view of Wang (CN 105457094A).
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister are relied upon as set forth above.
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister do not teach 0.5-5 wt% of calcium chloride in the spinning solution.
Wang teaches that 3% calcium chloride is added to the alginate from seaweed spinning solution to provide crosslinking benefits (page 2, last paragraph, page 3, paragraph (1), claim 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister by using a 3% calcium chloride material based on the amount of cellulose in the spinning solutions as Wang teaches CaCl2 is effectively added at this amount to crosslink the alginate before spinning into fibers.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marialma (Bed Sheets: How We Turn Seaweed into Luxury Fabrics) in view of Qin (Alginate fibers: an overview of the production process and applications in wound management), Rioux (Characterization of polysaccharides extracted from brown seaweeds.) and Meister (EP0860522A1) and further in view of Powell (Seaweed fabric sleepwear is here and it’s amazing).
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister are relied upon as set forth above.
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister do not teach preparing garments.
Powell teaches it is known to manufacture garments such as loungewear and sleepwear from seaweed fabrics for the benefit of producing calming and moisturizing fabrics which are sustainably sourced (pages 1/13=2/13).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister by making the fibers produced into garments as Powell teaches making garments such as loungewear and sleepwear from seaweed based fibers provides the benefit of garments with calming and moisturizing benefits and seaweed is an eco-friendly source of fiber material which can be sustainably harvested.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marialma (Bed Sheets: How We Turn Seaweed into Luxury Fabrics) in view of Qin (Alginate fibers: an overview of the production process and applications in wound management), Rioux (Characterization of polysaccharides extracted from brown seaweeds.) and Meister (EP0860522A1) and further in view of Tucker (Nienke Hoogvliet’s Sea Me furniture is made from seaweed.).
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister are relied upon as set forth above.
Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister do not specify furniture.
Tucker teaches it is known to manufacture fabric for furniture that has been hand woven from seaweed yarn with the benefit of having soft fibers (page 2/14-3/14).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Marialma, Qin, Rioux and Meister by making the fibers produced into furniture upholstery fabrics as Tucker teaches making furniture fabrics woven from seaweed based yarns provides the benefit of softer fabrics to the furniture.
Conclusion
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/AMINA S KHAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761