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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, and 4-13, and 15-28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harrison US 2014/0239221.
Regarding claims 1, 15-16, and 27, Harrison teaches a process of extracting lithium from an aqueous solution that may contain lithium salts, such as lithium sulfate (Paragraph [0078]) using a sorbent such as aluminum hydroxide such as gibbsite (Paragraph [0167]). The adsorption process may occur at a temperature of 95 to 100 deg. C (Paragraph [0274]).
Harrison does not provide an example of lithium sulfate being extracted from the solution. However, Harrison teaches that the lithium salt may be lithium sulfate (Paragraph [0078]). It would be obvious to extract lithium sulfate as the lithium salt. The rationale for doing so would have been to choose one of the known lithium salts that would provide predictable results. See MPEP 2143.
Regarding claims 4-6, the solution may have approximately 1000 ppm lithium (Paragraph [0275]), 63000 ppm sodium (Paragraph [0077]), and 20000 ppm potassium (Paragraph [0077]).
Regarding claim 7, the solution may include calcium (Paragraph [0077]).
Regarding claims 8-13, the process may remove up to 96% of the lithium, while leaving the concentrations of sodium and potassium substantially unchanged (Table 4).
Regarding claims 17-18, the sorbent may be sodium aluminate (Paragraph [0396]).
Regarding claim 19, the lithium aluminum complex may be a compound as recited in the formula of claim 19 (Examples).
Regarding claims 20-23, the pH of the adsorption may be between 7-10 (Paragraph [0248]).
Regarding claim 26, the lithium-aluminum compound may be cooled (Paragraphs [0274], [0355]).
Regarding claims 24-25, the lithium-aluminum complex may be crystalline or amorphous (Paragraphs [0167], [0189], [0249], [0363]).
Regarding claim 28, the lithium may be removed by washing with an aqueous solution at the same temperature as the extraction process (Paragraph [0402]).
Claim(s) 2-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harrison US 2014/0239221 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Johnson US 2019/0185963.
Regarding claim 2-3, Harrison does not expressly state that the lithium sulfate is produced by the process of claims 2-3.
Johnson teaches that lithium sulfate may be extracted from a lithium containing mineral by mixing with gypsum and heating at 950 deg. C for 2 hours (Paragraph [0007]).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art to form the lithium sulfate solution of Harrison using the process of Johnson. The rationale for doing so was to use a known prior art process of forming lithium sulfate with predictable results. See MPEP 2143.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/16/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the prior art of Harrison does not teach or suggest the teach the feature of mixing an aluminum-containing sorbent material into the lithium source because the aluminum containing sorbent of Harrison is intercalated with lithium. In response, the scope of claim 1 does not exclude aluminum hydroxide that is intercalated with a lithium. It appears that the after the first initial startup of the instantly claimed method of claim 1, the aluminum material of the instant process will also include amounts of lithium. Further the process of Harrison intercalates the aluminum containing material by reacting a fresh aluminum source with lithium salt to form the intercalated aluminum containing material, which would meet this condition for instant claim 1 (See Harrison, Paragraph [0246]).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES A FIORITO whose telephone number is (571)272-9921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/JAMES A FIORITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731