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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-6 and 8-16 are currently pending in the instant application. Applicants have amended claims 6, 8-10 and cancelled claim 7 in an amendment filed on November 6, 2025. Claims 6 and 8-10 are rejected and claims 1-5 and 11-16 are withdrawn from consideration in this Office Action.
I. Response to Arguments
Applicants’ amendment, filed on November 6, 2025, has overcome the rejection of claim 6 under 35 USC 112(b) as being indefinite because variables X, D, E, B, A and Y had not been defined in the claim; the rejection of claims 7-10 under 35 USC 112(b) as being indefinite for variable D being present in the definition of variable E and variable E being present in the definition of variable D; the objection of claims 6-10 for minor informalities. The above rejections and objection have been withdrawn.
The Examiner wants to point out that the withdrawn claims 1-5 and 11-16 are not subject to rejoinder because these claims do not contain all of the limitations of the elected claims 6 and 8-10. Claims 1-5 and 11-16 are drawn to different and distinct inventions and will not be rejoined. Applicants are suggested to delete withdrawn claims 1-5 and 11-16 in response to this Office Action so that when all issues are resolved in the elected claims 6 and 8-10, these claims can be allowed.
II. Rejection(s)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 6 and 8-10 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. Specifically, variable X is defined as the following:
PNG
media_image1.png
118
622
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Then K is defined as being “selected from a group consisting of….” but there is no “and” in between the last two options in the group so that it is clear where the group ends. As of now, the limitation reads “K is selected from a group consisting of sulfonate, phosphate or a quaternary ammonium cation” then it states “or an alkyl, aryl or propargylic containing moiety that can facilitate…”. The way that the claim is written it is unclear what is included in the definition of X and what is included in the definition of K. Therefore, the claims are considered indefinite. To overcome the rejection, Applicants are suggested to amend claim 6 to insert the term “and” in between the last two groups of variable X and/or K so that it is clear where each of the groups end of the variables.
III. Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Shawquia Jackson whose telephone number is (571)272-9043. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7AM-4PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Adam Milligan can be reached on (571) 270-7674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/SHAWQUIA JACKSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1626
Prosecution Insights