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 .
Priority
U.S. Appln. Ser. No.: 17/753,139, filed February 21, 2022 is a 371 Nat.’l Stage Entry of WO 2021/035258 A1 (i.e., PCT/US2020/070444, Intern.’ l Filing Date: August 21, 2020, Intern.’l Pub. Date: February 25, 2021), which claims priority from U.S. Prov. Appln. No.: 62/889,679, Filed: August 21, 2019.
Status
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to the April 29, 2026 Request for Continued Examination.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 April 29, 2026 has been entered.
Claims are 5-13 are pending (claims 6-12 reinstated);
Claims 5 and 13 are allowed;
Claims 6- 12 are objected and/or rejected (i.e., see below); and .
Claims 1-4 and 14-16 are cancelled in the above identified application.
Information Disclosure Statement
An Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) submitted on April 29, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97.
Accordingly, Information Disclosure Statements have been considered by the Examiner.
Withdrawal of Previously Cancelled Claims and Rejoinder of Claims
Claims 5 and 13 are directed to an allowable product. Pursuant to the procedures set forth in MPEP § 821.04(B), claims 6-12, directed to the process of making or using an allowable product, previously withdrawn from consideration as a result of a restriction requirement (February 18, 2025) are hereby rejoined and fully examined for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104.
Because all claims previously withdrawn from consideration under 37 CFR 1.142 have been rejoined, the restriction requirement as set forth in the Office action mailed on February 18, 2025 is hereby withdrawn. In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement as to the rejoined inventions, applicant(s) are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Objections to the Claims
Claims 6-12
Claims 8-12 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim depends from another multiple dependent claim" or "does not refer to other claims in the alternative only. See MPEP § 608.01(n). Thus, the claims 8-12 not been further treated on the merits.
Appropriate action is required accordingly.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 6 and 7 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.
Because claims 1 to 4 have been cancelled, claims 6 and 7 lack proper antecedent basis and fail to include every limitation of the claims upon which they are intended to depend. As currently drafted, the exact scope and metes and bounds of the dependent claims cannot be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art.
If claims 6 and 7 were amended to depend from an allowable and surviving claim (e.g., claim 5) and otherwise include the required limitations, they would be allowable.
Appropriate action is required accordingly.
Allowed and Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 13 remain allowed as per February Notice of Allowance and reasons of record therein.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: If objections and rejections to claims 6-12 supra are addressed by appropriate claim amendments (i.e., inc. improper multiple dependent claim dependencies, antecedent basis dependencies from cancelled claims), then those claims were be allowable in the above-identified application.
CONCLUSION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to GRACE C HSU whose telephone number is (571) 270-1689.
The Examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30 am - 6 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicants is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, KORTNEY L. KLINKEL can be reached on 571-270-5239. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/G.C.H./
Examiner, Art Unit 1627
/SCARLETT Y GOON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1693
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