DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/16/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
In response to the amendment received on 12/16/2025:
claims 1, 6, 10-11 and 13-16 are currently pending
claims 1 and 10 are amended
previously presented grounds of rejection of claims as being unpatentable over Bury in view of Shendy are withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims
new grounds of rejection applying Bury and Isomura are presented herein
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The text of those sections of Title 35 U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office Action.
Claims 1, 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bury et al. (US 2012/0214901), hereinafter referred to as BURY, in view of Isomura et al. (US 6437027 B1), hereinafter referred to as ISOMURA.
Regarding claim 1, BURY teaches an additive composition (see BURY at Abstract: an aqueous admixture composition for cementitious compositions), comprising:
at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer for plasticizing a hydratable cementitious composition (see BURY at paragraph [0039]: dispersant includes polycarboxylate dispersants with polyether units; dispersant include chemicals that function as a plasticizer), the at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer is being present in the amount of 10-50 percent by dry weight based on the total weight of the additive composition (see BURY at paragraph [0064]: the amount of the dispersant for cementitious compositions that is present in combination admixture ranges from greater than 0 to about 99% based on the weight of dry solids);
at least one alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent (see BURY at paragraph [0013]: the hyperbranched polyether surfactant may include branched compounds which are reaction products of components comprising at least one compound of formula IIa) comprising C5-C16 branched or linear alkyl chains and 8-20 alkylene oxide groups (see BURY at paragraph [0013]: formula IIa R2(OA)nY, wherein R2 is an organic group containing from 1 to 36 carbon atoms, n is a number of from 0 to 20, Y is OH, and OA is ethyleneoxy group), and being present in the amount of 2-30 percent by dry weight based on the weight of the at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester dispersant (see BURY at paragraph [0106]: the dispersant may be in the range of greater than 0 to about 99%, the hyperbranched polyether surfactant may be in the range of about 0.1% to about 10%). Thus, BURY teaches greater than 9.9% of surfactant by weight based on the weight of dispersant, which overlaps with the claimed range.
water in an amount sufficient to carry the at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer and the at least one alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent together in the form of a liquid additive composition (see BURY at Abstract: an aqueous admixture composition for cementitious compositions including a hyper-branched polyether surfactant, optionally a dispersant).
While BURY is silent with respect to the at least one alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent being fully water-soluble, BURY discloses that the degree of ethoxylation may be from 2 to about 50, typically being from about 4 to about 50, while the degree of propoxylation may vary from 0 to 50; the degree of propoxylation (or butoxylation) will be determined by the desired degree of water solubility or miscibility; water solubility or miscibility of the surfactant and the interrelationships between the number of carbon atoms and the relative amounts of EO and PO (and/or BO) will be readily determinable by one of ordinary skill in the art (see BURY at paragraph [0019]). Additionally, MPEP states that "[w]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation" (see MPEP § 2144.05(II)(A)). Thus, based on the disclosure of BURY, one of ordinary skill in the art would have optimized the interrelationships between the number of carbon atoms and the relative amounts of EO and PO (and/or BO) to adjust water solubility of the surfactant.
BURY fails to explicitly teach the at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer having a number-average molecular weight less than 10,000.
However, ISOMURA teaches a powdery dispersant for preparing hydraulic compositions containing a polycarboxylate polymer compound having a polyalkylene glycol chain (see ISOMURA at Abstract). ISOMURA also discloses that the copolymers have an average molecular weight of 3000-80000 (see ISOMURA at Col. 5, lines 60-63). Additionally, ISOMURA teaches that the application of disclosed powdery polycarboxylate polymer dispersant allows the preparation of a high-fluidity hydraulic composition (see ISOMURA at Col. 2, lines 5-7).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the potential benefit of improving the admixture of BURY by utilizing the polycarboxylate polymer disclosed by ISOMURA since ISOMURA explicitly teaches that the application of disclosed powdery polycarboxylate polymer dispersant allows the preparation of a high-fluidity hydraulic composition (see ISOMURA at Col. 2, lines 5-7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the admixture of BURY by using the polycarboxylate polymer disclosed by ISOMURA in order to prepare a high-fluidity hydraulic composition.
Thus, BURY as modified by ISOMURA teaches an additive composition, wherein the at least one polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer is obtained by copolymerizing monomer components (A), (B), (C), and, optionally, (D) (see ISOMURA at Col. 4, lines 45-55: copolymers comprise structural unit (5) and (9)):
a first polyoxyalkylene monomer represented by structural formula, wherein R1 and R2 individually represent hydrogen atom or methyl group R3 represents hydrogen or -COOM group wherein M represents a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal AO represents oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms (preferably 2 carbon atoms) or mixtures thereof (see Structural unit (8) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 19-22: R10, R11 which may be identical or different from one another, each represent a hydrogen atom or methyl group; R12 represent a C1-C3 alkyl group); "m" represents an integer of 0 to 2, "n" represents an integer of 0 or 1; "o" represents an integer of 0 to 4 (see Structural unit (9): -COO(CH2CH0)-, thus, “m” is 0, “n” is 1, “o” is 0); "p" represents an average number of oxyalkylene groups and is an integer from 5 to 35 (see Structural unit (8) and ISOMURA at Col. 5, line 36: m is an integer of 2-200); and R4 represents a hydrogen atom or C1 to C4 alkyl group (see Structural unit (8) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 22-23: R12 represent a C1-C3 alkyl group);
PNG
media_image1.png
157
365
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Structural unit (8)
a second polyoxyalkylene monomer represented by structural formula, wherein R1 and R2 individually represent hydrogen atom or methyl group; R3 represents hydrogen or -COOM group wherein M represents a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal; AO represents oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms (preferably 2 carbon atoms) or mixtures thereof (see Structural unit (9) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 19-22: R14, which may be identical or different from one another, each represents a hydrogen atom or methyl group; R13 and R15, which may be identical or different from one another, each represents a hydrogen atom or methyl group); "m" represents an integer of 0 to 2; "n" represents an integer of 0 or 1; "o" represents an integer of 0 to 4 ((see Structural unit (9): -CH2O(CH2CH0)-, thus, “m” is 1, “n” is 0, “o” is 0); "q" represents an average number of oxyalkylene groups and is an integer from 20 to 200 (see Structural unit (9) and ISOMURA at Col. 5, lines 28-29: p is an integer of 2-109); and R4 represents a hydrogen atom or C1 to C4 alkyl group (see Structural unit (8) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 22-23: R15 represents a C1-C3 alkyl group);
PNG
media_image2.png
168
306
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Structural unit (9)
an unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer represented by structural formula, wherein R5 and R6 individually represent hydrogen atom or methyl group (see Structural unit (5) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 19-22: R7 and R14, which may be identical or different from one another, each represents a hydrogen atom or methyl group); R7 represents hydrogen atom, and M represents a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal (see Structural unit (5) and ISOMURA at Col 5, lines 23-25: M3 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal).
PNG
media_image3.png
121
242
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Structural unit (5)
wherein the molar ratio of components (A) to component (B) is from 15:85 to 85:15 (see ISOMURA at Col. 5, lines 44-47: structural unit (8) is present in an amount of 1-30 mol%, Structural unit (9) is present in an amount 1-30 mol%; thus , ISOMURA teaches the molar ratio of (8) to (9) from 3:97 to 97:3, which overlaps with the claimed range), and further wherein the molar ratio of component (C) to the sum of component (A) and component (B) is 90:10 to 50:50 (see ISOMURA at Col. 5, lines 38-39: structural unit (5) is present in an amount of 40-70 mol%, thus, ISOMURA teaches the molar ratio of (5) to the sum of (8) and (9) of 70:30 to 40:60, which overlaps with the claimed range.
Regarding claim 6, BURY as modified by ISOMURA teaches a cementitious composition comprising cement, aggregates, and an additive composition (see BURY at paragraph [0072]: polycarboxylate ether dispersant, a defoaming agent and a stabilizing agent, cementitious material and aggregate) according to claim 1.
Regarding claim 11, BURY as modified by ISOMURA teaches the additive composition of claim 1 further comprising at least one air entraining agent (see BURY at paragraph [0071]: cement additives that can be added include air entrainers).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 13-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/16/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the examiner has gone beyond the BRI standard in interpreting the claimed “alkyl alkoxylate”, and that one of ordinary skill in the art would not have looked to BURY’s hyperbranched polyethers in an effort to supply an alkyl alkoxylate with a polycarboxylate ether or ester as claimed. See Remarks received on 12/16/2025 spanning paragraphs on pages 8-9.
However, the examiner respectfully disagrees for the following reasons. BURY discloses an admixture composition for cementitious compositions including a hyper-branched polyether surfactant, optionally a dispersant (see BURY at Abstract). The recitation “hyper-branched polyether surfactant” of BURY is treated as reading on limitation “alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent” (see BURY at paragraphs [0013]: the hyperbranched polyether surfactant may include branched compounds which are reaction products of components comprising at least one compound of formula IIa; and [0013]: formula IIa R2(OA)nY, wherein R2 is an organic group containing from 1 to 36 carbon atoms, n is a number of from 0 to 20, Y is OH, and OA is ethyleneoxy group). The recitation “dispersant” of BURY is treated as reading on limitation “polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer for plasticizing a hydratable cementitious composition” (see BURY at paragraph [0039]: dispersant includes polycarboxylate dispersants with polyether units; dispersant include chemicals that function as a plasticizer).
It is noted, that claim 1 recites “at least one alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent comprising C5-C16 branched or linear alkyl chains and 8-20 alkylene oxide groups”. As set forth, “alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent comprising” does not exclude additional structural elements, thus, not preventing the surface-active agent from being a polymer comprising alkyl alkoxylate comprising C1-C36 and 2 to 20 alkylene oxide groups, as disclosed by BURY (see BURY at paragraph [0013]). BURY also teaches the embodiments, wherein an admixture for cementitious compositions is provided comprising a hyper-branched polyether surfactant and a dispersant for cementitious compositions (see BURY at paragraph [0037]).
In response to Applicant arguments that the structure of the alkyl alkoxylate surface active agent contemplated as part of the invention are described in paragraphs [0051-59] of US 2023/0032346, it is noted that paragraphs [0051-52] recite:
“In a first aspect of the above-described exemplary embodiment, the alkyl alkoxylate surface active agents can be used in higher amounts as compared to conventional defoamers used in the concrete industry (See e.g., defoamers described in references mentioned in the Background Section)” (paragraph [0051]);
“In a second aspect of the above-described exemplary embodiment, the alkyl alkoxylate surface active agents are fully-water miscible and generate a head of foam when incorporated by themselves into water and shaken (as will be discussed further hereinafter)” (paragraph [0052]).
Paragraphs [0053-59] describe polycarboxylate ether or ester cement dispersant polymer. Thus, cited paragraphs of US 2023/0032346 fail to make clear the structure of the alkyl alkoxylate surface active agents.
Therefore, rejection of claims 1, 6 and 11 as being unpatentable over BURY in view of ISOMURA is maintained.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANASTASIA KUVAYSKAYA whose telephone number is (703)756-5437. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7:00am-5:00pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant 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, Amber Orlando can be reached at 571-270-3149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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.
/A.A.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1731
/ANTHONY J GREEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731