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 .
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-4, 7 & 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ito et al. (EP 2798966) as evidenced by Taylor et al. (US 3,500,834) in view of Matarazzo (WO 2020/104964), reference to US 2022/0287357), Benjak et al. (US 2019/0174813) and Ashworth et al. (US 4,040,431) further in view of GB 1342931.
Claim 1 has been amended to require:
that the total sugar content is 30 wt% (previously it was 20-40 wt%)
that the flavoring includes maple syrup
that the base solution includes water.
Inre 1) it was previously set forth that Taylor evidences that various Burley tobacco types have sugar content between 26.25 and 29.25. As set forth in MPEP 2144.05 I, a prima facie case of obviousness exists where the claimed ranges or amounts do not overlap with the prior art but are merely close.
Inre 2) Unlike the instantly claimed invention Ito/Taylor/Matarazzo/Benjak/Ashworth does not teach or suggest the addition of maple syrup as a flavorant. GB 1342931 teaches adding maple syrup to tobacco and or cigarettes ostensibly to improve the smoking experience. See page 2, column 2, first full paragraph. It would have been obvious to modify Ito/Taylor/Matarazzo/Benjak/Ashworth by adding maple syrup to the flavoring for its ordinary and expected purpose.
Inre 3) The applied references teach water soluble components. It would be within the skill of those in the art to include water in the compostions in order to dilute the solutions to be economical or control rheology or both.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ito et al. (EP 2798966) as evidenced by Taylor et al. (US 3,500,834) in view of Matarazzo (WO 2020/104964), reference to US 2022/0287357), Benjak et al. (US 2019/0174813) and Ashworth et al. (US 4,040,431) further in view of GB 1342931 further in view of Kulka et al. (US 4,126,101).
Please see the Non-final rejection of 8/28/25 for citations and explanation of Ito/Taylor/Matarazzo/Benjak/Ashworth/Kulka. These passages are adopted into the current rejection.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ito et al. (EP 2798966) as evidenced by Taylor et al. (US 3,500,834) in view of Matarazzo (WO 2020/104964), reference to US 2022/0287357), Benjak et al. (US 2019/0174813) and Ashworth et al. (US 4,040,431) further in view of GB 1342931 further in view of Holm et al. (US 3,402,479) and Rasouli et al. (US 2009/0044816)
Please see the Non-final rejection of 8/28/25 for citations and explanation of Ito/Taylor/Matarazzo/Benjak/Ashworth/Holm/Rasouli. These passages are adopted into the current rejection.
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 BENJAMIN L UTECH whose telephone number is (571)272-1137. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
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/BENJAMIN L UTECH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 6212
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