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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 1-3, 5-6 and 11-15 in the reply filed on 5/21/25 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the restriction must be based on PCT rules, and that a unit of invention exist between the restricted groups. This is not found persuasive because restriction is based on not lack of unity, but lack of a special technical feature that links the claims. Such a feature must be patentable over the prior arts, which is not present in this case.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 and 103
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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) 1-3, 5-6 and 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MCCLOSKEY et al. (US 2017/0258103) in view of Bell, et al “STABILITY OF MILK AND ITS CONCENTRATES IN FROZEN STORAGE AT VARIOUS TEMPERATURES” Journal of Dairy Science, January 1952.
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McCloskey teaches a method of concentrating raw milk using a cascade of reverse osmosis. See the abstract and the figures. Raw milk is concentrated in multi-stage RO systems [0039]. Concentrate recycle set-up – [0042]. Temperature, pressure and concentration – see [0018]. Operating pressure range from 200-1500 psig (13.7 – 103 Bars) – [0074]. This range falls within the claimed ranges of 1-50, 30-60 and 50-200 bars from low end of low pressure to high end of high pressure RO (pressure is progressively increasing with the stages.) The pressure is also concentration-dependent, (Id.) and increases as concentrations in each stage increase. Operating temperature is 45-600 F (abstract), and <150 C in working examples. The solids content in the milk product is 40% SNF, or 45% Total solids [0007], [0046]-[0047].
McCloskey does not explicitly teach specific low and high pressure stages, but such are implied in the pressure ranges. Particularly, see [0033] which teaches the pressure required as in excess of the osmotic pressure. Therefore, as the milk concentrates, the operating pressure also must be increased to overcome the osmotic pressure increase. Thus McCloskey process also would have progressively higher pressure on downstream stages, which would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill, if not anticipated.
Looking at example 1, operation is at two pressure ranges, and temperature 50-550 F, meaning claims 1, 2, 6 and 11 are clearly anticipated by McCloskey.
Milk is cooled after RO to <450 F – example 1. Cooling by conventional means [0103.] Also, cleaning the system after use is implied, especially in dairy industry, which is a common practice. While McCloskey is silent on the cooling steps and freezing, use of ethylene glycol-water solution as coolant medium (anti-freeze) is well-known in the art for freezers. Cooling and freezing milk for preservation and storage is also well known in the art as is clear from the NPL to Bell cited herein. Applicant’s disclosure at fig. 6 also describes the concentrate milk as “transported to quick-freezing warehouse,” meaning, the freezing step is not inventive.
Combining known processes to obtain predictable results is prima facie obvious – see MPEP 2143-I, A-G: rationales to combine.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/26/25 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. They are addressed in the rejection. Any “unexpected result” argument is not evidence against an anticipation rejection. And there is no showing of any unexpected result. Two-stage cooling is not inventive – staged cooling is known in the art. Tubular heat exchangers are also very common. However, these are also claimed in the alternative. Two NPL references are provided herewith in an 892 showing that use of staged cooling and tubular heat exchangers are common in the dairy industry.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRISHNAN S MENON whose telephone number is (571)272-1143. The examiner can normally be reached Flexible, but generally Monday-Friday: 8:00AM-4:30PM.
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/KRISHNAN S MENON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777
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