DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of the Application
Receipt of the Request for Continued Examination (RCE under 37 CFR 1.114), the Response, and Amendment filed 04/16/2026 is acknowledged.
Applicant has overcome the following rejections by virtue of the amendment or cancellation of the claims and/or persuasive remarks: (1) the 35 U.S.C. §112(b) rejections of claims 17-18, 21, and 26 have been withdrawn; and (2) the 35 U.S.C. §103 rejections of claims 16-18, 20-21, and 26 over Sviridenko and UniProt II as evidenced by search results have been withdrawn.
The status of the claims upon entry of the present amendment stands as follows:
Pending claims: 16, 20, 22-25
Withdrawn claims: 22-25
Previously cancelled claims: 1-15, 19
Newly cancelled claims: 17-18, 21, 26-30
Amended claims: 16, 20
New claims: None
Claims currently under consideration: 16, 20
Currently rejected claims: 16, 20
Allowed claims: None
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/16/2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 is objected to because “wherein the protein has protein phosphatase activity” should be read as “wherein the protein phosphatase has protein phosphatase activity”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) 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.
Claim 16 recites the limitation "the dephosphorylated casein" in line 10. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
For the purpose of this examination, “the dephosphorylated casein” will be interpreted as meaning that the milk or fermented milk composition contains dephosphorylated casein.
Claim 16 also recites ratios of dephosphorylated casein to total casein. However, the ratios do not have a unit of measurement associated with them (e.g., a weight ratio, a volume ratio). Therefore, the claim is indefinite.
For the purpose of this examination, the ratios will be interpreted as being weight ratios.
Claim 20 is rejected by reason of dependency from claim 16.
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. §112(b) of claims 16-18, 20-21, and 26: Applicant canceled claims 17-18, 21, and 26 which moots their rejections. Applicant amended claim 16 to fully address the rejection as written in the previous Office Action. However, claims 16 and 20 remain rejected for the reasons provided above.
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. §103 of claims 16-18, 20-21, and 26 over Sviridenko and UniProt II: Applicant’s amendments and arguments have been fully considered and are considered to overcome the rejections.
Applicant canceled claims 17-18, 21, and 26. Applicant amended claim 16 to recite that option (ii) for the protein phosphatase comprises a protein having an amino acid sequence of at least 95% sequence identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2. Applicant also amended claim 16 to recite that the composition is a milk or fermented milk comprising a specific ratio of dephosphorylated casein to total casein. Applicant stated that the claimed protein phosphatase dephosphorylates casein in milk to increase hydrophobicity in the milk or fermented milk product, thereby increasing mouthfeel, texture, and syneresis of the product when compared to a product not comprising the dephosphorylated casein. Applicant argued that the prior art references do not teach or suggest such effects. Applicant argued that Sviridenko also teaches degradation of casein by incorporating the enzymes protosubtilin and renninomesenterin in addition to the protein phosphatase. Applicant argued that this purpose of degradation disclosed by Sviridenko is different from the claimed composition as the claimed composition contains intact (i.e., non-degraded) dephosphorylated casein (Applicant’s Remarks, page 5, 1st paragraph under “35 U.S.C. § 103” – page 7, 4th paragraph).
Applicant’s amendments, specifically the amendment requiring the protein phosphatase to comprise at least one of option (i) and (ii) as recited in present claim 16, have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejections of claims 16 and 20 have been withdrawn. The rejections of claims 17-18, 21, and 26 are moot due to the cancellation of these claims.
Conclusion
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/KELLY P KERSHAW/Examiner, Art Unit 1791
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