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 .
Response to Arguments
In response dated 11/24/2025 the rejections of claims 1, 4, 6-10 15-22 are withdrawn. Rejection of claim 2 along with claims dependent on 2 is maintained.
Examiner acknowledges applicants arguments, however, with respect to the delamination index, considering that talc can be completely delaminated, the applicants arguments are not persuasive. While lamellarity describes number of layers, delamination index describes the separation of these layers. Completely delaminated talc is known, as such is delamination index will meet instant claim 2, because index of at least 103 encompasses complete delamination.
With respect to arguments directed at BET and oil absorption, BET method measures material’s specific surface area utilizing inert gas and qualifying total porous area, while oil absorptions quantifies the amount of oil absorbed per 100 g. As such the two properties are related because the amount of oil absorbed depends on the porosity of the particulate.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 2, 3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mas (US 2017/0283578) in view of Pagis (WO 2018/150002).
This rejection is restated to include properties rejected previously by MAS under 102 rejection as necessitated by amendment to independent claims 1 and 4.
With respect to claim 2, the delamination index for talc refers to a measure of how well the platelets of talc are separated and spread apart during processing which affects their lamellarity or aspect ratio. The higher the delamination index the better separation and a higher aspect ratio. Since Mas teaches talc having the same preferred lamellarity ratio the delamination index will also be within the claimed range because delamination is what dictates the lamellarity.
The examiner would like to further clarify as to why limitation of claim 2 is met, and it is because Mas discloses talc in a suspension that undergoes delamination while in suspension [0059]. Any particles with size greater than required are recycled for delamination. Consequently for delaminated talc the delamination index will be much higher.
With respect to claim 3, talc disclosed in Mas has lamellarity index of at least 2.8 [0023] and BET in a range of 5-3015m2/g [0024].
Mas does not explicitly teach the oil absorption of talc with the disclosed BET.
Pais is an evidence that talc with lamellarity index of at least 3 and BET in the range disclosed in Mas, can have oil absorption of at least 80 ml/g (claims).
In the light of the above disclosure as evidenced in Paigs, talc of Mas would also have the porosity and oil absorption as claimed.
With respect to claim 5, Mas teaches D95sedi of less than 10 microns and d50D50 0.5-4 microns [0020].
Conclusion
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.
Correspondence
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/KATARZYNA I KOLB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1767 December 29, 2025