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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.
Claims 1 and 3-20 are pending in the application.
This action is in response to applicants' amendment dated January 16, 2026. Claims 3, 6-11 and 16 have been amended.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments filed January 16, 2026 have been fully considered with the following effect:
With regards to the provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection as being 3. unpatentable over claims 1 and 96-98 of copending Application No. 18/748,855 of the last office action, the applicants stated that the provisional nonstatutory rejection will be the only remaining rejection in this application and thus should be withdraw. However, provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection is not the only rejection remaining in view of the new grounds of rejection listed below and is herein maintained.
Claims 1, 3-11 and 14-20 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1 and 96-98 of copending Application No. 18/748,855, for reasons of record and stated above.
The applicant's amendments and arguments are sufficient to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph rejections, labeled paragraph 3a), b), c), d), e), f), g), h), i), j), k), l), m), n), o), p) and q) in the last office action, which are hereby withdrawn.
In view of the amendment dated January 16, 2026, the following new grounds of rejection apply:
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION. —The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 6-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. The following reasons apply:
Claims 6, 7 and claims dependent thereon are vague and indefinite in that it is not known what is meant by the definition of Re with respect paragraph ii) which ends with a semi-colon and a comma.
Claim 6 and claims dependent thereon are vague and indefinite in that it is not known what is meant by the hyphen which appears definition of R3 within the definition of the substituents on the C1-6alkyl of the heteroaryl definition which is defined as “selected from halogen, hydroxy, -NH2, - or C1-6alkoxy”.
Claim 10 is vague and indefinite in that it is not known what is meant by “propyl (iso-propyl)” in the definition of Re which are two different substituents.
Claim Objections
Claims 12 and 13 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENDA L COLEMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-0665. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10-6 (flex).
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, Jeffrey H. Murray can be reached at 571-272-9023. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRENDA L COLEMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1624
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