NON-FINAL REJECTION AFTER FILING RCE
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 106616201 (A) in view of Sugimoto et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2011/0172091 A1.
CN 106616201 (A) discloses an anhydrous hydrogen-restraining type deoxidize/oxygen scavenger. Said oxygen scavenger is a mixed granule comprising in mass percent at least the following: 55-75% iron powder, 5-20% white carbon black, 5-20% gravel, 1-5% activated carbon, 1-5% water-absorbing resin and 2% calcium hydroxide, see abstract and claims 1-3. The further preferred inclusion of calcium chloride is also directly taught as part of the invention.
Example 3 reads as followed: “Mix 3.4g iron powder, 0.65g white carbon black, 0.6g gravel, 0.1g water-absorbing resin, 0.15g activated carbon, 0.1g calcium hydroxide to obtain mixed particles of oxygen scavenger, then mix 1.5g calcium chloride with scavenger Mix the agent evenly, put it in a 4×6cm composite oxygen scavenger wrapping paper, and put the prepared oxygen scavenger package into a 1000ML graduated cylinder. Oxygen uptake was tested by atmospheric pressure water displacement method and recorded. At the same time, the control group experiment was carried out. The control group 3 was 3.4g iron powder, 0.75g white carbon black, 0.5g sandstone, 0.1g water-absorbing resin, 0.15g activated carbon, 0.1g calcium hydroxide, 0.2g sodium chloride, 0.8g Mix with water evenly to obtain mixed granules of oxygen scavenger, pack them in 4×6cm composite oxygen scavenger packaging paper, and put the prepared oxygen scavenger package into a 1000ML graduated cylinder. Oxygen uptake was tested by atmospheric pressure water displacement method and recorded.” [Emphasis added].
The Examiner calculated percentage of calcium hydroxide to iron powder in Example 3 (according to both the invention and the control) is (0.1/3.4) x 100 = 2.94% by weight, which falls directly within Applicant’s independent claim 1 limitation of: “the alkaline substance has a content of 0.5 to 3 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the iron;”. Please note that the control mixed granule for Example 3, uses sodium chloride instead of calcium chloride (which is according to CN 106616201 (A) reduced to practice invention). Nevertheless, calcium chloride and sodium chloride both read on Applicant’s claimed invention.
CN 106616201 (A) thus discloses Applicant’s claimed invention in all aspects except that CN 106616201 (A) does not seem to set forth any specific species for the water-absorbing resin which corresponds to Applicant’s required water swelling agent.
The secondary reference to Sugimoto et al. discloses a solid molded oxygen absorbent composition and a process of producing the molded oxygen absorbent composition are disclosed. The molded oxygen absorbent composition is composed of a molded product of an oxygen absorbent composition which contains an oxygen absorbing substance, water or moisture, and a swelling component capable of being swelled with water or moisture. The product is formed by pressure molding the composition. The molded oxygen absorbent composition is reduced in its size and excellent in oxygen absorbing property, see title and abstract.
The swelling component is preferably calcium bentonite, calcium carboxymethylcellulose or both, see examples.
As way of illustration, Sugimoto et al.’s Example 5 teaches the following: “An oxygen absorbent composition was prepared by mixing 100 parts (62.8%) of iron powder, 1.25 parts (0.8%) of calcium chloride, 11.25 parts (7.1%) of activated carbon, 3.75 parts (2.3%) of calcium bentonite ("Kunibond" (tradename) available from Kunimine Industries Co., Ltd.) and 3.25 parts (2.0%) of calcium carboxymethylcellulose ("E.C.G-505" (tradename) available from Nichirin Chemical Industries, Ltd.) as a swelling component, 0.94 part (0.6%) of tara gum ("White Gum" (tradename) available from Iwate Chemical Co., Ltd.) as a pressure molding additive, 1.25 parts (0.8%) of a polyethylene wax ("Sun Wax 171P" (tradename) available from Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd.) and 37.5 parts (23.6%) of water.” [Emphasis added].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to use Sugimoto et al.’s direct disclosure of employing calcium bentonite and/or calcium carboxymethylcellulose (a water-absorbing resin) as highly effective water swelling agents in iron base oxygen scavenging compositions, as strong motivation to actually use calcium carboxymethylcellulose as the water-absorbing resin in CN 106616201 (A) iron based oxygen scavenger mixed granules for its known benefits. It is well known in the art that it is not inventive to merely follow the direct disclosure of prior-art references.
Claim(s) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 106616201 (A) in view of Sugimoto et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2011/0172091 A1, and said combination is taken in further in view of JP 56-130223 A. Please note that the Examiner’s description of the JP 56-130223 A reference is taken from the citation and explanation of it, as set forth in the Written Opinion Of The International Searching Authority in PCT/JP2021/024613, which was cited by Applicant in their I.D.S. filed 04/28/23.
CN 106616201 (A) in view of Sugimoto et al. has been described above and differ from Applicant’s claimed invention in that there does not seem to be any disclosure to where the oxygen scavenging mixed granule is further coated on the outside with a layer containing porous particles.
JP 56-130223 A discloses a deoxidizer (i.e. an oxygen scavenger composition) and preservation method for coffee using said deoxidizer. The disclosed oxygen scavenger composition comprises a granular alkaline earth metal hydroxide (A), an iron powder (B), an electrolyte (C), and a granular hydrous substance (D), and water; moreover the oxygen scavenger composition is sealed in a packaging material having air and moisture permeability. The alkaline earth metal hydroxide can be selected from Ca(OH)2, Mg(OH)2, Ba(OH)2 etc., which reads directly on Applicant’s alkaline substance of independent claim 1 and dependent claim 5. The electrolyte (C) can be a metal halide such as sodium chloride, which reads directly on Applicant’s metal halide of independent claim 1. The hydrous substance (D) can be diatomaceous earth, a zeolite, silica gel, activated carbon, activated clay etc., which reads directly Applicant’s “a water retention agent” of independent claim 1.
In a specific example, granular activated carbon is impregnated with granular calcium hydroxide, iron powder, sodium chloride and an aqueous solution of glycerol, which fully meets the limitation of Applicant’s claims. Said product is then coated on its surface with gypsum to form a layer and sealed in a paper bag laminated with porous polyethylene film having air permeability of 30,000 second per 100 ml of air (see claims, page 2, upper left column, line 16 to page 3, lower right column, line 19, and examples 1-2 etc.). Please note that gypsum is well known to have a porous structure and thus fully meets the limitations of Applicant’s dependent claim 6.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to use JP 56-130223 A’s said disclosure of the benefits of applying a porous gypsum layer onto the outside of a granular iron based oxygen scavenger composition, as strong motivation to actually apply a porous gypsum layer onto CN 106616201 (A)’s iron based oxygen scavenger mixed granule for the known benefits it would impart. It is well known in the art that it is not inventive to merely follow the direct disclosure of prior-art references.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH DAVID ANTHONY whose telephone number is (571)272-1117. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 10:00AM-6:30PM.
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/JOSEPH D ANTHONY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764
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