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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 5-6 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) & (a)(2) as being anticipated by Langlais (US Patent Application No. 20100282679 A1) hereinafter Langlais.
Regarding Claim 5, Langlais teaches the optimization of dosing a coagulant to automatically achieve optimum membrane performance (i.e., a method of administering a coagulant in water treatment; Paragraphs 0005-0006) that involves adjusting the duration and frequency of backwashings (i.e., and a filtration stopping step for stopping filtration; repeating the treatment cycle a plurality of times to treat the water to be treated; Paragraph 0026) of a membrane immersed in a basin containing water to be treated (i.e., the method defining the treatment cycle as comprising a filtration step for using a filter membrane to filter water to be treated in a filtration tank; Fig. 2; Paragraph 0060). Langlais further teaches that fouling of the membrane is determined by the instantaneous flow rate of the effluent treated by the membrane and the transmembrane pressure (Paragraph 0015) where the coagulant injection is controlled by the membrane permeability and pressure drop measurements of the filtration module (i.e., wherein a membrane load index is defined as an amount of increase in transmembrane pressure per time in the filtration step, a time point at which a membrane-filtered water amount per time after starting the filtration step of a current treatment cycle is stabilized is defined as a first time point, the transmembrane pressure at the first time point is defined as a first transmembrane pressure, a value obtained by dividing the first transmembrane pressure by a membrane- filtered water amount per membrane area and per time is defined as a first filtration resistance value, a time point at which the membrane-filtered water amount per time after starting the filtration step of a treatment cycle immediately before the current treatment cycle is stabilized is defined as a second time point, the transmembrane pressure at the second time point is defined as a second transmembrane pressure, a value obtained by dividing the second transmembrane pressure by the membrane-filtered water amount per membrane area and per time is defined as a second filtration resistance value, a value obtained by dividing a difference between the first filtration resistance value and the second filtration resistance value by a time period from the second time point to the first time point is defined as an accumulated additional resistance; Paragraph 0109) where the permeability of the membrane decreasing triggers coagulation dosing (i.e., wherein, during the repeating the treatment cycle the plurality of times to treat the water to be treated, when the membrane load index becomes greater than or equal to a first threshold value, and the accumulated additional resistance becomes greater than or equal to a second threshold value, administration of the coagulant into the filtration tank is started; Fig. 6; Paragraphs 0118-0121). Permeability (Fig. 4; Units of L/(h*m2*bar)) is proportional to flow rate and inversely proportional to pressure, meaning that a combination of transmembrane pressure (i.e., membrane load index) and inverse permeability (i.e., accumulated additional resistance; units of Pressure*Area*time/Volume) are being used in the same way as the instant application.
Regarding Claim 6, Langlais anticipates the method of administering coagulant of claim 5. Langlais further teaches that injected coagulant dose is stopped when a reduction in membrane permeability results from an increase in the dose (i.e., wherein, during the repeating the treatment cycle the plurality of times to treat the water to be treated in the filtration step, when the membrane-filtered water amount per membrane area and per time becomes less than a third threshold value, the administration of the coagulant into the filtration tank is stopped; Paragraph 0023). Permeability is directly related to flux, and thus when the flux decreases, the permeability decreases and thus the teaching by Langlais is inherently the same as the instant application.
Regarding Claim 17, Langlais anticipates the method of administering coagulant of claim 5. Langlais further teaches a trial period in which there was a period A that operated the membrane in a dead-end filtration with 30 seconds of backwashing with water every 90 minutes of operation without coagulant injection (i.e., wherein the coagulant is not administered into the filtration tank in each of the plurality of times that the treatment cycle is repeated; Paragraphs 0153-0156).
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 09/18/2025 has been entered.
In view of the amendment to the claims, the amendment of claims 5 and 6 and the addition of claim 17 have been acknowledged.
In view of the amendment to the drawings, the objections to the drawings have been withdrawn.
In view of the amendment to the specification, the objections to the specification have been withdrawn.
In view of the amendment to claim 5, the objections to the claims have been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/18/2025 have been fully considered.
Applicant argues, regarding claim 5, that Langlais (US Patent Application No. 20100282679 A1) hereinafter Langlais doses coagulant every treatment cycle and the instant claims do not require coagulant every treatment cycle (Arguments filed 09/18/2025, Page 13).
The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Regarding Applicant’s arguments for claim 5, Langlais shows and describes examples of continuous dosing of coagulant where the coagulant dose is slaved to the treated effluent flow rate (Fig. 8, Sections B, C, D, E, F; Paragraphs 0022, 0148, 0158), but Langlais also teaches a micro-coagulation process having to be triggered when thresholds are violated (Paragraphs 0007-0010), a testing regime of backwashing with no dosing of coagulant (Paragraphs 0153-0156), and an adjustable backwashing regime with a specific duration and frequency of backwashing (Paragraph 0026) which is separate from the coagulant dosing. As the micro-coagulation process can be dependent upon thresholds involving the membrane fouling state while the backwashing is time based, the coagulant dosing does not necessarily occur during every filtration/backwashing cycle. Thus, Langlais teaches the same process as the instant claims.
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are not persuasive. All other arguments have been indirectly addressed.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/A.A.G./Examiner, Art Unit 1777
/Ryan B Huang/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777