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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 11/5/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 18-22 and 28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected system, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/5/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
Foreign reference cite #3 of the IDS received 8/29/2025 has been lined through and not considered because the foreign patent document is in a non-English language and the submission does not include a concise explanation of the relevance, as it is presently understood by the individual designated in 37 CFR 1.56(c) most knowledgeable about the content of the information.
NPL Cite #1 of the IDS received 1/13/2025 has been lined through and not considered because 1) the submitted document is not legible and 2) a date associated with the NPL document has not been specified. See MPEP 609.04(I): “Where the actual publication date of a non-patent document is not known, the applicant must, at a minimum, provide a date of retrieval (e.g., the date a webpage was retrieved) or a time frame (e.g., a year, a month and year, a certain period of time) when the document was available as a publication.”
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.
Claim 11 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 11 recites “wherein the amount of the intermediate stream diverted to the centrifugal mixer may vary based upon the desired amount of waste polyester in the outlet stream”, which appears to depend on the subjective opinion of one purported to be practicing the invention. Accordingly, the intended scope of the claim is unclear.
Claim 11 further states “while maintaining a constant flow of the outlet stream…”. Since the previous limitation of claim 11 “may” occur, it is unclear whether the maintaining constant flow criteria is meant to be optional or required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, and 8-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pawleski (WO 2019/162265 A1). As the cited WO document is in a non-English language, the English equivalent, US 2020/0399437 A1 has been utilized in place of the WO document. All citations are made with respect to the above-mentioned US document.
Regarding Claim 1, Pawleski teaches methods of manufacturing polyesters using waste polyester comprising providing intermediate prepolymer stream from continuous polymerization unit “101” and diverting a portion of the intermediate polymer stream “1” to a dynamic mixer “200”, adding waste polymer stream “2” to dynamic mixer “200” to obtain a homogenous melt stream “3”, and combining the homogenous melt stream “3” with the remaining portion of the intermediate polymer stream at postesterification reactor “102”, forming an outlet stream (Figure 1; ¶ 51, 111-114). Pawleski teaches the dynamic mixer can be a centrifugal mixer (¶ 48).
Pawleski differs from the subject matter claimed in that it is not expressly indicated waste polyester is not heated when added to centrifugal mixer. In this regard, Pawleski teaches the waste polyester on entry into the dynamic mixer has an average temperature ranging from 0-200 degrees C (¶ 69), which overlaps temperatures where waste polyester is neither heated nor melted when introduced. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a range within the claimed range because a reference may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill the art and Pawleski suggests the claimed range. A person of ordinary skill would be motivated to use the claimed amount, based on the teachings of Pawleski. See MPEP 2123.
Regarding Claim 2, Pawleski teaches PCR flakes (¶ 25).
Regarding Claim 3, Pawleski teaches 10-100% of the overall stream is branched off to dynamic mixer, whereby 5-60 wt% of recycled polyester is combined with the intermediate product stream at the dynamic mixer (¶ 76-78), suggesting an outlet stream with recycled polyester contents ranging from a minimum of roughly (10 x 0.05) / (100 + (10 x 0.05)) = 0.5% to 60%.
Regarding Claim 6, Pawleski teaches dwell / residence times of not more than 60 seconds within the dynamic mixer (¶ 72).
Regarding Claim 8, Pawleski teaches additives such as dyes can be introduced into dynamic mixer (¶ 79, 112; “230” of Figure 1).
Regarding Claim 9, Pawleski teaches pre-drying the waste polyester flakes prior to adding to mixer (¶ 93).
Regarding Claim 10, Pawleski teaches 10-100% of the overall stream is branched off to dynamic mixer, whereby 5-60 wt% of recycled polyester is combined with the intermediate product stream at the dynamic mixer (¶ 76-78), suggesting ratios of 10.5:90 = 1:8.6 and higher. The described ratios overlap those claimed. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a range within the claimed range because a reference may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill the art and Pawleski suggests the claimed ranges. A person of ordinary skill would be motivated to use the claimed amount, based on the teachings of Pawleski. See MPEP 2123.
Regarding Claim 11, whatever amount of waste polymer and diverted intermediate product stream is used within Pawleski is deemed to be desirable. The postesterification reactor “102” to which the outlet stream is directed to deemed to be a finisher section within the continuous polymerization unit of Pawleski. The dynamic mixer is operated continuously (¶ 42), suggesting a constant flow rate.
Claim(s) 4 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pawleski (WO 2019/162265 A1) in view of Nichols (U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,644). As the cited WO document is in a non-English language, the English equivalent, US 2020/0399437 A1 has been utilized in place of the WO document. All citations are made with respect to the above-mentioned US document.
The discussion regardiing Pawleski within ¶ 14-22 is incorporated herein by reference.
Regarding Claims 4 and 5, Pawleski differs from the subject matter claimed in that the difference in intrinsic viscosities between intermediate and waste polyester streams is not indicated. In this regard, Nichols also pertains to methods of blending virgin and post-consumer polyesters to form new polyesters (Abstract). Nichols teaches it was known in the art that the intrinsic viscosities of waste and virgin materials are preferably matched in order to improve product uniformity (Col. 7, Line 57 to Col. 8, Line 4). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to match the intrinsic viscosities of waste/virgin-containing homogenous melt stream and virgin containing intermediate stream, such that such intrinsic viscosities are essentially the same, because doing so would promote product uniformity in the resulting polyester materials as taught by Nichols.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pawleski (WO 2019/162265 A1) in view of Dickey (Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology). As the cited WO document is in a non-English language, the English equivalent, US 2020/0399437 A1 has been utilized in place of the WO document. All citations are made with respect to the above-mentioned US document.
The discussion regardiing Pawleski within ¶ 14-22 is incorporated herein by reference.
Regarding Claim 7, Pawleski differs from the subject matter claimed in that particular stirring powers are not described. Dickey teaches it was known in the art stirring intensity and stirring power per volume are known result effective variables subject to routine optimization by one of ordinary skill in the art for effective mixing, particularly in those systems involving mixing solid particles in a liquid medium (Sections 2.1 and 7). See MPEP 2144.05(II). Case law holds that “discovery of an optimum value of a result effective variable in a known process is ordinarily within the skill of the art.” See In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980). In view of this, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to discover workable or optimal mixing energies within the scope of the present claims so as to produce desirable degrees of virgin/waste polyester mixing.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEPHEN E RIETH whose telephone number is (571)272-6274. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8AM-4PM Mountain Standard Time.
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/STEPHEN E RIETH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759