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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
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, is acknowledged.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5, 7, 9-11, and 26-54 are currently pending in the application. Claims 6, 8, and 12-25 have been canceled.
Receipt is acknowledged of amendment / response filed on July 17, 2026 and that has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
Receipt is acknowledged of Information Disclosure Statement (IDS), filed on 03/25/2026, which has been entered in the file.
Response to Election/Restriction
In response to the restriction requirement, Applicants have elected Group I, which now includes claims 1-5, 7, 9-11, and 26-33 drawn to a method for the treatment of a :
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, is acknowledged.
Because Applicants did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.03(a). Therefore, the requirement for restriction is still deemed proper and made it final.
Claims 34-54 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 C.F.R. 1.142 (b) as being drawn to a non-elected subject matter. Therefore, the requirement for restriction is still deemed proper and made it final.
Applicants preserve their right to file a divisional on the non-elected subject matter.
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 1 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. The expression “e.g.” [claim 1 (Currently Amended), lines 16-17, page 2 and all other occurrences, if any), renders the claim indefinite, because it is unclear whether the limitation following the phrase is part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05 (d) and therefore, it is not possible to ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed subject matter. The use of expressions “e.g.” in the middle of the claim also may lead to confusion over the intended scope of the claim. It is suggested that the expression “e.g.” be deleted or amend the claim within the context and scope of the claim in order to overcome the rejection.
Objections
Claims 2-5, 7, 9-11, and 26-33 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim 1, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Telephone Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Golam Shameem, Ph.D. whose telephone number is (571) 272-0706. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday from 7:30 AM - 6:00 PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Clinton Brooks, Ph.D. can be reached at (571) 270-7682.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal. Should you have questions about access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application should be directed to the Group receptionist, whose telephone number is (571) 272-1600.
/GOLAM M SHAMEEM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1621
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