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
This is a response to Applicant’s communication filed on November 21, 2025. Application No. 18/039,917, is a 371 of PCT/US21/61774, filed December 3, 2021, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional application No. 63/120,912, filed December 3, 2020. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s elections without traverse of the invention of Group I and the compound species of DMA-132, in the reply filed on November 21, 2025, are acknowledged. Claims 9-15 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention. Claims 6 and 7 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species. The election were made without traverse in the reply filed on November 21, 2025.
Claims 1-5, 8, and 16-20 are examined below.
Please note: the method claims, claims 9-15, are currently withdrawn. Upon finding allowable subject matter in the elected invention these claims will be rejoined. However, these claims including “the prevention” or “preventing” viral infection. Prevention is not enabled by the present disclosure and these claims will be rejected under 35 USC 112(a) upon rejoinder, accordingly. It is suggested that applicant amend these method claims to cancel “the prevention” or “preventing” in response to this Office action to move the claims closer to allowance.
Non-Statutory Use Claims
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 16-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is not supported by either an asserted utility or a well-established utility. See MPEP 2173.05(q), “Use” Claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
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.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. See MPEP 2173.05(q), “Use” Claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102(a)(1)
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.
Claims 1-5, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cragoe et al., U.S. Patent No. 3,313,813. Citing the CAS abstract for Cragoe, Cragoe discloses the elected species DMA-132, as follows:
PNG
media_image1.png
261
441
media_image1.png
Greyscale
,
(Cragoe et al., citing the CAS Abstract for the compound depicted above; see Cragoe et al., ‘813 patent, Col. 3, lns. 25-35, for pharmaceutical compositions of the compounds disclosed therein). This compound reads on the elected species.
Conclusion
No claims are allowed.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY R ROZOF whose telephone number is (571)270-5992. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m..
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Kosar can be reached on (571) 272-0913. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TIMOTHY R ROZOF/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1625