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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 12-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on November 21, 2025.
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 1-11 in the reply filed on November 21, 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no serious search burden place on the examiner. This is not found persuasive because the search burden has been established in the Requirement for Restriction/Election document sent October 21, 2025.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
Claims 3-5 are 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.
Regarding claims 3-5, the instant claims use a measurement within parenthesis such as “(about 10,000 ppm)” and “(about 50 ppm)”. The addition of these parameters makes it unclear if these limitations are required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-5 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo (CN112044402A).
Regarding claims 1 and 2, Guo discloses an invention where a covalent organic framework (COF) is made up of various quinoline carboxylic acid groups (Guo [0014]). The reference teaches forming a composition by adding COF into a water solution containing Rhodamine B (Guo[0078]). This leads to the production of a composition comprised of an amine, a covalent organic framework, and water. Therefore, the disclosure within the prior art fulfils the limitations set in the instant claim requiring there to be a composition comprised of a COF combined with water and an amine.
Regarding claims 3-5, Guo discloses that 0.1g of COF are added into 1000 g water spiked with Rhodamine B (Guo[0078]). As the 0.1g of COF are added into a 1000g water sample the resulting composition has a COF content of 0.01 wt.%. Therefore, this disclosure fulfils the limitations set in the instant claim requiring the COF to have a wt.% between 0 wt.% to 1 wt.%, 0 wt.% to 0.05 wt.%, and 0.005 wt.% and 0.015 wt.
Regarding claims 8, Guo discloses an amine in the form of Rhodamine B, a tertiary amine (Guo[0078]). Therefore, the disclosure in the prior art meets the limitations set in the instant claim requiring an organic amine to comprise of a tertiary amine compound.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6-7 and 9-11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Reasons for Indicating Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
While Guo discloses an invention where a covalent organic framework (COF) is made up of various quinoline carboxylic acid groups (Guo [0014]) and teaches that COF would be mixed with an amine and water (Guo[0078]), Guo does not teach or suggest composition with a similar structure nor formula required by claims 6 and 7. Regarding claim 9, Guo discloses a tertiary amine, however the prior art does not teach or suggest a tertiary amine comprising of monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, diisopropanolamine, monomethyl- ethanolamine, methyl diethanolamine, diethyl-monoethanolamide. Regarding claims 10 , Guo does not teach or suggest that the organic amine is a polyethylene amine. Regarding claim 11, Guo does not teach or suggest adding the organic amine in an amount of 10-30 wt.% based on the total wt. of the composition as required by the claim . It is for these reasons claims 6-7 and 9-11 are considered novel and nonobvious.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANNETTE H PHAN whose telephone number is (703)756-4520. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-6:30 EST.
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/ANNETTE PHAN/Examiner, Art Unit 1736
/ANTHONY J ZIMMER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1736