Claims 1-25 are pending in this application.
DETAILED ACTION
1 This action is responsive to the applicant’s election received by the office on February 06, 2026. Election of claims 1-5 is acknowledged. Claims 6-25 are withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention. Therefore, claims 1-5 are pending in this application.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2 The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4 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.
5 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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Foster et al. (US 20170051234 A1) as evidence by Waterhouse et al. (US 2008/0287426 A1).
Foster et al. (US’ 234 A1) teaches antimicrobial composition (see page 25, 0269) comprising pyrithione derivatives in the amount of 1-7% by wt., which is overlapped the claimed range, and wherein the pyrithione derivatives include sodium pyrithione (see page 7, paragraph, 0060), and wherein the antimicrobial composition comprises fatty oleyl glycerol sulfate (sulfated fatty alcohol) anionic surfactant (softener) in the amount of about 10 wt., % to about 30 wt., % as claimed in claims 2 and 5 (see page 19, paragraph, 0204 and page 20, paragraph, 0218), wherein the antimicrobial composition also comprises 20 to 30% wt., of reverse EO PO block copolymer as a binder (see Waterhouse et al. US’ 426 A1, paragraph, 0117) and water as claimed in claim 1 (see page 5, Table 7), and wherein the binders also include acrylic acid polymer (polyacrylic) as claimed in claim 4 (see page 5, Table 7) and wherein the antimicrobial composition is free from heavy metal as claimed in claim 3 (see page 5, Table 7).
The teaching of Foster et al. (US’ 234 A1) differs the instant claims by teaching an antimicrobial composition comprising ingredients in the percentage amounts that overlapped with the claimed percentage amounts.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to optimize the amounts of the ingredients in the antimicrobial composition in order to get the maximum effective amount of these ingredients, and, thus, the person of the ordinary skill in the art would expect such amicrobial composition to have similar property to those claimed, absent unexpected result.
Conclusion
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/EISA B ELHILO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761