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 .
Claim Status
The amended claim set filed on 7 April 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 1-20 are currently pending. Of those, claims 4-5 and 11 are amended. There are no new claims, and claims 11-20 are withdrawn. No claims are cancelled. Claims 1-10 will be examined on the merits herein.
Response to Amendment
Applicants’ arguments filed 7 April 2026 are acknowledged. For clarity, in this action, said arguments will be referred to as “Remarks” and the Non-Final Office Action mailed 9 January 2026 will be referred to as “NFOA”.
Rejection(s) Withdrawn
The rejection of claims 5 and 8-9 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) is withdrawn in view of the claim amendments.
The rejection of claim 4 under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) is withdrawn in view of the Applicants’ statement that the deposited strain will be publicly available upon issuance of a patent (Remarks, pg. 8).
New Rejection(s)
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a)
Claim 5 is newly rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. This is a new matter rejection.
Claim 5 has been amended to recite “an open variant of outer membrane ferric siderophore transporter FhuA, wherein the N-terminal plug domain of FhuA and four large external loops are removed,” but there does not appear to be a written description of the claim limitation “N-terminal plug domain” in the application as filed.
Para. 192 of the instant specification describes an FhuA transporter which is rendered non-selective through “removal of a terminal plug domain and four large external loops,” but the specification does not teach which terminus to which the plug is attached.
Applicant has pointed out para. 214 (Remarks pg. 6) as supporting this amendment. However, para. 214 does not describe the FhuA transporter or its open variant.
Accordingly, the newly added limitation constitutes new matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4 and 6-10 are allowed.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAILEY M MORGAN whose telephone number is (703)756-5388. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SAMIRA JEAN-LOUIS can be reached at (571) 270-3503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BAILEY M MORGAN/Examiner, Art Unit 1645
/SAMIRA J JEAN-LOUIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1642
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