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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on August 13th, 2021. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the CN 202110929403.4 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In Paragraphs [0004], [0007], [0025], [0038], and [0049], “soluble” is misspelled as “soluable”.
In Paragraphs [0047], [0054], [0060], and [0066], “an ethanol solution” appears to mean “ethanol” (see rejection of Claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b)/2nd Paragraph below). If this is the intended meaning of “an ethanol solution”, this phrase should be edited to read, “ethanol”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In lines 8 and 18 of claim 1, “soluble” is misspelled as “soluable”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-4 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.
Claim 1 recites a step of “adding a water-soluable alcohol solution” in line 8. In lines 18-19, the claim recites, “the water-soluable [sic] alcohol solution is at least one selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and i-propanol;”.
Where applicant acts as his or her own lexicographer to specifically define a term of a claim contrary to its ordinary meaning, the written description must clearly redefine the claim term and set forth the uncommon definition so as to put one reasonably skilled in the art on notice that the applicant intended to so redefine that claim term. Process Control Corp. v. HydReclaim Corp., 190 F.3d 1350, 1357, 52 USPQ2d 1029, 1033 (Fed. Cir. 1999). As best understood by the Examiner, the term “solution” in claim 1 is used by the claim to mean “solvent,” while the accepted meaning is “a mixture of two or more substances uniformly dispersed throughout a single phase, so that the mixture is homogeneous at the molecular or ionic level” (Cleveland, “Dictionary of Energy (Expanded Edition) - solution”, 2009). The term is indefinite because the specification does not clearly redefine the term. If the term “solution” is intended in the claim to mean “solvent”, it is redundant, as “a water-soluble alcohol” fully describes the component. Accordingly, “an ethanol solution” in Paragraphs [0047], [0054], [0060], and [0066] should also be edited to read, “ethanol”.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the oxidant" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear whether “the oxidant” must be the same in steps (1) and (3). Notwithstanding the foregoing, “the oxidant” will be interpreted to be the same or different in steps (1) and (3) of claim 1, as individual claims are given their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification. See MPEP § 2111.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: He (CN 109142664 A) (the attached machine translation is referenced below), Byeon (KR 2014-0082099 A (the attached machine translation is referenced below), Lee (WO 9502073 A2, 1995), and Cui (CN 107904613 A) (the attached machine translation is referenced below) are considered to be the closest prior art to the instant claims.
Regarding claim 1 and its dependent claims 2-4, He teaches a method for recovering and purifying nickel from ferronickel (He, [0050]-[0077]), comprising the following steps:
mixing ferronickel with hydrochloric acid, and dissolving under heating to obtain a slurry (He, [0054], solids in solution); subjecting the slurry to solid-liquid separation to obtain a liquid phase (He, [0054], filtered on filter paper);
adding a precipitating agent and ammonia water (He, [0056], ammonium chloride and ammonia water), separating to obtain a liquid phase (He, [0056], filtered), adding ammonia water to adjust the pH (He, [0056], precipitate washed with pH=8 ammonium washing solution), and adding a water-soluble alcohol solution (He, [0065], 1 wt% solution of dimethylglyoxime in ethanol); precipitation without cooling to obtain a nickel complex crystal (He, [0065], which differs from the claimed cooling for precipitation;
wherein in step (2), the precipitating agent is an ammonia water having an ammonia mass concentration of 25-28 wt% (He, [0021], which differs from the claimed concentration of 0.01% to 0.5%;
the reaction is conducted at approximately 100°C (He, [0056], boiling a dilute aqueous solution), which differs from the claimed range of 40-80°C);
after the separating to obtain the liquid phase, the ammonia water for adjusting a pH of the liquid phase has an ammonia mass concentration of 25-28% (He, [0021]), which differs from the claimed range of 1-10%, and the ammonia water is added to adjust the pH of the liquid phase is added to adjust the pH of the liquid phase to 5 to 8 (He, [0056]), which overlaps with the claimed range of 7.8 to 8.8;
the water-soluble alcohol solution is ethanol (He, [0065]);
the nickel complex crystal comprises dimethylglyoxime (He, [0015]), which differs from the group consisting of Ni(NH3)2Cl2, Ni(NH3)3Cl2, Ni(NH3)4Cl2, Ni(NH3)5Cl2, and Ni(NH3)6Cl2.
He does not teach adding an oxidant to the liquid phase in step (1) to obtain a hydrochloric acid-leaching liquor. However, this is a conventional step in the art for removing iron components from acidic nickel hydrochloric acid solutions (Cui, [009]; Byeon, [0006]; Lee, Claim 1) and would have been obvious to incorporate into He’s method to improve iron removal.
Neither He nor the other cited prior art references teach or suggest a step (3) of dissolving the nickel complex crystal, and adding an oxidant; subjecting a resulting mixture to a light treatment, and adjusting the pH with an acid to obtain a nickel chloride solution. In addition to the differences between He and the instant claims discussed above, this principal difference renders the claim non-obvious over all of the cited prior art references. The claim therefore contains allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZACHARY J. BAUM whose telephone number is (571)270-0895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00.
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/ZACHARY JOHN BAUM/Examiner, Art Unit 1736
/ANTHONY J ZIMMER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1736