DETAILED ACTION
This communication responds to the application and amended claim set filed April 12, 2023, and the Response to Restriction Requirement filed December 8, 2025. Claims 1-10 are currently pending claims 1-6 are under examination.
Non-elected claims 7-10 are WITHDRAWN.
Elected claims 1-6 are REJECTED for the reasons set forth below.
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
Applicant’s election of Group I, claims 1-6, in the reply filed on December 8, 2025 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse. (MPEP § 818.01(a).)
Priority
This application is the national stage entry of PCT/JP2021/022639, filed June 15, 2021, which claims priority to JP 2020-174421, filed October 16, 2020. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kagura et al. (JP 2000-198809).
Regarding claims 1, 5, and 6, Kagura teaches storing an aqueous solution of polyacrylic acid at 50°C for three months. (Test Ex. 1; Ex. 1.) The PAA of Example 1 is a homopolymer with a weight average molecular weight of 8000. (Ex. 1.) In addition, no pH or neutralization agent is added to the PAA aqueous solution – either during or after polymerization – which indicates that the carboxylic acid groups are not neutralized, and that the degree of neutralization is minimal. (Cf. Ex. 2, in which NaOH is added to the PAA solution to (partially) neutralize the acid groups.)
Regarding claims 2 and 4, the PAA of Example 1 is polymerized in the presence of tetraethylene glycol dimercaptan and sodium hypophosphite. (Ex. 1.) Kagura discloses that tetraethylene glycol dimercaptan is a chain transfer agent. In addition, sodium hypophosphite is a known chain transfer or molecular weight control agent in acrylic acid polymerizations. (See, e.g., Rife et al. (US 2,789,099) col. 2, line 71 – col. 3, line 4.)
Regarding claim 3, Ex. 1 of Kagura includes 5 parts tetraethylene glycol dimercaptan and 20 parts NaPO2H2, for a total of 0.025 mol chain transfer agents. The acrylic acid monomer is present in the amount of 575 parts of an 80% aqueous solution, or 6.39 mol, resulting in the chain transfer agents being present in the amount of 3.9 mol%, relative to the amount of acrylic acid monomer.
Conclusion
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CATHERINE S. BRANCH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1763
/CATHERINE S BRANCH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763