Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/251,684

COSMETIC COMPOSITION FOR THE TREATMENT OF KERATINIC FIBERS AND METHOD COMPRISING THE APPLICATION OF SAID COMPOSITION TO THE KERATINIC FIBERS

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
May 03, 2023
Examiner
PROSSER, ALISSA J
Art Unit
1619
Tech Center
1600 — Biotechnology & Organic Chemistry
Assignee
Jean Paul Myne' Srl
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
16%
Grant Probability
At Risk
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 6m
To Grant
28%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants only 16% of cases
16%
Career Allow Rate
77 granted / 482 resolved
-44.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +12% lift
Without
With
+12.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 6m
Avg Prosecution
70 currently pending
Career history
552
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.5%
-37.5% vs TC avg
§103
45.8%
+5.8% vs TC avg
§102
9.6%
-30.4% vs TC avg
§112
26.0%
-14.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 482 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
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. DETAILED ACTION Claims 1 and 3 -12 are under consideration. Election /Restrictions Applicant's election with out traverse of Group I, claims 1-12, drawn to compositions comprising a C12 or lower carboxylic acid, a fluoropolymer, an alkoxylated polyamine and water in the reply filed on September 4, 2025 is acknowledged. Applicant’s election with out traverse of the species dihydroxyacetic acid, perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone and PPG-70 VIS-(2-aminopropyl) ether in the reply filed on March 16, 2026 is acknowledged. The election read s on claims 1 and 3-12 . Claim s 2 and 13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to nonelected invention s , there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Claims 1 and 3 -12 as filed on May 3, 2023 are pending and under consideration to the extent of the elected species, e.g., the at least one aliphatic C1-C11 carboxylic acid, salt, derivative or mixture thereof is “ dihydroxyacetic acid,” the at least one perfluoroacrylate or/and perfluorosilicone is “ perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone” and the at least one alkoxylated amine is “PPG-70 bis -(2-aminopropyl) ether” . Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 3, 2023 was considered. Specification The disclosure is objected to because it contains embedded hyperlink s and/or other form s of browser-executable code (e.g., pages 7, 9, 11, 29) . Applicant is required to delete the embedded hyperlink s and/or other form s of browser-executable code; references to websites should be limited to the top-level domain name without any prefix such as http:// or other browser-executable code. See MPEP § 608.01. The use of terms such as JEFFAMINE (e.g., page 7), which is a trade name or a mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The terms should be accompanied by the generic terminology ; furthermore the term s should be capitalized wherever they appear or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term . Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks. Claim Objections Claim s 1 , 3- 5 , 11 and 12 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 1(a) : “ the” should be deleted from “the saturated and unsaturated aliphatic carboxylic acids” . Claim 1(c) : “ and mixtures thereof” should presumably be deleted because it is duplicative of “at least one”. Claim 1(c): a coordinating conjunction, e.g., “and”, should be inserted after the clause. Claim 3 : “ maleic” should presumably recite “maleic acid” consistent with the formatting of the claim. Claim 3: glyoxylic acid and dihydroxyacetic acid are synonyms. Claim 4 : “ 0,25” should presumably recite “0.25”. Claim 5: the duplicate recitations of perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone and of C12-16 alkyl PEG-7 methacrylate/ perfluorohexylethyl methacrylate should be deleted. Claim 5: the recitation of C6-14 perfluoroalkylethyl acrylate/HEMA copolymer is presumably an incomplete transcription of C6-14 perfluoroalkylethyl /HEMA/ perfluorohexylethyl methacrylate crosspolymer as also recited in claim 5 and as disclosed at page 7. Claim 11: a basis should be included for determining the percentage, e.g., by weight, consistent with claims 4, 6 and 8. Claim 12: a coordinating conjunction, e.g., “or”, should be inserted before the recitation of “creams”. Appropriate correction is required. Priority Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 (b) 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 appl icant regards as his invention. Claim s 1 and 3 -12 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claim 1 recites in (a) the saturated and unsaturated aliphatic carboxylic acids. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 3 -12 are included in this rejection because they depend from claim 1 and thus also encompass the embodiment under rejection. Claim s 3 and 4 recite the carboxylic acid. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the carboxylic acid because the antecedent recites at least one carboxylic acid and it is unclear whether the carboxylic acid references one, more than one or all of the at least one encompassed by the antecedent. Claim 3 recites a first embodiment and a second preferable embodiment. Description of examples and preferences is properly set forth in the specification rather than in a single claim. If stated in a single claim, examples and preferences lead to confusion over the intended scope of the claim . Because it is not clear whether the preferred acids are required by the claim, claim 3 is indefinite. See MPEP 2173.05(c). Claim s 4 , 6 , 8 and 10 recite a first range, a second preferable range and a third more preferable range. Because it is not clear whether the preferred range(s) are required by the claims, claims 4, 6 , 8 and 10 are indefinite. See MPEP 2173.05(c). Claim 10 recites the at least one cosmetically acceptable ingredient. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claim 10 may properly depend from claim 9. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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 of this title, 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. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co. , 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness . Claim s 1 and 3 -12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sow (FR 3,058,055, published May 4, 2018, as evidenced by the Google translation) as evidenced by CAS, printed 2026 in view of Giacomoni et al. (US 2011/0044919, published February 24, 2011) . Sow teaches compositions for smoothing keratin fibers, in particular hair, comprising one or more diamines chosen from polyoxyalkylenated diamines (title; abstract; claims, in particular 1, 4 ; page 3, middle ; pages 13-14, Examples ). The compositions comprise 1 to 50 wt %, preferably 2 to 30 wt % of the diamines (claim 5), as required by instant claims 8, 11 . In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990) . See MPEP 2144.05. The diamines are chosen from compounds of formula (I) (claim 2; page 6 original document): w herein n, p and q independently vary from 0 to 100. Exemplary polyoxyalkylenated diamines include those sold under the brand JEFFAMINE inclusive of poly( propylene glycol) bis (2-aminopropyl ether) (page 4, top half) , as required by instant claim 7 , The compositions may further comprise one or more carboxylic acids (claim 7). The carboxylic acid is preferably glyoxylic acid ( dihydroxyacetic acid as evidenced by CAS ) (claim 9), as required by instant claim 3 . The compositions comprise 1 to 30 wt % of the carboxylic acids (claim 10), as required by instant claims 4, 11 . The compositions may further comprise one or more silicones (page 6, lower half through page 10, top half). The compositions comprise 0.1 to 30 wt % of the silicones (page 10, top half), as required by instant claims 6, 11 . The compositions comprise 10 to 90 wt % water (page 12, lower half). The compositions have a pH from 0.5 to 11 (page 12, lower half). The compositions may further comprise additives such as thickeners ( viscosity control substances ) and sunscreens ( UV filter ) (page 12, lower half), as required by instant claim 9 . These additives can be present from 0 to 50 wt % (page 12, lower half), as required by instant claim 10 . The compositions can b e in the form of inter alia a cream (page 12, lower half), as required by instant claim 12 . Sow does not specifically teach at least one fluorinated polymer selected from perfluorosilicone polymers as required by claim 1 and the elected embodiment thereof. Sow does not specifically teach perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone as required by claim 5 and the elected embodiment thereof. These deficiencies are made up for in the teachings of Giacomoni . Giacomoni teaches compositions with perfluorinated ingredients (title; abstract; claims). Fluorinated materials are known to provide gloss and fluorinated silicones are known to impart long wear and transfer resistance (paragraph [0005]). Exemplary perfluorinated ingredients include perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone (paragraph [0052]), as required by instant claim 5 . The perfluorinated ingredients are compatibilized with cosmetic compositions with an aromatic component such as a sunscreen (abstract; claims 1, 13; paragraphs [0005] -[ 0006]). The compositions may be aqueous and may comprise about 0.1 to 90 wt % of the perfluorinated ingredient (paragraphs [0018] -[ 0019], [0055], [0082]; Example 4). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the compositions of Sow for smoothing keratin fibers, in particular hair, to comprise a perfluorinated ingredient inclusive a fluorinated silicone inclusive of perfluorononylethyl carboxydecyl PEG-10 dimethicone as taught by Giacomoni in order impart gloss and long wear. There would be a reasonable expectation of success because Sow embraces the presence of silicones. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT ALISSA PROSSER whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-5164 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT M - Th, 10 am - 6 pm . If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT DAVID BLANCHARD can be reached on FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-0827 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /ALISSA PROSSER/ Examiner, Art Unit 1619 /ANNA R FALKOWITZ/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1600
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Prosecution Timeline

May 03, 2023
Application Filed
Dec 31, 2025
Response Filed
Mar 26, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103, §112 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
16%
Grant Probability
28%
With Interview (+12.3%)
3y 6m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 482 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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