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 .
Applicant's election with traverse of Group 1, claims 1-9 and 11-20 in the reply filed on June 11 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the drying of methyl mercaptan is the special technical feature of the present invention. This is not found persuasive because the non-elected claim is drawn to producing a methyl mercaptan.
Claim 10 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on June 11, 2026.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim 11 is 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.
The claim recites a stream (F) comprising the dried mercaptan is recovered, but the fundamental composition, characteristics and boundaries of what is entailed in stream (F) are completely unclear. The term comprising leaves the boundaries of stream (F) open ended, creating an impermissible zone of uncertainty for a person having ordinary skill in the art. Because an azeotrope cannot exist in a vacuum without specific thermodynamic conditions, chemical components, and concentration thresholds, claiming the broad functional result of “azeotropic distillation” without these attendant limitations leaves the claim indefinite. A person ordinary skill in the art must guess at what specific physical and chemical boundaries infringe the claim.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Hofen et al (US 5,866,721) is considered the closest prior art differs from the present claims by the specific separation process of methyl mercaptan from water: the dried methyl mercaptan is recovered at the bottom of the distillation column while methyl mercaptan with water is recovered at the head of the distillation column and is then separated.
As such, Hofen in focusing on the separation process of the gas mixture obtained after the reaction of methanol with H2S, fails to acknowledge, let alone resolve, the technical problem of more efficiently drying methyl mercaptan. This lack of acknowledgement and different focus precludes any effort to extrapolate the asserted reference toward the claim invention. Moreover, it precludes achieving the multiple advantages associated with the claimed invention.
For instance, after Hofen different separation steps explained above, Figure 2 of Hofen shows that the stream 45 is obtained at the end of the liquid-liquid separation step. The composition of the stream 45 is given in col. 9 (first table): the stream 45 contains 0.37% of water (meaning 3700 ppm).
With the process of the invention, a dried methyl mercaptan, with less than 1500 ppm of water can be readily produced under embodiments of the claimed invention. For instance, the example of the application as filed shows that a methyl mercaptan with less than 10 ppm of water.
Claims 1-9 and 12-20 are allowed.
Claim 10 is drawn to non-elected claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAFAR F PARSA whose telephone number is (571)272-0643. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00 AM-6:30PM.
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/JAFAR F PARSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1692
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