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 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.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN106518608 (hereafter CN’608).
Claim 1
CN’608 discloses a method for hydrogenating a phthalate compound comprising introducing a hydrogen-containing gas phase and a phthalate-containing liquid phase into a reaction vessel and hydrogenating the phthalate compound in the presence of a metal-supported catalyst (see CN’608, paragraphs [0043] – [0048], Fig. 1, reaction vessel 6; Example 3).
CN’608 further discloses discharging the reaction product from the reaction vessel and separating the reaction product in a first gas-liquid separation tank operated at a higher pressure (medium-pressure gas-liquid separation tank 7), thereby separating a gas phase containing hydrogen from a liquid solution (paragraphs [0049] – [0051], Fig. 1).
CN’608 further discloses separating the liquid solution discharged from the first gas-liquid separation tank in a second gas-liquid separation tank operated at a lower pressure (low-pressure gas-liquid separation tank 9), thereby separating a gas phase containing hydrogen from a liquid solution (paragraphs [0051] – [0054], Fig. 1).
When a reaction product is transferred from a reaction vessel to a first gas-liquid separation tank, and subsequently to a second gas-liquid separation tank operated at a lower pressure, the pressure of the mixture is necessarily reduced.
Accordingly, the disclosed first and second gas-liquid separation steps include a first depressurizing separation and a second depressurizing separation, as recited in claim 1.
Claim 2
Claim 2 depends from claim 1 and further specifies conditions of the gas-liquid separation. CN’608 discloses operating conditions for the medium-pressure and low-pressure gas-liquid separation tanks (paragraphs [0050] – [0054]).
Claim 3
Claim 3 further recites recycling hydrogen separated in the gas-liquid separation steps. CN’608 expressly discloses recycling hydrogen recovered from the gas-liquid separation tanks back to the reaction system (paragraphs [0053] – [0056], Fig. 1).
Claim 4
Claim 4 further specifies characteristics of the separated liquid solution. Such characteristics are inherent properties of the liquid solution obtained after gas-liquid separation as disclosed in CN’608 (paragraphs [0051] – [0055]).
Claim 6
Claim 6 further limits the hydrogenation step by specifying catalyst or reaction conditions. CN’608 discloses hydrogenation using a metal-supported catalyst under controlled reaction conditions (paragraphs [0044] – [0048], Example 3).
Claims 13 and 14
Claims 13 and 14 are system claims corresponding to the method of claim 1 and recite a reaction vessel and first and second gas-liquid separation tanks. CN’608 discloses the same structural arrangement, including reaction vessel 6, medium-pressure gas-liquid separation tank 7, and low-pressure gas-liquid separation tank 9 (Fig. 1; paragraphs [0043] – [0056]).
In addition, optimizing the ratio of the carrier to the metal in the metal-supported catalyst and adjusting the pressure in the gas-liquid separation tank to adjust the hydrogen concentration and the like are merely matters that could have been appropriately performed by a person skilled in the art, and even with reference to the description of the present application, it is not deemed that the effect of specifying them is particularly remarkable beyond the prediction of a person skilled in the art. Thus, the inventions according to Claims 5 and 7-12 of the present application could have been easily made by a person skilled in the art based on the invention described in CN’608.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim 5 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 5 is dependent on Claim 1 and specifies that "the hydrogenation reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalyst", but Claim 1 recites "a step of subjecting a gas-phase raw material and a liquid-phase raw material to a hydrogenation reaction in the presence of a catalyst in the reactor" regarding the hydrogenation reaction, and it has already been specified that the hydrogenation reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalyst, but it is unclear whether the hydrogenation reaction in Claim 5 is intended to be a different reaction from or the same as the hydrogenation reaction in Claim 1, and as a result, the scope of the invention is unclear.
Therefore, the invention according to Claim 5 is unclear. (If the hydrogenation reaction in the presence of the catalyst of Claim 5 and the hydrogenation reaction in the presence of the catalyst of Claim 1 are the same).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEBORAH D CARR whose telephone number is (571)272-0637. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (10:30 am -7:00 pm).
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/DEBORAH D CARR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1691