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 .
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.
Status of Application
Claims 1-20 are pending and presented for examination. Claims 12-14 and 16-20 were elected with traverse in the response dated 28 July 2026. As such claims 1-11 and 15 are withdrawn. The traversal is that Niu does not disclose the newly claimed length of at least 0.01 mm as Niu discloses at most one micron, which is persuasive. However, the art cited infra is sufficient to still show a lack of unity a posteriori. As such, THIS RESTRICTION REQUIREMENT IS MADE FINAL.
Claim Objections
Claims 16-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 16-20 all recite “The method of claim 12”, but claim 12 is a product, so they should read “The batch of porous catalytic carrier filaments of claim 12 . . .”. Claim 16 also recites “comprises . . . and combinations thereof”, it appears this should read --or combinations thereof—and this is how is being construed. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 12, 13, 16, 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated WO2005058757 to Shuji et al. (hereinafter, “Shuji at __”; citations to the attached English machine translation).
Regarding claims 12 and 16, Shuji discloses a porous inorganic body (silica, Shuji at 1) fiber for catalyst carrying (Shuji at first paragraph of the Description) made of silica (Shuji at “Abstract”) having an average pore volume of 0.1-1.5 mL/g, a length of 5-90 microns, and an aspect ratio of 70-300.
As to claim 13, the material is a fiber so it meets columnar shape.
Turning to claim 17, the surface area is 200-500 m2/g (“Abstract”).
With respect to claim 20, the diameter is 0.05-50 microns (Id.).
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, 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.
Claims 12, 13 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub No. 20170275221 to Aida et al. (hereinafter, “Aida at __”).
Regarding claims 12 and 20, Aida discloses an inorganic filament porous body for supporting catalysts (Aida at “Table 4”) comprising an aspect ratio of 5-200k (Aida at [0071]), a diameter of 50 nm to 50 microns so a length of 250 nm to 25 microns to 200,000x that which makes this length a prima facie case of obviousness as it is overlapped, see MPEP 2144.05) and a pore volume of at least 0.1 cc/g (Aida at “Table 4”).
With respect to claim 13, a tube shape is employed (Aida at [0044]).
As to claim 16, the material is silica (Aida at [0059]).
Turning to claim 17, the SSA is 37.2 m2/g (Aida at “Table 4”).
Regarding claim 18, the packing density is 0.797 g/cc (Id.).
Turning to claim 19, the envelope density is based on an arbitrary volume, given that porosity is 69.9% of the overall volume, the envelope density would be 69.9% of the bulk density which would be 0.699*0.764=0.53g/cc (“Table 4”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
As to claim 14, none of the cited prior art, either alone or in combination, discloses or reasonably suggests AR90 and AR10 values such that (AR90-AR10)/AR50 can be calculated.
Conclusion
Claims 12, 13 and 16-20 are rejected. Claim 14 is objected to.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M RUMP whose telephone number is (571)270-5848. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 06:45 AM to 04:45 PM.
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RICHARD M. RUMP
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1759
/RICHARD M RUMP/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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