DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, claims 5-10 and 17-20, and the species of a combination of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether and neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether as the epoxide, in the reply filed on 9/25/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-4 and 11-15 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, and the non-elected epoxide species are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 9/25/2025.
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 5, 7, 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN 108276739. Because CN 108276739 is not in English, the machine-translated English equivalent is cited below and is attached, except where the original is specifically cited to (the Figures discussed below).
CN 108276739 discloses a shape memory polymer (see abstract, page 1) produced by reacting an epoxide (see E44 in Figure 1 of the originally document, which is attached) with a thiol in the presence of an organobase. Particularly, an epoxide is reacted with pentaerythritol tetra(3-mercaptopropionate) in the presence of an organobase (triethylamine). See page 5, first 2 paragraphs of the attached translation. The reaction results in formation of a polky(β-thioether). See Figure 1 of the original document.
Claims 5 and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ellson et al., “Tunable thiol-epoxy shape memory polymer foams,” Smart Materials and Structures, 24, (2015), 1-11.
Ellson et al. teach shape memory polymers produced by reacting bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BPADGE), an epoxide, with a thiol in the presence of triethyl amine, an organobase. See page 2, first paragraph under 2.1 Materials. This meets instant claims 5 and 8. The resultant product is a polky(β-thioether). This meets instant claim 9.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 10 are 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.
Claims 17-20 are allowed.
The closest prior art is that discussed above. CN 108276739 and Ellson et al. fail to disclose the use of acetone to produce the shape memory polymer as required by instant claims 10 and 17. Claims 18 and 19 depend from 17 and thus also require acetone. CN 108276739 and Ellson et al. also fail to disclose the use of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene as required by instant claims 6 and 20. CN 108276739 and Ellson et al. also fail to teach the use of 3D printing to produce the shape memory foams disclosed therein.
Additional relevant art is King et al., “Shape Memory Poly(β-hydroxythioether) Foams for Oil Remediation in Aquatic Environments,” Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2021, 13, 20641-20652. King et al. teaches formation of shape memory foam polymers by reacting epoxide, PETMP (pentaerythritol tetrakis-(mercaptopropanoic acid)) in the presence of acetone and an organobase. The epoxide is BADGE (bisphenol A diglycidyl ether). The organobase is DBU, which is 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene.
King et al. has a publication date after the effective filing date of the instantly claimed invention. The publication date of King et al. is 4/19/2021. The instantly claimed invention finds support in the Provisional Application 63/140487. Each of the elected claims (elected without traverse in the Response filed on 9/25/2025) finds support in the Provisional Application which makes the effective filing date of the instant invention 1/22/2021. This means while King et al. is relevant art, it does not qualify as prior art.
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Conclusion
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/K. BOYLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766