DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/264,213. Claims 1, 4-8, 10-20, 22 are pending in the application. Claims 10-17, 19, 20 have been withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
The applicant’s amendment filed August 21, 2026 has been entered.
The previous grounds of rejection are withdrawn in light of the applicant’s amendment.
Rejoinder
The restriction requirement as to claims 5, 7, 18 is withdrawn and the claims are rejoined for examination.
Claims 10-12, 19, 20 cannot be rejoined because they are drawn to a different invention having a different structure from the composition of claim 1.
Claims 13-17 cannot be rejoined because they do not require all the limitations of claim 1. In particular, the amount of dispersant is different in the monomer composition and the Markush group for the dispersant and the inhibitor do not apply to the monomer composition.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4, 6-8, 18, 22 are allowable over the closest prior art of Tong (US 2005/0139807) in view of Clever (US 5,710,329). The references do not teach an amount of anti-fouling dispersant of 10-50 wt %.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. § 112 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(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.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because it is inconsistent with claim 1. Claim 1 requires TEMPO and/or its derivatives and HQ and/or PTZ. This limitation has been interpreted to require TEMPO and/or its derivatives and at least one of HQ and PTZ. Two inhibitors are required. Whereas claim 5 requires TEMPO and/or its derivatives, HQ and/or PTZ, which could be interpreted as requiring TEMPO, HQ or PTZ. Thus claim 5 requires only one inhibitor. The same applies to TEMPO, MEHQ and/or copper salt in claim 5.
Response to Arguments
The previous grounds of rejection are withdrawn in light of the applicant’s amendment.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 September 16, 2026
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