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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I, claims 1-9, in the reply filed on February 13, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 10 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 February 13, 2026.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCarthy et al. (US 2011/0027889) in view of Haneda et al. (WO 2019/131978). Note: US Pat. 12,180,450 is being used as an English language alternative for WO 2019/131978.
Considering Claims 1, 3, and 4: McCarthy et al. teaches a microcarrier for culturing cells comprising a base particle (¶0047) and a coating layer on the base particle that can be a polyvinyl alcohol (¶0049), where a polypeptide is conjugated to the coating (¶0009), where the microcarrier has an average particle size of 20 to 1000 microns and a geometric size distribution of 1 to 1.4/coefficient of variation of 0 to 40% (¶0044).
McCarthy et al. does not teach the coating as being a polyvinyl acetal. However, Haneda et al. teaches a coating for cell cultures comprising a polyvinyl butyral (7:25-61) grafted with amine and/or amide groups (11:4-42). McCarthy et al. and Haneda et al. are analogous art as they are concerned with the same field of endeavor, namely cell culture coatings. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have used the polyvinyl acetal of Haneda et al. as the coating polymer of McCarthy et al., and the motivation to do so would have been, as Haneda et al. suggests, to increase the strength of the polyvinyl alcohol polymer of McCarthy et al. (7:4-21).
Considering Claim 2: The Office realizes that all of the claimed effects or physical properties are not positively stated by the reference(s). However, the reference(s) teaches all of the claimed ingredients, in the claimed amounts, and teaches the composition as being made by a substantially similar process. The original specification does not provide any disclosure on how to obtain the claimed properties outside the components of the composition itself. Therefore, the claimed effects and physical properties, i.e. the water absorption, would necessarily arise from a composition with all the claimed ingredients in the claimed amounts. "Products of identical chemical composition can not have mutually exclusive properties." In re Spada, 911 F.2d 705, 709, 15 USPQ2d 1655, 1658 (Fed. Cir. 1990). A chemical composition and its properties are inseparable. Therefore, if the prior art teaches the identical chemical structure, the properties applicant discloses and/or claims are necessarily present. If it is the applicant’s position that this would not be the case: (1) evidence would need to be provided to support the applicant’s position; and (2) it would be the Office’s position that the application contains inadequate disclosure that there is no teaching enabling a person of ordinary skill in the art to obtain the claimed properties with only the claimed ingredients, absent undue experimentation.
Considering Claim 5: McCarthy et al. teaches the density of the microcarrier as being 1.01 to 1.10 g/cm3 (¶0043).
Considering Claims 6-8: McCarthy et al. teaches the base particle as being a polymethylmethacrylate (¶0047).
Considering Claim 9: McCarthy et al. teaches the polypeptide as having cell adhesion activity (¶0091).
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIAM J HEINCER whose telephone number is (571)270-3297. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mark Eashoo can be reached at 571-272-1197. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LIAM J HEINCER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1767