DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-9 are pending, of which claim 9 has been withdrawn.
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
Claim 9 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 3/16/26.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 3-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by WO 2020262343 (“Kikuchi”, machine translation used for citations).
Regarding claim 1, Kikuchi teaches an absorbent for absorption of liquid (see e.g. paragraph [0001]). The absorbent of Kikuchi is a composite comprising a polymer absorbent referred to “Absorbent A” and a superabsorbent polymer (see e.g. paragraph [0049]). The polymer absorbent has a hydrophilic continuous skeleton and continuous pore (see e.g. paragraph [0007]). The polymer absorbent also has -COOH and COONA groups (see e.g. paragraph [0051]). The total ion exchange capacity is more than 4.0 mg eq/g (see e.g. paragraph [0036]).
Regarding claim 3, Kikuchi teaches that the polymer absorbent has a liquid absorption of well over 30 g/g (see e.g. paragraph [0096]).
Regarding claim 4, Kikuchi teaches that the void percentage is 85% or more (see e.g. paragraph [0027]).
Regarding claim 5, Kikuchi teaches that the polymer absorbent has an average pore diameter of 1-1000 mm (see e.g. paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 6, Kikuchi teaches that the polymer absorbent can be a monolithic absorbent (see e.g. paragraph [0011]).
Regarding claim 7, Kikuchi teaches that the polymer absorbent can be a hydrolysate of a crosslinked polymer of (meth)acrylic acid ester and a divinyl compound, such as divinyl benzene (see e.g. paragraph [0051]).
Regarding claim 8, Kikuchi teaches that the superabsorbent polymer can be an acrylic acid based superabsorbent polymer in sodium form, which would therefore have a sodium cation on the surface (see e.g. paragraph [0050]).
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.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Kikuchi.
Regarding claim 2, Kikuchi does not provide the ion exchange rate for any polyvalent ion. However, Kikuchi teaches that the polymer absorbent can be butyl methacrylate crosslinked with divinyl benzene (see e.g. paragraph [0100]). This is the same polymer absorbent as described in an example of the instant application (see Specification at paragraph [0065]). As the two polymers are substantially the same, they would have the same polyvalent ion exchange rate.
As noted in MPEP 2112.01, “Where the claimed and prior art products are identical or substantially identical in structure or composition, or are produced by identical or substantially identical processes, a prima facie case of either anticipation or obviousness has been established.” Here, given the identical or nearly identical structure and composition of the polymers, the polymer of Kikuchi is considered to have the same properties and characteristics of the polymer of the instant application.
Alternatively, even in the polymer of Kikuchi is slightly different than the polymer of the instant application, given the nearly identical materials and structure, any slight differences in properties would have been obvious.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC S SHERMAN whose telephone number is (703)756-4784. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00 ET.
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/E.S.S./Examiner, Art Unit 1736
/ANTHONY J ZIMMER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1736
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