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 .
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uchida et al. (WO 2021/002484, which corresponds to US 2023/0012374). The reference teaches crystals pyroxasulfone for use as an herbicide (see Example 3, page 86). The claimed method in claim 1 differs by requiring the soil to be treated to have “a clay content of less than 15% and a sand content of not less than 65%” and claim 2 differs by requiring in addition to the soli limitation to have an agrochemical formulation obtained through a step of pulverizing a powder or slurry containing crystals of pyroxasulfone. The reference is silent on the nature of soil and does not measure the amount of clay and/or sand of the soil being treated. However, one skilled in the art would be motivated to use crystals of pyroxasulfone to control weeds in any type of soil, including soil that has clay content of less than 15% and a sand content of not less than 65% as instantly specified in the claims, because the reference teaches the usefulness of crystals of pyroxasulfone as an herbicide with the expectation of achieving similar results. Requiring pulverized or a slurry in an agrochemical formulation is routine in the art to disperse agrochemicals.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRUCK KIFLE whose telephone number is (571)272-0668. The examiner can normally be reached 8 AM - 6 PM, M-F.
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March 10, 2026
/BRUCK KIFLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1624
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