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 .
Status of the Application
Applicant's election without traverse of Group I, drawn to a compound of formula I, in the reply filed 12/29/25 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-9, 11-12 are pending. Claims 11-12 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Claims 1-9 are examined herein insofar as they read on the elected invention and species.
Applicant's election with traverse of compound 20 in the reply filed on 12/29/2025 is also acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground that a search burden has not been established. This is not found persuasive because the restriction was made under the PCT Rule 13.1, which does not require a search burden to be demonstrated.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
A search has been performed on the elected species, which was found free of the prior art. The search will now be expanded and another species will be selected for examination. With regard to the expanded species selected by examiner for examination, claims 5, 7-8 have been withdrawn from further consideration as being drawn to a non-elected species. Claims 1-4, 6, 9 are examined herein insofar as they read on the elected invention and the expanded species.
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 1-4, 6, 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by James et al. (“Synthesis, Biological Evaluation, and Preliminary Structure-Activity Considerations of a Series of Alkylphenols as Intravenous Anesthetic Agents,” J. Med. Chem. 1980, 23, 1350-1357, of record).
James et al. teach a series of promising alkylphenols as anesthetic agents (abstract). A preferred embodiment is compound 59 (below), where R is CH(CH3)C2H5 and R1 is CH3 (scheme III on page 1352). Water was used to prepare solutions for intravenous injection containing the test compound (page 1357, left column, first full paragraph).
PNG
media_image1.png
142
284
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Yong S. Chong whose telephone number is (571)-272-8513. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday: 9 AM to 5 PM EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Adam Milligan, can be reached at (571)-270-7674. 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).
/Yong S. Chong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1623
Prosecution Insights