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 .
Claims 1-3, 5-9, 11-15 and 17-21 are pending in the application.
This action is in response to applicants' amendment dated March 6, 2026. Claims 1, 6, 13-15, 17 and 19-21 have been amended and claims 10 and 22 have been canceled.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments filed March 6, 2026 have been fully considered with the following effect:
The applicants’ amendments are sufficient to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph rejection, labeled paragraph 1) in the last office action, which is hereby withdrawn.
The applicant's amendments and arguments are sufficient to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph rejections, labeled paragraph 2a) and b) in the last office action, which are hereby withdrawn.
The applicant's amendments and arguments are sufficient to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1), anticipation rejection, labeled paragraph 3) in the last office action, which is hereby withdrawn.
With regards to the 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1), anticipation rejection, labeled paragraph 4) in the last office action, the applicant's arguments have been fully considered, however they were not found persuasive. The applicants’ stated that Pan does not qualify as prior art against the instant application. Applicant respectfully submits that Pan is not prior art to the present application because Pan is a non-patent literature with a publication date of November 15, 2021. The instant application is a U.S. National Phase Application Under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/US2022/013276, filed on January 21, 2022, and claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/140,533 filed January 22, 2021. Accordingly, Pan fails to qualify as prior art to the instant application because the earliest effective priority date pre-dates publication of the reference.
The applicants are reminded that the earliest priority date of the instant application (January 22, 2022; which corresponds to the filing date of PCT/US2022/013276). The applicants are not entitled to benefit of application 63/140,533, which does not provide clear support (description and enablement) of the claimed subject matter. Note for benefit under 35 USC 119, there must be clear support (description and enablement) for claims instantly rejected herein as was set forth in in re Scheiber 199 USPQ 782; In re Lukach, 169 USPQ 795; In re Gostelli, 10 USPQ 2nd 1614; Kawai v. Metlesics 178 USPQ 159.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-9, 11-15 and 17-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pan et al., PNAS, for reasons of record and stated above.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENDA L COLEMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-0665. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10-6 (flex).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey H. Murray can be reached at 571-272-9023. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRENDA L COLEMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1624
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