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. Abstract Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format of an Abstract of the Disclosure. The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 250 words. The printer will no longer accept Abstracts that are more than 25 lines, regardless of the number of words. The form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as "means" and "said", should be avoided. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details. The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, "The disclosure concerns," "The disclosure defined by this invention," "The disclosure describes," etc. Claim Objections Claims 27-46 should be rewritten using American English spellings instead of European or British spellings for clarity . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claim(s) 27-46 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO2022/171877 in view of EP1120394 and further in view of EP1672000. Applicant(s) claim 27 is directed to: A method for preparing a polymer comprising constitutional units derived from bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), said method comprising carrying out a polymerization reaction using a recycled BHET product comprising isophthalic acid (IPA), wherein the IPA is present in an amount of up to 0.5 % by weight, wherein the recycled BHET product is obtainable from a PET recycling process comprising the steps of:(a) depolymerizing PET in the presence of ethylene glycol and a catalyst system in a series of depolymerization reactors to form a depolymerized mixture comprising bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET); (b) crystallizing a precipitate comprising BHET by removing a volatiles stream comprising ethylene glycol from the depolymerized mixture using evaporation crystallization ; (c) dissolving the precipitate in a protic solvent to form a solution comprising BHET; (d) removing impurities from the solution to form a purified solution comprising BHET; and (e) crystallizing a purified product comprising BHET from the purified solution, wherein the purified product comprising BHET is the recycled BHET product and further wherein the method comprises providing the recycled BHET product by carrying out the PET recycling process. WO2022171877 discloses depolymerization using a series of depolymerization reactors and the use of aprotic solvents for recrystallizing crude depolymerizing products in the presence of ethylene glycol in a series of depolymerization reactors to produce a crude BHET-containing product, dissolving the product in a protic solvent , removing impurities , recrystallizing BHET and subsequently polymerizing the purified BHET. The reference therefore teaches steps: (a), (c), (d), (e), and polymerization as recited in the claimed invention. WO2022171877 does not disclose crystallizing a precipitate comprising BHET by removing a volatiles stream compromising ethylene glycol using evaporation crystallization prior to dissolution in a protic solvent . However, evaporative removal of ethylene glycol from glycolysis mixture to recover BHET as a solid is routine solvent recovery and purification technique in polyester recycling processes. Note for example, EP1120394 discloses purification of BHET solutions using cation and anion exchange resins. The secondary reference show that crystallization and recrystallization of BHET obtained from glycolysis are conventional purification steps. The refernece teaches polymerization of recycled BHET. Moreover, note EP1672000 discloses polymerization of BHET including recycled BHET containing limited amounts of isophthalic acid (IPS). This reference teaches polymerization of recycled BHET. Thus, in view of the above, i t would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to remove ethylene glycol from the depolymerized mixture of WO2022171877 by evaporation into recover BHET prior to dissolution and recrystallization as predictable purification modification. With regard to claim 2 8 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to select an isophthalic acid amount of up to 0.2% as a routine optimization of impurity levels in recycled BHET, since WO2022171877 recognizes that the IPA content varies in recycled BHET and must be controlled for polymer production. With regard to claim 2 9 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to omit measuring IPA in the purified BHET prior to polymerization as an obvious process simplification one purification steps are performed. With regard to claim 3 0 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to omit measuring IPA during polymerization as an obvious monitoring choice in view of the prior purification and control of impurity levels. With regard to claim 3 1 , it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to prepare a polyethylene terephthalate homopolymer because EP1672000 discloses polymerization of BHET including recycled BHET containing limited amounts of isophthalic acid and the polyme ri z a tion of BHET to produce PET. With regard to claim 3 2 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to prepare a PET copolymer since copolymerization of terephthalate monomers with additional comonomers is conditional in polyester production. Copolymerization of terephthalate monomers with additional comonomers is shown in EP1672000 . With regard to claim 3 3 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to prepare the copolymer from a monomer mixture containing at least 25% recycled BHET as a routine selection of feed ratio in recycling-based polymerization processes. With regard to claim 3 4 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate comonomers such as IPA, DEG, butanediol, propanediol, or CHDM because such comonomers are conventionally used in PET copolymer production to modify polymer properties. With regard to claim 3 5 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include IPA in the monomer mixture in an amount of 0.5 to 30% as a routine selection of comon o mer concentration in PET copolymer sy st ems. With regard to claim 3 6 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add IPA in isolated form to the monomer mixture as a conventional method of introducing comonomers into polyester polymerization processes. With regard to claim 3 7 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to blend the recycled BHET with a second BHET product prior to polymerization as an ordinary blending technique to achieve desired monomer composition. With regard to claim 3 8 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention o be recycled to also blend the second BHET, as blending different recycled streams is a routine practice in polymer feed preparation. With regard to claim 3 9 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to blend BHET streams with particular ratios to achieve a target IPA concentration as routine optimization. With regard to claim 4 0 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to conduct polymerization at 200-350C, under vacuum, and for 20 minutes to 12 hours, as such temperature, pressure and time ranges are conventional for PET polycondensation reactions. With regard to claim 4 1 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to perform polymerization in the presence of catalysts comprising titanium, tin, manganese, zinc, lead, niobium, germanium, cobalt, and or antimony because such catalysts are well known in polyse4ter polymerization processes. With regard to claim 4 2 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to remove ethylene glycol during polymerization, as removal of glycol is conventional in PET polycondensation reactions. With regard to claim 4 3 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to pass the recycled BHET to the polymerization reactor as a slurry or melt, as both forms are standard in polyester processing. With regard to claim 4 4 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to carry out the prepolymerization such as the temperatures and pressures as claimed since the ranges fall within conventional PET prepolymerization conditions. With regard to claim 4 5 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further process the polymer by extrusion, spinning, molding or drawing as such steps are standard for PET materials. With regard to claim 4 6 , in view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to mold the polymer into a bottle, packaging or textiles, since such end use applications are conventional and well known for PET materials. In conclusion, in view of the above, there appears to be no significant difference between the reference(s) and that which is claimed by applicant(s). Any differences not specifically mentioned appear to be conventional. Consequently, the claimed invention cannot be deemed as unobvious and accordingly is unpatentable. Information Disclosure Statement Note that any future and/or present information disclosure statements must comply with 37 CFR § 1.98(b), which requires a list of the publications to include: the author (if any), title, relevant pages of the publication, date and place of publication to be submitted for consideration by the Office. Improper Claim Dependency Prior to allowance, any dependent claims should be rechecked for proper dependency if independent claims are cancelled. Correspondence Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TERRESSA M BOYKIN whose telephone number is (571)272-1069. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7-5:30. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /Terressa Boykin/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765