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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-5, 7 and 12-15 in the reply filed on 1/21/26 is acknowledged.
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(s) 1-5,7 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Yao et al, “A novel glycidyl methacrylate-based monolith with sub-micron skeletons and well-defined macropores,” 770 | J. Mater. Chem., 2009, 19, 767–772, in view of MARUTA (US 2020/0054967)
Yao teaches GMA-EDMA monolith with Pluronic 127 bonded thereon. The formula 1 by applicant’s own admission, is commercially available as Pluronic including F127 (Spec., [0027].) See the abstract and the experimental details of the reference. While the reference does not say whether the bond is through an -OH group, it would have been inherent because the reactive group in Pluronic is -OH. The l, m and n values are as claimed in Pluronic F127. Id.
Yao teaches that the resulting monolith is highly porous (100-1000nm) and the morphology of its porosity can be tailored by varying Pluronic F127. Particle size of a molecule of weight 1,000,000 is about 100 nm (google search). Therefore, claim 5 is anticipated.
Yao fails to teach the range of concentration of the monomers as recited.
Maruta teaches chromatographic beads from block copolymer of similar monomers with the monomer mol% range close to but slightly overlapping range of 70-95% and 5-30% respectively – see [0041]-[0042]. Maruta also teaches that the actual mol% can be optimized to obtain the desired balance of hydrophilicity and mechanical strength. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have the teaching of Maruta in the teaching of Yao for the organic polymer carrier.
Claims 7 and 12-15: the monolith is described as a chromatography medium and is tested for it in an HPLC system. Therefore these claims are at the least made obvious if not anticipated.
Claim(s) 1-5,7 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Zhang et al., “Preparation of a Novel Glycidyl Methacrylate-Based Monolith and Its Application for the Determination of m-Nisoldipine in Human Plasma,” Journal of Chromatographic Science, Vol. 48, July 2010, in view of MARUTA (US 2020/0054967)
Zhang teaches the chromatographic medium and use in HPLC columns as claimed from GMA, EDMA and Pluronic F68. The F68 binding to the monolith through -OH group is inherent. The molecular weight limit in claim 5 is optimizable as needed as shown in rejection 1 above. F68 would meet the l, m and n values because applicant cites this as one of the compound of formula 1.
Regarding the mol% of the monomers in the copolymer, see Maruta, as described in rejection1.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 KRISHNAN S MENON whose telephone number is (571)272-1143. The examiner can normally be reached Flexible, but generally Monday-Friday: 8:00AM-4:30PM.
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/KRISHNAN S MENON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777
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