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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Page 4, line 8 – Page 7, line 3 of Remarks, filed August 6th, 2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-5 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of the prior art over the amended claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhao (CN 106629760 B, 2018) (the translation provided with the attached original document is referenced below).
Regarding claim 1, Zhao teaches a method for producing an inorganic substance solution (Zhao, [0062]-[0064]), said method comprising:
a heating step of dielectrically heating a powdery mixture at a temperature of 180°C to obtain a liquid mixture (Zhao, [0064]) containing an inorganic substance (Zhao, [0062], nano-silica), the powdery mixture having been obtained by mixing powder of the inorganic substance and hydroxide (Zhao, [0062], aluminum hydroxide).
Regarding claim 5, Zhao teaches the method as set forth in claim 1, wherein:
the heating step is a step of dielectrically heating the powdery mixture under normal pressure (Zhao, [0064], heated in a three-necked flask; [0025], under normal pressure).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Zhao (CN 106629760 B, 2018) (the translation provided with the attached original document is referenced below) and Lu ("The application of microwave digestion in decomposing some refractory ore samples with solid fusion agent", 2018) are considered to be the closest prior art to the instant claims.
Regarding claim 2, Zhao anticipates the method as set forth in claim 1, as discussed above, but does not teach or suggest that the inorganic substance contains at least one of beryllium and lithium. There is no reason to expect Lu’s teachings toward beryllium (Lu, Tables 1-3) to be relevant to Zhao’s synthetic method.
Regarding claim 3, Zhao anticipates the method as set forth in claim 1, as discussed above, wherein the hydroxide is aluminum hydroxide (Zhao, [0062]), which differs from the claimed sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. There is no teaching or suggestion that sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide would be suitable in Zhao’s synthetic method.
Regarding claim 4, Zhao anticipates the method as set forth in claim 1, as discussed above, but Zhao continues in a subsequent step to calcine the mixture to prepare a silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve (Zhao, [0066]) — there is no teaching or suggestion of instead dissolving the liquid mixture which has been obtained in the heating step in an acid solution or water to obtain an acid solution of the inorganic substance.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 ZACHARY J. BAUM whose telephone number is (571)270-0895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00.
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/ZACHARY JOHN BAUM/Examiner, Art Unit 1736
/ANTHONY J ZIMMER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1736
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