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 .
DETAILED ACTION
All the references cited in the International Search Report have been considered. None is anticipatory.
Election/Restrictions
The applicant has elected Group I (claims 1-8) with traverse. The examiner disagrees with applicant’s argument. The examiner asserts that the special technical feature has been met by prior arts. See below rejections.
The previous election of species has been withdrawn.
This restriction is made FINAL. See previous action for the reasons for applying the restriction.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim(s) 1-8 (is)are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. The language within parentheses in claims 1 and 4-5 is unclear and lacks a definitive meaning in the context of the claim. It is unclear what the applicant intends this parenthetical text to mean or how it relates to the remainder of the claim. As a result, the scope of the claim is ambiguous and does not particularly point out and distinctly define the metes and bounds of the invention. Claims 2-8 depend upon claim 1 and fail to rectify the issue in claim 1. See MPEP § 2173.05(d). Moreover, the limitation of “0.1 to 20” in claim 5 appears to be “0, 1 to 20”.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-8 is(are) rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fukumoto et al. (WO 2018116742, US 20210340457 as English equivalent).
As to claims 1-2 and 4-8, Fukumoto (claims, abs., 71-74, examples) discloses
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Allowable Subject Matter
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
Claim(s) 3 is(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.
Claim(s) 3 is(are) allowable over the closest prior art: Fukumoto et al. (WO 2018116742, US 20210340457 as English equivalent).
Fukumoto fails to teach the claimed end groups.
Therefore, claims 3 is(are) allowable.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance”.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHANE FANG whose telephone number is (571)270-7378. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Thurs. 8am-6pm. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached on 571.572.1302. 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). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SHANE FANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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