FINAL REJECTION
Receipt is acknowledged of Applicants' Amendments and Remarks, filed Mar. 30, 2026.
Rejections and/or objections not reiterated from previous Office Actions are hereby withdrawn. The rejections and/or objections set forth below are either maintained or newly applied, and constitute the complete set presently applied to the instant claims.
STATUS OF THE CLAIMS
Claims 1-122 have been canceled.
Claims 123-125 have been amended and incorporate no new matter.
No new claims have been added.
Claims 126, 128, 131, 133, 139, 141-143, 146-148, and 150-156 stand withdrawn as drawn to nonelected inventions and/or species.
Thus, claims 123-125, 127, 129, 130, 132, 134-138, 140, 144, 145, and 149 now represent all claims currently pending and under consideration.
INFORMATION DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on Mar. 30, 2026 was filed after the mailing date of the non-final action on Dec. 29, 2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
RESPONSE TO ARGUMENTS
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, pp. 42-43, filed Mar. 30, 2026, with respect to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112(d) and 35 U.S.C. § 102, have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, these rejections have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s amendments filed Mar. 30, 2026 overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Therefore, this rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is set forth below.
NEW REJECTIONS
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 123, 124, 127, 129, 130, 132, 135, 136, and 137 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cai et al. (USPN 6,828,329, cited on PTO-892).
Cai et al. disclose the compound 2-(2-pyridinyl)-1,6-naphthyridin-4-ol (CAS RN 385784-23-6; col. 10, line 64), having the structural formula,
Cai et al.
Claimed Formula (I-E)
PNG
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184
322
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154
212
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which reads on formula (I-E) as recited by claims 123, 124, 127, 129, 130, 132, 135, 136, and 137, wherein:
X5a and X6b are each nitrogen;
X3b is CR3b; and
R2b, R3b, R4b, R5b, R6a, and R9a are each hydrogen.
As asserted by the Applicant (see Remarks dated 3/30/2026, pp. 42-43), the specification at para. [0033] defines compounds of the invention, whether identified by chemical name or chemical structure, to include all tautomers of the compounds identified by the chemical names and chemical structures provided herein.
Thus, compounds of formula (I-E) as recited by claim 123 encompass all tautomers thereof, including the compound of Cai et al.
For the foregoing reasons, Cai et al. anticipates claims 123, 124, 127, 129, 130, 132, 135, 136, and 137.
Claim Objections
Claims 125, 134, 138, 140, 144, 145, and 149 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.
CONCLUSION
No claims are allowed.
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.
CORRESPONDENCE
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SARA E. TOWNSLEY whose telephone number is 571-270-7672. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (EST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Jeff S. Lundgren, can be reached at 571-272-5541. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/SARA E. TOWNSLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 1629
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