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 Amendment
Withdrawn Rejections
Items 2, 4-7 of the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection in the Office action mailed on September 4, 2025, are withdrawn due to Applicant’s amendment and clarification in the response filed on October 29, 2025.
Claim Objection
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: line 5 should be rewritten as:
- - (C ) a dispersion stabilizer including at least one of (a) a compound having - - in order to properly antecede the “(a)” in line 8. Appropriate correction is required.
Repeated Rejection
Item 3 of the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection in the Office action mailed on September 4, 2025, is repeated below with amplification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-10 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 regards as the invention.
Lines 8-10 of claim 1, recite “the dispersion stabilizer being composed of an aromatic group-containing compound having a molecular weight represented by a molecular formula of 500 or less”. The active verb of “being composed of” implies that the dispersion stabilizer consists of an aromatic group-containing compound having a molecular weight represented by a molecular formula of 500 or less, which is confusing because this recitation is preceded by the recitation in lines 5-6 of “a compound having two or more benzene rings or (b) a compound having one benzene ring” where the benzene ring is a species of the aromatic group which is a genus that should precede the recitation of “a compound having two or more benzene rings or (b) a compound having one benzene ring” in the description of the dispersion stabilizer (C) for proper antecedent basis in the claim. As such, it is unclear what all is included in the dispersion stabilizer.
Furthermore, it is unclear whether the two or more benzene rings form the aromatic group of the aromatic group-containing compound, in which case all the benzene rings are required to have the ability to form a single structure having aromaticity, or the term “aromatic group-containing compound” is a generic term for a compound that contains an aromatic group which can be any one of the two or more benzene groups, in which case only one of the benzene rings is required to have the ability to form a structure having aromaticity, or both cases are within the scope of the broadest reasonable interpretation.
Claims 2-9 depend on and contain all the subject matter of claim 1, but fail to provide any solutions to the indefinite issues described above.
Amendment and clarification with relevant citation(s) from the specification and/or teaching reference are required.
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Sow-Fun Hon whose telephone number is (571)272-1492. The examiner is on a flexible schedule but can usually be reached during a regular workweek between the hours of 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Aaron Austin, can be reached at (571)272-8935. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
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/Sophie Hon/
Sow-Fun Hon
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1782