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 Species I, claims 16, 22,28 in the reply filed on 1/26/26 is acknowledged.
This office action is in response to amendment filed on 1/26/26. Claims 13-17,19,20-23 are amended and claims 18,24-32 are cancelled. Claims 33-37 are added. Claims 13-17,19-23 and 33-37 are pending.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 13, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In claim 13, the limitation “ in water of an aqueous solution” is vague and indefinite because it’s not clear what is intended. Is the water the aqueous solution or water is only part of the aqueous solution. The specification does not disclose any other type of liquid beside water. On line 6, the recitation of “ the locust bean gum and cation” does not have proper antecedent basis because line 4 only recites “ dissolving carrageenan”. There is no recitation of dissolving locust bean gum and cation. Line 11, the limitation “ majority of the water of the gel filling” is vague and indefinite because it’s unclear what would be considered as majority. It’s also unclear what is intended because the claim does not recite any other liquid besides water. Line 12, the limitation “ majority of the carrageenan of the gel filling” is vague and indefinite because it’s unclear what would be considered as majority. It’s also unclear if the gel filing comprises locust bean gum. Line 6 recites locust bean gum but there is no mention of locust bean gum in the solid phase. Lines 14-19, the limitation “ to partition the carrageenan from the solid phase to the liquid phase and to partition the carrageenan from the liquid phase to the solid” is vague and indefinite because it is unclear what is intended by the term “ partition”. Partition is defined as dividing into part. The gel is not being divided into parts. The specification discloses thermally-reversible gel filling; this is known in the art that the gel is solid at cool temperature and becomes liquid when heated. The term “ partition” is confusion because there is no dividing into parts. It’s a transition from solid to liquid and vice versa depending on the temperature. Lines 20-22, the limitation “ preparing a filling from the gel filling wherein the filling comprises a portion of the gel filling”. It’s unclear what is intended by a portion of the gel filling. Since it’s a gel, it’s unclear how a portion is obtained or what will constitute a portion. The instant specification does not disclose cutting the gel. Top of page 10 discloses “ either the gel solution or the gel filling is optionally combined with one or more flavors …”. ( for prior art application, it’s interpreted that the gel filling is combined with other ingredients as disclosed in the specification)
Claim 20 has the same problem as claim 13 with respect to the limitation “ to partition the carrageenan.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 13-16,19-21,23,33-37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Enz ( 20040161502) in view of Lagarrigue (20130236623).
For claim 13, Enz discloses a method of forming a food product comprising an outer layer of dough and a filling comprising a gel filling. . The method comprise the steps dissolving the gelling agent in water that is heated to 100 degrees C. Enz discloses the gel filling comprising a gelling agent, a cation , water and one or more solid food ingredient. The gelling agent comprises a thermal reversible heat-activated gelling agent and a heat stable gelling agent such as locust bean gum. Enz discloses preparing a filling comprising the gelling agent dissolved in water. The filling can comprise other ingredients including fruits, vegetable. Enz discloses the step of partially or completely covering the filling with an outer dough layer to produce filled dough product.( see paragraphs 0016,0017-0019,0024,0056,0057)
For claims 14,15,21,23, Enz discloses the gelling agent is present in an amount of about .1-10%. ( see paragraph 0015)
For claims 16,34, Enz discloses the cation is calcium. ( see paragraph 0024)
For claim 33, Enz discloses the filling comprises spices, flavoring, preservatives etc.. ( see paragraph 0029)
For claims 35,36,37, the food can be vegan and lacking animal meat and animal product as the ingredients can be selected to not contain animal meat and animal product. ( see paragraph 0029)
Enz does not disclose carrageenan, and xiaolongbao, cooling and the property of thermally reversible gel as in claim 13,the specific concentration as in claims 14,15,21, the food is xiaolongbao as in claims 19, 35,36,37 and the property as in claim 20
Lagarrigue (623) discloses a gel composition comprising water , gelling agent in amount of .2-5% and the gelling agent includes carrageenan. The gel is heat-reversible gel ( see paragraphs 0011-0016,0019)
The claims recite “ xiaolongbao” but does not have any defining parameters other than that it comprises outer dough layer partially or completely surrounding a filling. The Enz product is a filled dough comprising outer dough layer partially or completely surrounding a filling. Thus, the Enz product is readable on the claimed xiaolongbao
Enz discloses to use a thermal reversible heat-activated gelling agent such as Methocel ( paragraph 0018. As shown in Lagarrigue ( 623), carrageenan is also a heat reversible gelling agent. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use carrageenan as a known alternative heat-reversible agent. It would have been obvious to following the guideline of Enz which teaches to use .1-10% of gelling agent. Example 1 discloses to use 1.53% of cellulose as the heat reversible agent; it would have been obvious to follow the same guideline when carrageenan is substituted. It would also have been obvious to use locust bean gum within the range allowed for gelling agent disclosed in Enz. The amount can readily be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art through routine experimentation. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to cool the gel filling as Enz discloses to form an uncooked filling having high viscosity. It would have been readily apparent to one skill in the art to cool to form solid filling to enable the filling to be inserted or enveloped by the dough to form filled dough product having the gelling inside. As to the properties of the liquid phase, solid phase and the thermally reversible gel, they are obviously inherent in the gel filling of Enz in view of Lagarrigue because the same gelling ingredients are used. Furthermore, the property is associated with an intended use of the product. It’s not part of the forming step.
Claim(s) 17,22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Enz in view of Lagarrigue as applied to claims13-16,19-21,33-37 above, and further in view of Bang ( KR 200500556460.
Enz does not disclose the amount of calcium.
Bang discloses a method for producing gel food product comprising carrageenan and locust bean gum. Bang teaches to add calcium to react with the gelling agent in amount of .10-.9%. ( see page 4)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to follow the guideline of Bang for the amount of calcium to react with the gelling agent and to optimize the amount depending on the gel strength desired in the gel filling. Determine the optimum amount would have been within the skill of one in the art.
Conclusion
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February 21, 2026
/LIEN T TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1793