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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group III in the reply filed on 11/29/2025 is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 6 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mori et al. (“Isolation and Characterization of a Strain of Bacillus megaterium That Degrades Poly(vinyl alcohol)” 1996 From IDS).
Regarding claims 6 and 8 Mori et al. discloses method for degrading polyvinyl alcohol comprising: contacting the polyvinyl alcohol with Bacillus megaterium in the absence of a bacterial symbiont wherein the bacterial symbiont is PN19. (See Mori Pg. 331 wherein the BX1 strain of Bacillus megaterium is cultured with PVA medium without PN19 symbiont and PVA is degraded to 3% of the initial amount.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 is 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: The prior art of record discloses methods of degrading PVA but does not suggest or fairly disclose doing so using Bacillus megaterium with the deposit accession number B-68327 in combination with other claim features.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN M HURST whose telephone number is (571)270-7065. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7AM-4PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Marcheschi can be reached on 571-272-1374. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JONATHAN M HURST/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1799
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