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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07/31/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/17/206 and 06/23/2026 are being considered by the examiner. The signed IDS form is attached with the instant office action. The IDS filed 06/23/20226 is identical to the IDS filed on 06/17/2026 and does not need to be included in the file wrapper.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's amendment and argument filed 07/31/2026 in response to the final rejection, are acknowledged and have been fully considered. Any previous rejection or objection not mentioned herein is withdrawn.
Claims 1-9, 11-18 are pending of which claims 12-15 and 18 remain withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/17/2025.
Claims 1-9, 11 and 16-17 are being examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Motoki Yumi (JP7137924B2) and Maroula G. Kokotou et. al. (Study of the Royal Jelly Free Fatty Acids by Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS), Metabolites 2020, 10, 40, 1-12). This is a new rejection to consider the amendments filed on 07/10/2026.
Yumi teaches of oil-in-water emulsified composition having excellent feel and permeability comprising a solution which contains a copolymer of (meth) acryloyldimethyltaurate (see abstract) and teaches specifically using (acryloyldimethyltaurate ammonium beheneth-25 methacrylate) crosspolymer (see page 3, 2nd para.). Yumi also teaches one can include royal jelly as an activator (see page 11, para. 8).
Kokotou is relied upon to show why it would have been obvious to select the royal jelly in Yumi’s invention.
Kokotou teaches that “Royal jelly (RJ), a secretion from the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of worker bees, has been used since ancient times in traditional medicine, and it is currently used as a functional food and in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields” (see Introduction, 1st para.).
Kokotou teaches that royal jelly has bioactive properties such as antibacterial, immunomodulatory, wound-healing, growth promoting, vasodilative and hypotensive, anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. Many of the biological properties of royal jelly are attributed to its unusual bioactive fatty acid components, in particular to 10-HAD (trans-10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid).
More recently, the in vitro anti-inflammatory effects of these RJ fatty acids as well as sebacic acid (decanedioic acid) was evaluated and compared in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages (see bottom of page 1, top of page 2).
Kokotou teaches royal jelly comprises of 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid, decenedioic acid, or sebacic acid (see table 1).
Therefore it would have been oblivious to persons having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to use ammonium acryloyldimethyltaurate/methacrylic acid beheneth-25) crosspolymer or indeed to combine both Yumi and Kokotou’s art in the method for enhancing permeability of royal jelly into skin because Yumi teaches to include compositions comprising this copolymer for increasing penetration onto skin and to include them in formulations which can also comprise of royal jelly.
There would have been a reasonable expectation of success in arriving at the instant invention given the prior art because Yumi discloses formulations which increase permeability.
Claims 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Motoki Yumi (JOP7137924B2) and Maroula G. Kokotou et. al. (Study of the Royal Jelly Free Fatty Acids by Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS), Metabolites 2020, 10, 40, 1-12) as applied to claims 1-9 and 11 above, and further in view of Cho Yun Hi et. al. (KR20160037612A) and Asakura Takayuki et. al. (JP5750404B2). This is a new rejection to consider the amendments filed on 07/10/2026.
Yumi and Kokotou teach the instant method of increasing the penetration or royal jelly however are silent on the royal jelly being obtained by filtering enzymatically treated royal jelly solution through a filter having a pore size of 3 um and wherein the cosmetic composition comprises butylene glycol, pentylene glycol, and phenoxyethanol.
Hi teaches a cosmetic composition capable of enhancing skin moisturizing effects by containing freeze-dried royal jelly which is treated with protease enzymes (see abstract).
Hi teaches the composition on skin (see 1st para, page 10, example 5).
Hi teaches “inactivating royal jelly which has been enzymatically reacted in the above production method may be followed by a step of filtering the mesh for removal of foreign substances” (see page 7).
Hi does not specifically teach the composition to include butylene glycol, pentylene glycol, and phenoxyethanol.
Takayuki teaches antibacterial agents in cosmetics (see abstract).
Takayuki teaches cosmetic compositions which comprise of royal jelly extract, butylene glycol, pentylene glycol and phenoxyethanol (see page 10, example 1) and teaches this plurality of combined components can act as mositurizers, thickeners, preservatives, emulsifiers, medicinal components, emulsion stabilizers etc. (see page 6 para. 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to persons having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to use enzyme treated royal jelly as taught by Hi to increase the moisturizing properties of the royal jelly and to use butylene glycol, pentylene glycol and phenoxyethanol as additional cosmetic combined agents to act as emulsion stabilizers, moisturizers, thickeners and preservatives etc. It would have also been obvious to select the filter size as being 3um as this is an optimization well within any skilled artisan for a means of not letting contaminants through in the final product.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/31/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant argues that previously relied upon art does not teach mixing the newly amended cross polymer with royal jelly. The Office relies on new art to show that it would have been obvious to mix royal jelly with (acryloyldimethyltaurate ammonium beheneth-25 methacrylate) crosspolymer for enhancing permeability as Yumi indeed teaches formulations which include both the cross polymer and royal jelly and teaches that these formulations are known for enhancing permeability.
Conclusion
Currently no claims are allowed.
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JACOB A BOECKELMAN Examiner, Art Unit 1655
/ANAND U DESAI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1655
