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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 07/12/2004 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2)(ii-iii) because it does not include a concise explanation of the relevance, as it is presently understood by the individual designated in 37 CFR 1.56(c) most knowledgeable about the content of the information, of:
(ii) Each publication or that portion which caused it to be listed, other than U.S. patents and U.S. patent application publications unless required by the Office;
(iii) For each cited pending unpublished U.S. application, the application specification including the claims, and any drawing of the application, or that portion of the application which caused it to be listed including any claims directed to that portion [but see 1287 OG 163 (October 19, 2004) discussed in MPEP § 609.04(a), subsection II]; and
(iv) All other information or that portion which caused it to be listed.
.It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
The listing of references in the specification is not a proper information disclosure statement. 37 CFR 1.98(b) requires a list of all patents, publications, or other information submitted for consideration by the Office, and MPEP § 609.04(a) states, "the list may not be incorporated into the specification but must be submitted in a separate paper." Therefore, unless the references have been cited by the examiner on form PTO-892, they have not been considered.
Claim Objections
Applicant is advised that should claim 1 be found allowable, claim 18 will be objected to under 37 CFR 1.75 as being a substantial duplicate thereof. When two claims in an application are duplicates or else are so close in content that they both cover the same thing, despite a slight difference in wording, it is proper after allowing one claim to object to the other as being a substantial duplicate of the allowed claim. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
Claims 5-8 are objected to because of the following informalities: It appears that the claims are invoking the Markush Group, It should be amended as follow:
Claim 5 … “ the nanoparticles are selected from a group consisting of carbon-based nanoparticles, ceramic nanoparticles, and metal nanoparticles.
Claim 6 … “ the carbon-based nanoparticles are selected from a group consisting of carbon nanotubes, graphenes, graphene oxide, fullerenes, carbon-based quantum dots, carbon black, and nanodiamonds.
Claim 7…”the ceramic nanoparticles are selected from a group consisting of alumina, silica, titania, zirconia, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, and hydroxyapatite.
Claim 8 …” the metal nanoparticles are selected from a group consisting of Fe, Cu, Al, and Zn nanoparticles.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities: The term “about” in the claim limitation does not provide an exactitude, but rather a contemplated variation.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 18, the phrase "such that" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
All the claims dependent of claims 1 and 18 are also rejected.
Claims 1 and 18 recites the limitation "the method", “the process”, “the steps” , “the geologic formation”, “the calculated average pore size” , “the volume fraction” , “the shear thickening” in lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
All the claims dependent of claims 1 and 18 are rejected.
Claims 1 and 18 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.
The claim revies “desired flow rate” in line 6, it is unclear if it is the same limitation as “a desired flow rate” of claim 4 or a different one. Therefore, the claim is indefinite
All the claims dependent of claims 1 and 18 are also rejected.
Claim3 recites the limitation "the flow curve" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hong et al. (US 2008/0302998 A1) Carbon Nanoparticle-containing Hydrophilic Nanofluid With Enhanced Thermal Conductivity teaches The present invention relates to a nanofluid that contains carbon nanoparticles, metal oxide nanoparticles and a surfactant in a thermal transfer fluid. The present invention also relates to processes for producing such a nanofluid with enhanced thermal conductive properties, Monteiro et al. (US 2012/0322694 A1) Electrically Conductive Oil-Base Fluids For Oil And Gas Applications teaches A base fluid may contain nanoparticles where the base fluid may include a non-aqueous fluid, an aqueous fluid, and combinations thereof. The fluid may have a resistivity range of from about 0.02 ohm-m to about 1,000,000 ohm-m. The non-aqueous fluid may be a brine-in-oil emulsion, or a water-in-oil emulsion; and the aqueous fluid may be an oil-in-water emulsion, or an oil-in-brine emulsion; and combinations thereof, and Christian et al. (US 2013/0341028 A1) CONTROLLABLY TUNING PROPERTIES OF A FLUID USING MODIFIED NANOPARTICLES teaches Properties of a base fluid may be controllably tuned to a pre-determined range of measurements by adding modified nanoparticles to a base fluid. The property to be modified may be or include, but is not limited to, electrical conductivity, dielectric strength, thermal conductivity, and combinations thereof. The modified nanoparticles may be or include modified graphene nanoparticles, modified graphene platelets, modified electrically-conductive nanotubes, modified electrically-conductive nanorods, nanospheres, single-walled nanotubes, double walled nanotubes, multiwalled nanotubes, nano-onions, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, and combinations thereof.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SILVANA C RUNYAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5415. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Doug Hutton can be reached at 571-272-4137. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SILVANA C RUNYAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3674 06/23/2026
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