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 Invention II claims 2-18 and 20 in the reply filed on 12/03/2025 is acknowledged.
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 2-18 and 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.
Regarding claim 2, claim 2 recites “a preparation method of a health cultivation wine, wherein the health cultivation wine comprising the following raw materials calculated by weight percentage…..0.05-1% Panax quinquefolius; 0.75-1% Lyceum chinense; 0.25%-1% jujube; 0.75-1% Angelica sinensis; and 0.75-1% Rehmannia glutinosa”. However, claim 2 also requires in lines 33-42 that all the these claimed ingredients are mixed together and subjected to an extraction process to obtain an extraction product that is filtered and turned into a paste and then added to the wine mixture to produce the wine. It is unclear if the wine comprises the recited materials or extraction product from the recited materials, or both, since the claim requires in lines 1-5 that the wine comprises the ingredients in the recited amounts, but lines 33-42 require the extraction product from the recited materials and not the materials themselves. It is noted that the recited ingredients in lines 33-34 refer back to the same ingredients in lines 1-5. Additionally, lines 1-5 require proportions and line 34 requires “in proportion” it is unclear if the proportions in lines 1-5 apply to line 34. “where there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty as to the proper interpretation of the limitations of a claim, it would not be proper to reject such a claim on the basis of prior art” (MPEP 2173.06).
Regarding claim 2, claim 2 recites “the stored product” in lines 45. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 is rejected for the same reasons given above as for claim 2.
Claims 3-18 are rejected by virtue of their dependence on a rejected base claim.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHLEY AXTELL whose telephone number is (571)270-0316. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00- 5:30.
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/A.A/
Ashley AxtellExaminer, Art Unit 1792
/ERIK KASHNIKOW/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1792