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 I, claims 1-14 in the reply filed on July 28th, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 15-17 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on July 28th, 2026.
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 7 and 13 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.
Claim 7 recites the limitation "the molar ratio of metallic nickel to ligand" in lines 1-2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The meanings of both “the molar ratio” and “metallic nickel” to which “the molar ratio” refers must be properly clarified to cure the claim’s indefiniteness. For assessing the scope and meaning of the claim for prior art purposes, any molar ratio of metallic nickel to ligand will be interpreted to read on “the molar ratio of metallic nickel to ligand”, as individual claims are given their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification. See MPEP § 2111.
Claim 13 recites the limitation “the content of the active metal promoter is 5wt% to 70wt%” in lines 1-2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, and the claim does not specify the basis of its percentage calculation. “The content of the active metal promoter” could reasonably construed to mean a content of the active metal promoter relative to the total catalyst weight, a content of active metal relative to the total weight of the active metal promoter, or a content of active metal promoter relative to the combined weight of the transition metal salt and the active metal promoter, for example. At least any of the above interpretations will be considered to read on “the content of the active metal promoter”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6, 8-12, and 14 are allowed.
Claims 7 and 13 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Shin (“A way to avoid polymeric side products during the liquid-phase ethylene oligomerization with SBA-15 supported (bpy)Ni(II)Cl2 heterogeneous catalyst”, 2020) Li (CN 1126107 A, 1996) (the attached machine translation is referenced below), and Lallemand (“NiMCM-36 and NiMCM-22 catalysts for the ethylene oligomerization: Effect of zeolite texture and nickel cations/acid sites ratio”, 2008) are considered to be the closest prior art to the instant claims.
Regarding claim 1 and its dependent claims 2-14, Lallemand teaches a process for preparing a catalyst (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 1, Paragraph 3 – Col. 2, Paragraph 1), wherein the process comprises the step of:
providing a molecular sieve (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 1, Paragraph 4, MCM-22, MCM-36), adding an active metal promoter (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 1, Paragraph 4, cation exchange with ammonium nitrate, which is required to obtain Ni-exchanged catalysts), and shaping the molecular sieve into a shaped body (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 2, Paragraph 1, “The washed NH4-exchanged solids were dried at 80°C for 12 h…”, which would necessarily result in a the solids having a shape),
placing the shaped body in an undisclosed vessel (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 2, Paragraph 1, “…and subjected to nickel ion exchange with 0.2 M nickel nitrate at 60 °C (for the NiMCM-22 and NiMCM-36(1) samples) and 80 °C (for the NiMCM-36(2) sample), following the same procedure and number of exchange operations as above.”), which differs from the claimed fixed bed reactor,
dissolving a transition metal salt in a first valence state into a solvent to prepare a solution (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 2, Paragraph 1, 0.2 M nickel nitrate, (Ni2+)),
stirring the solution with the shaped body (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 2, Paragraph 1, “…and subjected to nickel ion exchange with 0.2 M nickel nitrate at 60 °C (for the NiMCM-22 and NiMCM-36(1) samples) and 80 °C (for the NiMCM-36(2) sample), following the same procedure and number of exchange operations as above.”), which differs from passing the solution through the fixed bed reactor, and
passing the shaped body following stirring and ethylene through a stirred three-phase reactor (Lallemand, Page 38, Col. 2, Paragraph 3), where the transition metal in the first valence state has been at least partially being reduced into a transition metal salt in a second valence state by water removed from the shaped body (Lallemand, Page 39, Col. 2, Paragraph 2, “When the temperature is increased above 300°C (our catalyst was activated at 550°C), the water removed from the solid reduces Ni2+ to Ni+”), which differs from reducing the transition metal with the active metal promoter at the same time as passing ethylene through a fixed bed reactor, so as to obtain the catalyst.
Lallemand does not teach dissolving a bidentate ligand into the solution with the transition metal salt in a first valence state. Shin teaches that bidentate nickel complexes can be immobilized onto molecular sieves to produce a catalyst for the same reaction (Shin, Page 2, Col. 1, Paragraph 3), but this procedure first produces a trimethoxysilane-functionalized bpy ligand that grafts onto to molecular sieve, followed by introduction of a nickel salt to coordinate the nickel at the bpy ligands. Where an active metal promoter reduces a transition metal in a bidentate catalyst complex in the prior art, it is done so in a homogeneous fashion (e.g., Li, [008], [0016], zinc powder), and there is no teaching or suggestion in the cited prior art references of adding a metal promoter, which reduces a transition metal coordinated to a bidentate ligand, to a molecular sieve prior to adding a solution of the transition metal and bidentate ligand.
Conclusion
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/ZACHARY JOHN BAUM/Examiner, Art Unit 1736
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