Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s election without traverse of Claims 1, 3-4, 8-13, 15-16 and 19-21 in the reply filed on June 8, 2026 is acknowledged. Thus, non-elected claims 22-27 are withdrawn from consideration.
SPECIFICATION OBJECTION
The recited parent application number 17/064,434 in [0001] of the specification became U.S. Pat. No. 11,801,326 and thus updated information to [0001] is suggested.
CLAIM OBJECTION
The recited “N-(3-Aminopropyl)methacrylamide” of claims 15 and 16 is objected and “N-(3-aminopropyl)methacrylamide” is suggested.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 12 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Jayakrishnan et al. (Synthesis and Polymerization of Some Iodine-Containing Monomers for Biomedical Applications, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 44. pp. 743-748 (1992)) in view of Swan et al. (US 2005/0112086 A1).
Jayakrishnan et al. teach copolymers of IEH or TIPM and HEMA in table 1. The IEH and TIPM would meet the recited first monomer including a biodegradable linkage (i.e., ester group) to a visualization of claims 1, 3, 4 and 10.
The instant invention further recites a second monomer including at least one amine group over Jayakrishnan et al.
Utilization of hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and aminopropylmethacrylamide (APMA) for obtaining biocompatible copolymer is known in the art as taught by [0068] of Swan et al. (US 2005/01122086 A1).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of invention further to utilize the art well known hydrophilic comonomer such as the aminopropylmethacrylamide (APMA) taught by Swan in Jayakrishnan et al. since Swan et al. teach and equate hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) used by Jayakrishnan et al. and aminopropylmethacrylamide (APMA) for obtaining biocompatible copolymer absent showing otherwise.
The combination of familiar elements according to known methods is likely to be obvious when it does no more than yield predictable results. KSR Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 416 (2007). MPEP 2141.
Regarding claim 8, the aminopropylmethacrylamide (APMA) is supplied as N-(3-aminopropyl)methacrylamide hydrochloride inherently.
Regarding claim 12, the above discussed modified copolymer Jayakrishnan et al. would be expected to be insoluble in a physiological solution inherently.
CLAIM OBJECTION
Claims 9, 11, 13, 15 and 16 are 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. Note the objection made to claims 15 and 16.
CLAIM ALLOWANCE
Claims 19-21 are allowed.
EXAMINER’S COMMENT
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2009/0297612 A1 teaches a copolymer compriding a radiopaque monomer in abstract and claim 3.
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/TAE H YOON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
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