E2EDETAILED 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 .
Applicant’s response filed 7/10/2026 have been entered.
Claims 28-37, 40-47 are pending.
Claims 28-34, 44-47 are withdrawn from further consideration as they are directed to the non-elected subject matter. The election was made without traverse in the reply filed 8/18/2025.
Applicant’s arguments with regard to the ‘931 teachings have been considered, and are found persuasive that ‘931 fails to teach the herein claimed composition as an eye drop.
The outstanding rejection under 35 USC 103a is modified in view of the arguments filed 7/10/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 35-37, 40, 42-43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US2005/0009931 (‘931).
‘931 teaches a composition for treating infection and inflammation which comprises rifampicin as one of the anti-bacterial agent (see [0132]), buffering agents ([0195]), a carrier such as propylene glycol (see claim 49 for example). ‘931 teaches the composition can be formulated as suspension (see various examples in the reference). ‘931 teaches non-aqueous carrier as oils such as sesame oil (see [0193]).
‘931 does not expressly teach the composition can be used in treating the herein claimed conditions.
It would have been obvious one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to formulate an eye drop rifampicin composition containing the herein claimed excipients.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to formulate an eye drop rifampicin composition containing the herein claimed excipients since all of the excipients are known to be suitable to be the carrier for the rifampicin composition. Selecting well-known excipients for formulating the known dosage forms of rifampicin would be reasonably expected to be successful. Furthermore, the intended use of treating the herein claimed conditions does not lend patentable weight to the claims directed to composition. In addition, the suspension taught in ‘931 can be used as eye drops since they are both liquid, The claims are directed to a composition. Therefore, as long as the cited prior art’s composition is capable to be used in the same manner as recited, it meets the claimed limitations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 41 is 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 35-37, 40, 42-43 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN MING R HUI whose telephone number is (571)272-0626. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9:30-5:30.
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/SAN MING R HUI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1627
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