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 .
Applicants’ Preliminary Amendment, filed on November 30, 2023, has been made of record and entered. In this amendment, the Specification has been amended to include a statement to claim benefit of Applicants' foreign priority document.
No claims have been canceled or added; claims 1-14 are presently pending in this application.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in India on January 3, 2023. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Indian Application No. 202221062896 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
It is noted that Applicants filed on November 30, 2023, a request to retrieve the foreign priority document. On June 3, 2024, an attempt by the Office to electronically retrieve the aforementioned foreign priority document was made, but was not successful.
Presently, Applicants’ Priority Document has not yet been received or electronically retrieved.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
Elements (1), (4), (5), (6), (13), (14), (16), and (17), as depicted in the Figures, are not defined in Applicants’ Specification.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
The drawings are objected to because they have borders outside each figure.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 12, and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In line of claim 1, “recirculating back to the reactor a period of 24 hours” should be amended to recite either “recirculating back to the reactor for a period of 24 hours” or “recirculating back to the reactor over a period of 24 hours”.
In line 6 of claim 1, “colour” should be amended to recite “color”.
In line 1 of claim 12, “ion exchanges resin” should be amended to recite “ion exchange resin”.
In line 1 of claim 14, “Claim 1” should be amended to recite “claim 1”.
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.
Claims 13 and 14 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.
Claims 13 and 14 are indefinite because it cannot be determined if the percentages respectively recited therein are, for example, by weight or by volume.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 are allowed.
Claims 13 and 14 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:
The prior art of record does not teach or suggest Applicants’ claimed process for the in-situ regeneration of a spent catalyst, comprising a step wherein hot water is fed to a reactor through an intake line for soaking the spent catalyst bed for a period of 3-4 hours, repeating said step twice and draining the hot water through a line, feeding the hot water through a bottom line and draining effluent water from a top line until the color of the effluent water is clear or for a period of up to 5 hours, filling the reactor with paraffinic naphtha through a line, and keeping for 48 hours to settle water from the spent catalyst bed to the reactor bottom, draining the settled water from the reactor every 4 hours and filling the reactor with fresh naphtha, feeding an effluent stream through a feed inlet, drawing from bottom, and recirculating back to the reactor for or over a period of 24 hours, and removing deposited impurities on the spent catalyst using diluted HCl treatment.
While in-situ regeneration of spent catalysts is known in the art, Applicants’ claimed process is not known, taught, or suggested by the prior art of record.
Exemplary prior art includes Johnson (U. S. Patent No. 4,775,475), which teaches the regeneration of spend adsorbent with an elution solvent stream comprising naphtha (col. 5, lines 13-31), but does not teach or suggest the remaining steps of Applicants’ claimed process.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PATRICIA L HAILEY whose telephone number is (571)272-1369. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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, Ching-Yiu (Coris) Fung, can be reached at 571-270-5713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Patricia L. Hailey/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1732 July 2, 2026
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