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 .
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.
Claim 9 is 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 9, the term "preferably" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitation(s) following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 7-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhou et al., (Aplied Materials & Interfaces, 2019, cited in IDS).
Zhou et al. teaches, “In this study, we grafted the Sp moiety onto the N-terminus of H5 to construct the bioactive molecule phosphoserine-histatin 5 (Sp-H5). The following bioactive properties of Sp-H5 were evaluated in vitro: (1) binding affinity to the tooth surface, (2) anti-biofouling activity, (3) demineralization and remineralization ability of Sp-H5, and (4) biocompatibility. Finally, we calculated accurate kinetic information for the bioactive ability of Sp-H5 to explain its functional mechanisms” (p. 4, last paragraph).
Sp-H5 has the following sequence: phosphoserine-DSHAKRHHGYKRKFHEKHHSHRGY (p. 4, Materials and Methods), which is comprised of a long, amino acid chain, and thus qualifies as a modified histatin 5 protein.
Concerning claims 7-11, the prior art teaches an oral care composition insofar as it teaches, “After sterilization, the tooth slices were immersed in sterilized solutions of Sp-H5 (16x MIC, n=7; 100 µL/well)” (p. 9, section 2.7.2).
The prior art is anticipatory insofar as it teaches an isolated peptide comprising a histatin 5 segment and a phosphoserine domain, wherein the phosphoserine is phosphorylated serine.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-16 are allowed. Claims 4-6 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.
Conclusion
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WALTER E WEBB whose telephone number is (571)270-3287 and fax number is (571) 270-4287. The examiner can normally be reached from Mon-Fri 7-3:30.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sahana Kaup can be reached (571) 272-6897. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Walter E. Webb
/WALTER E WEBB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1612