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/Restriction
Applicant’s election of Group III: Claims 10 and 14, in the reply filed on 06/17/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 10 and 14 are directed to an allowable product. Pursuant to the procedures set forth in MPEP § 821.04(b), Claims 1-3 and 12, directed to a similar allowable product, previously withdrawn from consideration as a result of a restriction requirement, are hereby rejoined and fully examined for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104. Claims 4-9 and 13 are directed to the invention(s) of a method of preparing a branched olefin polymer which does NOT require all the limitations of an allowable product claim, and have NOT been rejoined.
Because a claimed invention previously withdrawn from consideration under 37 CFR 1.142 has been rejoined, the restriction requirement among groups I and III as set forth in the Office action mailed on 04/20/2026 is hereby withdrawn. In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement as to the rejoined inventions, applicant(s) are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application.
Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3, 10 and 14, are allowed.
If it is the Applicant desires for the application to go to allowance, it is suggested that the withdrawn claims 4-9 and 13 be canceled.
If it is the Applicant desires for the withdrawn claims to be rejoined in the allowance, it is suggested that claims 4-9 and 13 be rewritten to include all the limitations of one of the allowed claims of either claim 1 and/or claim 10 and rewritten to overcome the possible rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, and/or 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph. (i.e. indefinite with “preferably” in the claims and failure to limit formulas (I) in claim 4 since formulas (II) and (IV) appear to be different/unrelated formulas, but depend from claim 4).
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The first closest prior art is Wang et al., “Living polymerization of higher 2-alkene with a-diimine nickel catalysts: Synthesis and characterization of high molecular weight poly(2-alkene)s,” Polymer, vol. 127 pp. 88-100 (2017), as cited by the Applicant in IDS mail dated 12/11/2023, which teaches the polymerization of 2-pentene, 2-hexene and/or 2-octene to form a polymer with 54-92 methyl groups per 1000C (Table 5), and a Tg of -71 to -65 deg C and no melting points. (page 99 and Table 5).
Wang does not teach the claimed Mw/Mn distribution and melting point ranges.
The second closest prior art is Wang et al., “Chain-Walking Polymerization of Linear Internal Octenes Catalyzed by α-Diimine Nickel Complexes,” Organometallics, vol. 37, pp. 1358-1367 (2018), as cited by the Applicant in IDS mail dated 12/11/2023, which teaches the polymerization of 2-octene, 3-octene and 4-octene to form a polymer with 119-125 methyl groups per 1000C (Table 1), and a Tg of –70 to -64.4 deg C and no melting points. (page 1364).
Wang does not teach the claimed Mw/Mn distribution and melting point ranges.
The third closest prior art is Wang et al., “Chain-walking polymerization of 3-heptene with phenyl substituted α-diimine nickel catalysts,” Polymer, vol. 181, 121801, pp. 1-10, (2019), which teaches the polymerization of 3-heptene to form a polymer with 49-88 methyl groups per 1000C (Table 2), and a Tg of –70 to -65 deg C and no melting points. (Table 2 and page 6).
Wang does not teach the claimed Mw/Mn distribution and melting point ranges.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HA S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7395. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, Flex schedule 7:30am-4:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached at (571)272-1302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HA S NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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