DETAILED ACTION
Status of Application
This action is responsive to national-stage application filed 10/20/2023. Following entry of the concurrently filed preliminary amendment, original claims 1-11 remain pending and under examination herein.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement(s)
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) filed on 10/20/2023, 04/22/2025, 11/25/2025, 02/09/2026 and 05/13/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609, and therefore the information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits. Initialed copies of the IDS are included with the mailing/transmittal of this Office action.
Foreign Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. 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 4-5 and 8 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.
Regarding Claim 4, the claim provides the limitations to “calculating scores of major components from the Raman spectroscopy; and calculating the density of the polymer by applying the scores of the main components to a regression model” in lines 7-10. The term “scores” as used in recited “calculating” steps is nebulous as to its scope and meaning. While the term is mentioned in paragraphs [83] and [91] of the as-filed specification, the precise manner in which the “scores” are to be calculated and then applied to the regression model is not made clear from consideration of the specification as a whole. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised o the scope of the invention. Claim 5 is subsumed in this ground of rejection, as it depends on claim 4 such that the reasoning relied upon above is equally applicable to rejection of the depend claim.
Regarding Claim 8, the claim recites the limitation to “the reaction raw material” in line 1. It is not clear what the limitation refers back to in the claim nor in parent claim 1, because there are several different possibilities as to what the limitation might refer back to. As to the different possibilities, “a first reaction raw material” and “a second rection raw material” are recited above in claim 1 in lines 3 and 6, respectively, and the limitation could refer back to either or both of the recitations. For purposes of substantive examination, an assumption has been made that the limitation refers back to the “first reaction raw material”; however, clarification and appropriate correction are required.
Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Lange et al (US 5151474) is cited as pertinent to use of Raman spectroscopy for performing a step of determining the concentration of a principal monomer (e.g., ethylene) and the concentration of a comonomer (e.g., 1-octene) in a stream of recycled solvent by high resolution multi-wavelength vibrational spectroscopic analysis, and controlling the rate of addition of the comonomer to a polymerization reactor according to the determining step (Lange: claims 1, 3-4, 9). The citation does not teach the specific configuration of four Raman spectrometers as recited in present claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3, 6-7, and 9-11 are allowed. Balance of the claims would be allowable if amended or rewritten to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112 set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Pending claims are deemed to distinguish over the closest prior art of EP 1713840 B1 (‘EP ‘840’), Battiste (US 2005/0154155 A1) and Deshpande et al (US 9040605 B2).
Applicant claims a method for producing an ethylene polymer, the method includes:
performing polymerization by injecting ethylene and C₄-C₁₀ alpha-olefin as a first reaction raw material into a first reactor;
performing polymerization by injecting a polymerization solution polymerized in the first reactor and ethylene and C₄-C₁₀ alpha-olefin as a second reaction raw material into a second reactor;
separating an ethylene polymer and an unreacted material by transferring the polymerization solution polymerized in the second reactor to a separation area;
recycling unreacted alpha-olefin and unreacted ethylene by transferring the unreacted material to a recycle area; and
re-injecting a recycle stream including the recycled unreacted alpha-olefin and unreacted ethylene into the first and second reactors,
wherein a first Raman spectrometer is located at a front end of the first reactor, a second Raman spectrometer is located at a front end of the second reactor, a third Raman spectrometer is located at a rear end of the first reactor, and a fourth Raman spectrometer is located at a rear end of the second reactor, and
the density of the ethylene polymer is predicted and controlled by quantitatively analyzing a content of unreacted alpha-olefin in the recycle stream in real time using the first Raman spectrometer and the second Raman spectrometer, quantitatively analyzing a content of unreacted alpha-olefin and unreacted ethylene in a polymerization solution in real time using the third Raman spectrometer and the fourth Raman spectrometer, and controlling in real time an amount of the injected alpha-olefin as a reaction raw material to the first reactor and the second reactor.
(Claim 1)
EP ‘840 discloses a method for monitoring a polyolefin production process using Raman spectroscopy (see p. 21, Claim 1), wherein one or more Raman probes may be used. EP ‘840 further enumerates possible installation locations for a Raman probe throughout the entire disclosed process (see ¶¶ [0038]-[0041]).
Battiste similarly discloses a method for monitoring a polyolefin reactor system using a spectroscopic Raman probe (see p. 17, Claims 1-3) and also describes possible installation locations for a Raman probe throughout the entire disclosed method (see ¶¶ [0083]-[0086], [0140] and [0147]).
Deshpande et al disclose a method for monitoring and/or adjusting dispersion polymerization of an olefin polymer, comprising a step of monitoring the concentration of carbon-carbon unsaturation in a dispersion using Raman spectroscopy (see col. 2, lines 6-10). The Raman spectrum determines the concentration of carbon-carbon unsaturation in the dispersion and the amount of monomer incorporated in the olefin polymer; the concentration of carbon-carbon unsaturation in the dispersion and the amount of monomer incorporated in the olefin polymer are then fed back to a process control system, and the process control system adjusts polymer properties, such as density (see col. 3, line 63 to col. 4, line 2). Deshpande et al further disclose a representative polymerization wherein ethylene and 1-octene are copolymerized (see Fig. 8 and col. 13, line 53 to col. 14, line 25) and an embodiment employing reactors having a configuration in which two or more reactors are configured in series (see col. 5, lines 47-50).
Present claim 1 distinguishes over the closest prior art by requiring a specific configuration of four Raman spectrometers within the dual reactor system, wherein: “a first Raman spectrometer is located at a front end of the first reactor, a second Raman spectrometer is located at a front end of the second reactor, a third Raman spectrometer is located at a rear end of the first reactor, and a fourth Raman spectrometer is located at a rear end of the second reactor”; and wherein the first and second Raman spectrometers are positioned for “quantitatively analyzing a content of unreacted alpha-olefin in the recycle stream”.
None of EP ‘840, Battiste, or Deshpande et al teaches the specific configuration of four Raman spectrometers as recited in present claim 1, nor do they teach the specific positions of the first and second Raman spectrometers so that they can quantitatively analyze the content of unreacted alpha-olefin in the recycle stream. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art would not have been motivated by the teachings of any of the aforementioned documents to develop a method for producing an ethylene polymer as claimed herein, with the expectation that it would enable the density of the resulting ethylene polymer to be accurately predicted and controlled in real time, as demonstrated by the test data reported in Table 2 (¶ [136]) of the instant specification.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Examiner F. M. Teskin whose telephone number is (571) 272-1116. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM.
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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) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/uspto-automated- interview-request-air-form.
/FRED M TESKIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
/FMTeskin/07-14-26
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