Detailed Office Action
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, has been examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 15 July 2026 has been entered.
Examiner’s Comment
3. The examiner’s amendment of 14 April 2026 remains in effect; therefore, any claim listing filed subsequent to this Office Action must reflect the claim amendments set forth within the examiner’s amendment.
Prior Art Rejection
4. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
5. Claims 1-11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by WO 2022/241242 A1, cited within the Information Disclosure Statement of 15 July 2026.
WO 2022/241242 A1 discloses within Examples 1 and 3 (these examples were set forth within priority document 63/188,668) the esterification reaction of isosorbide and propanediol with succinic acid or partially hydrogenated, distilled dimer acid in the presence of phosphorous acid (also known as phosphonic acid). Amounts of components of the reaction mixtures meet those claimed. Though a polyester polyol is not specifically disclosed, given the molecular weight of the reactants and the quantity of reactants employed, a molar excess of hydroxyl groups, relative to carboxylic acid groups, is present within the reaction mixtures; accordingly, the presence of the molar excess of hydroxyl groups yields hydroxyl terminated polyesters. Though the reference fails to disclose that the polycarboxylic acid is bio-based (instant claim 3), it has not been established that bio-based production of the polycarboxylic acid yields a patentably distinct product.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 12-16 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. The relied upon prior art fails to disclose the process steps of claim 12 or the polyurethane adhesive composition of claims 13-16.
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Rabon A Sergent whose telephone number is (571)272-1079. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM, ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Heidi Riviere Kelley, can be reached at telephone number (571)270-1831. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Examiner interviews are available via a variety of formats. See MPEP § 713.01. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/InterviewPractice.
/RABON A SERGENT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765
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