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/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group claims 1-17 and 33 in the reply filed on 04/13/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 18-23 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 04/13/2026.
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) 1-6, 8-10 and 33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. (a)(1) as being in public use, on sale as ascertained by their presence Chemical Abstract Service, Data Base:
The numbers are CAS Registry Numbers.
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464
974
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464
968
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466
942
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148
634
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Claim(s) Claim(s) s 1, 2, 8- 10, and 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. (a)(1) as being anticipated by Murty, Medicinal Chemistry Research (2011), 20(5), 626-636
At page 627 compound 5a-1 X = N-benzyl corresponds to
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112
266
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, also commercially (on sale) noted as with CAS Registry Number. 155106-76-6
Corresponds to formula I of claim 1, Q1=Q2=CH; R1 = H; see dependent claim for A, R2 =H.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-17 and 33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as explained below, based on commercial availability, Murty, and Cannon, Chapter Nineteen in Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, Fifth Edition, Volume I: Principles and Practice, Wiley-Interscience 1995, pp. 783-802.
The compounds of formula I are commercially available. See above section under 35 USC § 102.
Also Murty, Medicinal Chemistry Research (2011), 20(5), 626-636 teaches compound falling under the scope of formula I. Murty teaching is in the same area of endeavor.
Compound of claim formula II is also in public use, on sale as ascertained by their presence Chemical Abstract Service, Data Base:
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136
316
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This compound is excluded by proviso.
The pictured compounds for formula I above include alkyl homologs of the excluded compounds. Similarly, the compounds of claims 12-18 are defined as having R substituents (other than trifluoromethyl). Claim 7 specifically requires the substituent CN.
Groups such as H, alkyl, nitro, cyano, aryl etc. are routinely used, optionally in the chemistry art on previously known compounds to arrive at optimized versions.
With respect to disclosure in the specification:
There is no comparative data for the excluded compounds. Disclosure in the specification relates to making (pages 25 and 29) excluded compounds of formulae I and II. The included compounds thus are obtained from commercial source and assays are done using routine HTS.
Accordingly, the claims do not recite an unobvious distinction over the prior art. Further, a reference is relevant not only for what it expressly teaches, but also for what it would have conveyed to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Opprecht, 12 USPQ2d 1235, 1236 (Fed. Cir. 1989); In re Bode, 193 USPQ 12 (CCPA 1976). In light of the foregoing discussion, the Examiner finds that the claimed subject matter as a whole would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made, in view of the cited references and the knowledge generally available in the art. Accordingly, the claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Nishiguchi, Evaluating and evolving a screening library in academia, Drug Discov Today. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2022 April 01.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NIZAL S CHANDRAKUMAR whose telephone number is (571)272-6202. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Kosar can be reached at (571) 272-0913. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NIZAL S CHANDRAKUMAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1625
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