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 § 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) 1-2, 6-7, 16, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Cairns (U.S. Patent 2,430,860). Regarding Claim 1, Cairns shows a method for producing monomers and/or oligomers from a polymer comprising a structural unit having a nitrogen-carbonyl carbon bond, wherein the nitrogen-carbonyl carbon bond is cleaved in a chemical reaction with formaldehyde or paraformaldehyde as activating reagent, and wherein the reaction is carried out using a Lewis acid acting as catalyst (Column 2, lines 28-43).
Regarding Claim 2, Cairns shows the method of claim 1 above, including using an appropriate amount of formaldehyde (Column 2, lines 28-43; Column 4, lines 21-65; It is interpreted that the amount used would inherently qualify as one of stoichiometrically or substoichiometrically).
Regarding Claim 6, Cairns shows the method of claim 1 above, including one wherein the chemical reaction is carried out in an organic solvent (Column 3, lines 65-68).
Regarding Claim 7, Cairns shows the method of claim 1 above, including one wherein water is used as an additive (Column 4, lines 1-10).
Regarding Claim 16, Cairns shows the method of claim 6 above, including one wherein the organic solvent is a polar organic solvent (Column 3, lines 65-68).
Regarding Claim 18, Cairns shows a monomer obtainable or produced by a method of claim 1 (Column 6, lines 24-45).
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) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cairns, in view of Fevre et al. (U.S. Patent Application 2019/0174755). Cairns shows the monomer of claim 16 above, but he does not disclose a specific monomer. Fevre et al., hereafter “Fevre,” show that it is known to have an amine monomer prepared from a depolymerization reaction (0052). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to yield Fevre’s monomer from a depolymerization reaction such as Cairns because there is art recognized suitability that amine monomers can be created by that process (MPEP 244.07).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 8-15, and 17 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MONICA HUSON whose telephone number is (571)272-1198. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8a-4p.
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MONICA ANNE HUSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1742
/MONICA A HUSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1742
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