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 I in the reply filed on 2/03/2026 is acknowledged.
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) 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Neal et al, US Patent Publication 2012/0055643.
Regarding claims 1-3, Neal teaches a dispersible paper in aqueous medium (teaches a fibrous tissue product that includes toilet tissue for post bowel movement cleaning which is understood by the average artisan to be dispersible in water as it is a flushable product [0095]) comprising:
An unbleached paper (there are no mentions of a bleaching step in the method of making the tissue [0275-0286] comprising of 100% cellulose fibers (the paper is a 70/30 blend of NSK and EUC which are both cellulose fibers [0275]);
At least one defoamer (ethoxylated fatty alcohol defoamer [0276]); and
At least one drainage aid (Kymene is a drainage aid [0276]) in the base sheet example and polyacrylamide in [0155]).
Neal does not teach the use of a disintegration agent, a gluing agent or a dry resistance agent (as examples given in [0015] of the instant specification). There is not a teaching of using ASA, AKD, or a starch in the Examples of Neal. Neither is there a showing of aluminum based additives.
Neal does teach that surfactants can be optionally applied [0137] and gives one example that includes a surfactant (Example 1).
Neal’s example 2 does not include any of the disallowed additives or surfactants. Example 2 is the base sheet described in [0275-0286] with the addition of Mirapol as an additive which is a flocculating agent [0153], which is not excluded from the scope of the invention.
Regarding claim 4, Neal teaches that the fibers can be Kraft pulp [0090] and be produced into a monolayer (Example 2 teaches the production of both single ply and double ply paper [0293]) at a range of 55-105 g/m squared [0097].
Regarding claim 5, Neal further teaches that the defoamer is added in the amount of 1 pound per ton [0276] which equates to 0.05% and that the drainage aid is present of 0.01-0.05% (listed as soil absorbing agent [0135]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JACOB T MINSKEY whose telephone number is (571)270-7003. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-6 PM.
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JACOB T. MINSKEY
Examiner
Art Unit 1741
/JACOB T MINSKEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1748
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