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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of Application, Amendments, and/or Claims
The Response filed February 19, 2026 has been entered in full. Applicant has submitted a new abstract on January 19, 2026. Claims 1-10 have been cancelled without prejudice or disclaimer. Claims 11-15 are pending and subjected of this Office Action.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. However, certified English copies have not been filed. For the sake of searching the art, the effective filing date is February 19, 2024.
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
Applicant was reminded of their duty to disclose (see 37 CFR 1.56). At the time of the instant Office action, no Information disclosure statement (IDS) had been received.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments as they pertain to request for full consideration of the new claims, 11-15 amended to the application regarding compliance with the 35 U.S.C. 112(a) enablement requirement.
Applicant has submitted the acceptance notice for alkali-tolerant microbial bacterium PDC-1, deposited in the China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center on December 24, 2022 (deposit number “CGMCC NO25957’) with response. The deposit was made under the terms of the Budapest Treaty.
In response to applicant’s arguments on February 19, 2026, the rejection of claims 11-15 under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) enablement requirement is withdrawn in view of Applicant’s statement regarding the Budapest Treaty deposit, and notice of deposit in China General Microbiological Culture Collection under number CGMCC N0 25957.
New Rejections
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (CN 116042484 B; hereafter Huang; PTO-892).
As to claims 11-12, Huang teaches “alkali-resistant microorganism bacteria PDC-1, the strain is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, preservation number is CGMCC NO.25957. 2022, October 24, preserved in China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center (CGMCC). Huang also teaches “The invention belongs to organic pollutant degradation field, specifically relates to an alkali-resistant microorganism bacteria PDC-1 and application of in-situ repairing organic polluted soil in mine area”. “The invention further claims the application of the microbial strain PDC-1 in the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollution and/or heavy metal polluted water body or soil repairing”. Huang teaches “Specifically, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon is selected from naphthalene, phenanthrene, anthracene and/or pyrene; the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon is selected from one or more of NAP, PHE, ANT, PYR, BaP, BghiP; the heavy metal is cadmium, chromium, antimony and other heavy metal; more preferably, the bacterial suspension of the composite polluted repairing bacteria is applied in the soil”.
As to claim 13, Huang teaches “S1, the solid inorganic salt culture medium containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mother liquor is coated, culturing at 30-35 degrees centigrade, culturing for about 48-72h; S2, selecting single colony to inoculate into LB liquid culture medium, then at 30-35 degrees centigrade, 150-180 rpm oscillating culture, preparing bacteria suspension of OD600 = 0.5-1.5; S3, inoculating to the new LB liquid culture medium, at 30-35 degrees centigrade, oscillating and fermenting for 24-48h at 150-180 rpm to obtain the culture solution”.
As to claim 14, Huang teaches that the fermentation culture medium formulation is corn oil 20 g/L, glucose 5 g/L, yeast powder 5 g/L, NaNO35g/L, NaCl 5 g/L, K2HPO4 2g/L, distilled water 1 L.
As to claim 15, “the bacteria in the degrading microbial inoculum is not less than 1.0X 108 CFU/ml, preferably 1.0 X109 CFU/ml to 1.0 X1010 CFU/ml.”
Applicant cannot rely upon the certified copy of the foreign priority application to overcome this rejection because a translation of said application has not been made of record in accordance with 37 CFR 1.55. When an English language translation of a non-English language foreign application is required, the translation must be that of the certified copy (of the foreign application as filed) submitted together with a statement that the translation of the certified copy is accurate. See MPEP §§ 215 and 216.
Conclusion
No claims are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRICILA HAUK TEODORO whose telephone number is (571)272-2784. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:15AM-3:15PM.
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/PRICILA NMN HAUK TEODORO/Examiner, Art Unit 1645
/DANIEL E KOLKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1645