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 U.S.C. § 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 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 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fuel, 2022, 324, 124694 (herein “Yu”) as evidenced by Chemical Communications, 2013, 49(82), 9449-9451 (herein “Katz”).
As to claims 1-2: Yu describes Cu-Zn catalysts encapsulated by Zr-based metal–organic frameworks (UiO-66) for catalyzing CO2 hydrogenation to methanol (see the abstract).
Yu discloses that the UiO-66 is made according to the method of Katz (see Yu section 2.1). Katz discloses that the UiO-66 is a cubic framework of cationic Zr6O4(OH)4 nodes (formed in situ via hydrolysis of ZrCl4) and 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate linkers (see the bottom left of p. 9449) and is thus according to the recited chemical formula.
Claims 1-2 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 9428-9438 (herein “Benseghir”).
As to claims 1-2 and 4: Benseghir describes a polyoxometalate catalyst that is encapsulated with the Zr(IV) based metal organic framework UiO-67 (see the abstract). UiO-67 is according to the recited chemical formula with the linker 4,4’-biphenyl-dicarboxylic acid (see scheme (a) in Figure 1).
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7, 3624-3631 (herein “Song”).
Song describes the encapsulation of the catalysts polyoxomolybdic cobalt (CoPMA) and polyoxomolybdic acid (PMA) within the Zr based metal organic frameworks of UiO-bpy (connected by 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylic acid linkers) and UiO-67 (connected by 4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylic acid linkers).
Claims 1-2 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 8082-8085 (herein “Li”).
Li describes the encapsulation of the ruthenium complex (tBuPNP)Ru(CO)-HCl in the Zr based metal organic framework UiO-66 (connected by 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate linkers) (see the abstract).
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 10 and 17-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites a catalyst that “exhibits stronger resistency to tertiary amines”. The claim and the specification do not set forth the meaning of “resistency,” such as the changes in structure or function that occur due to tertiary amines.
The claims and the specification also do not set forth the conditions under which the recited “resistency” is determined, such as the concentration of catalyst or tertiary amine, the temperature at which they are contacted, or the amount of time after which the determination of resistency is made.
For these reasons, claim 10 does not set forth the scope of the recited resistency with reasonable clarity.
Claims 10 and 17-18 recite properties in comparison to a “reference catalyst”. The claims and the specification do not set forth the identity of the recited reference catalyst. Because of this, the claims do not set forth the scope of the recited comparisons with reasonable clarity.
Claim 19 recites a method including a step (a) of mixing components in a first polar solvent, and the claim subsequently recites a step (b) including removing “the acetonitrile”. Because the claim does not recite acetonitrile prior to step (b), the reference to “the acetonitrile” lacks proper antecedent basis, and the claim does not set forth with reasonable clarity whether or not step (a) requires acetonitrile.
Claim 20 is dependent upon claim 19 and is indefinite for the same reason.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7-9, and 11-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but they would be allowable if written in independent form.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD A. HUHN whose telephone number is (571)270-7345. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arrie (Lanee) Reuther can be reached at (571) 270-7026. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RICHARD A. HUHN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764
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