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 .
Summary
Claims 1-12 are pending in this office action. Claims 28-51 are cancelled. All pending claims are under examination in this application.
Priority
The current application filed on May 1, 2024 is a continuation of PCT/CN2021/128778 filed November 4, 2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
Receipt of the Information Disclosure Statement filed on October 15, 2025 is acknowledged. A signed copy of the form PTO/SB/08 is attached to this office action.
Claim Interpretation
Claim 1 is interpreted as a process for treating cruciferous plants since the actual method step that is implied is application of the composition to cruciferous plants. Claim 1 includes the effect of applying the higher fatty alcohol to the plants of increasing transcription level of genes related to a fatty acid metabolic pathway, however, this effect is not given any patentable weight as the mechanism by which the composition increases crop resistance to fungal disease and insect pests is immaterial.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
All claims are directed to a “use” which makes the claims ambiguous. In the interests of compact prosecution, the clams are being examined as if they were a process of treating cruciferous plants to increase a crop resistance to fungal diseases and insect pests or improving the growth and germination rate of cruciferous plants.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
The claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because a “use” is neither a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.
The rejections over 35 USC 112(b) and 35 USC 101 may be overcome by amending the claims to either a process as outlined above, or a composition, or both.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng et al. CN111513062 in view of Qui et al. CN109874579, Cai et al. CN 109769550 and Lv et al. CN 101946766.
Peng et al. CN111513062 teach preparing and applying an aqueous emulsion for preventing and treating citrus fruit tree yellow fruit tree disease to said trees comprising admixing lauryl alcohol, cetanol (cetyl alcohol), emulsifier that can be high carbon fatty alcohol-polyoxyethylene ether and a thickener that can be methyl cellulose. They do not teach treating cruciferous plants, nor the mechanism of increasing transcription level of genes related to a fatty acid metabolic pathway.
Qui et al. CN109874579 teach preparation and application of compositions similar to Peng et al. to be applied to corn for prevention of fresh corn rust disease.
Cai et al. CN 109769550 teach dodecanol with emulsifying agent, thickener and water for application to radish.
Lv et al. CN 101946766 teach triacontanol, a 30-atom higher fatty alcohol, for application to rapeseed and cabbage to improve growth and germination rate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the instant effective filing date to follow the teachings of Peng et al. to prepare such a composition and apply it to radish or cabbage (two cruciferous plants) for the purposes of improving growth and germination rate because Lv et al. and Cai et al. teach the effect of the higher alcohol on plant growth.
Regarding claims 7, 9 and 11 one of ordinary skill n the art would have found it obvious to use a mixture of dodecanol and cetyl alcohol as taught by Peng et al. and Cai et al. because they are two specific examples of higher alcohols already taught to be useful for improving plant growth by the other references.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
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/Robert A Wax/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1615