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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claim 1, in the reply filed on 2/24/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 3-5, and 8-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected bacteriostatic agent and a method for inhibiting CLAs by injection, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2/24/2026.
Claim 1 is under current examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Applicant attests in the Transmittal Letter dated 5/13/2024 that the certified copy of the foreign priority document is enclosed. While the document is in Chinese, its format and Applicant’s transmittal is understood to constitute a certified copy.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/4/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because 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 it is a “use” claim reciting no active step therefore is not a process nor is it expressly a machine, manufacture, or composition of matter encompassing requisite claimed structural components and/or functions. One cannot claim a new use, because it is not among the categories of patentable inventions specified in 35 U.S.C. 101. Moreover, even if the claim were interpreted as a product claim, the claimed invention would be directed as directed to a natural phenomenon without significantly more by its recitation of an extract product of nature; as such, the claims do not include additional elements which would structurally or functionally differentiate the claimed combination of elements from their inclusion in a green coffee bean as naturally occurring.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 1 is 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. The metes and bounds of the claimed subject matter are indefinite since there are no active, positive steps delimiting how the claimed use is actually practiced.
Also, the metes and bounds of the term “effective concentration” as recited in lines 2 and 3 of claim 1 and also in the last line of the claim are also indefinite. What amount is effective and/or what parameters are used to ascertain this amount? Is the first recited “effective concentration” the same or different as the second recited “effective concentration” wherein the second concentration appears to reference chlorogenic acid as a part in the green coffee bean extract as a whole. In the first recited “effective concentration” no part or whole components are clearly identified so the concentration terms are unclear.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by CN113304504A.
Claim 1 is drawn to a “use”, the terms of which are addressed above under rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101 and 35 U.S.C. 102. It is re-iterated that no stepwise active process is recited. For the purpose of applying prior art, the intended use of citrus huanglongbing control is not considered to impart further structural or functional weight into the claim. A composition comprising chlorogenic acid having a concentration of greater than or equal to 0.5 mg/mL in a green coffee bean extract is considered to meet the claim .
CN113304504A teaches industrialized technology for preparing green coffee bean extract (see title, in particular). CN113304504A achieves a green coffee bean extract following a detailed process of making (or, more specifically, isolating and diluting) an extract from the naturally occurring green coffee bean. CN113304504A specifies that the total chlorogenic acid concentration present in an aqueous extract is 12 +/- 2 mg/mL (see paragraph starting “An industrial technology for preparing green coffee bean extract…” six lines from the bottom of that paragraph on page 2/8 of translation).
Accordingly, CN113304504A teaches a green coffee bean extract wherein chlorogenic acid concentration is included within the claimed concentration range.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed at this time.
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/AUDREA B CONIGLIO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1617