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 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.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshida et al. (US 4,169,109) in view of Irie et al. (Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 1980).
The claims are drawn to a process for making a product mixture comprising 4-hexen-3-one and 3-methyl-3-penten-2-one by reacting 2-butanone (methyl ether ketone) with acetaldehyde in the presence of a zinc complex catalyst.
Yoshida et al. teach a process wherein 4-hexen-3-one and 3-methyl-3-penten-2-one are produced by reacting acetaldehyde with methyl ethyl ketone in the presence of a zinc catalyst, i.e., zinc oxide or zinc acetate. The reaction with zinc acetate is conducted at a temperature of 130 to 180°C (col. 4, lines 56-60; col. 19, lines 30-44).
The difference between Yoshida et al. and the present invention is that Yoshida et al. use a zinc acetate as catalyst and not a zinc complex as recited in the instant claims. However, Irie et al. teach aldol condensation reactions using various metal (II) complexes as catalyst. Specifically, Irie et al. teach that the zinc complex Zn (II) acetate-2,2’-bipyridine most effective for producing alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones (p. 1367).
In view of the combined reference teachings, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to substitute the zinc acetate catalyst used in the condensation reaction between acetaldehyde and methyl ethyl ketone, taught by Yoshida et al., with the zinc acetate-2,2’-bipyridine complex taught by Irie et al., since Irie et al. teach the effectiveness of such a catalyst complex in processes for making alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones by aldol condensation reactions. Such a person would have also found it obvious to separate the reaction products from the zinc complex catalyst and reusing the latter in the aldol condensation step.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SIKARL A WITHERSPOON whose telephone number is (571)272-0649. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-9pm IFP.
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/SIKARL A WITHERSPOON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1692
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