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 § 112
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.
Claims 9 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.
Regarding claim 9, line 2, it is not clear if “a composition” is the same or different from the composition in parent claim 7.
Claim 7 depends from claim 7, which depends from claim 1, it is thus not clear if “an estolide polyol ester”, “a salt of a fatty acid and an alkanolamine” and “a surfactant” is the same or different from those taught in claim 1. It is suggested to use “the” instead of “a” or “an” to clarify the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4, 6-8 and 10 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art of US 2016/0108304 teaches the use of estolide esters in drilling fluids, but fails to teach or render obvious the alkanolamine salts or surfactants of the current invention. WO 2019/129792 teaches a composition which can comprise a salt of an alkanolamine and a sorbitan ester, however, there is no motivation to substitute the ester therein with the estolide ester of the current invention.
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHILIP C TUCKER whose telephone number is (571)272-1095. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4:30.
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/PHILIP C TUCKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1745
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