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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to applicant’s reply filed on May 20, 2026.
Restrictions/Elections.
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I (Claims 1-13 and 27) in the reply filed on May 20, 2026, is acknowledged.
The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is unity of invention. This is not found persuasive because the claimed compounds are known in the prior art (see 102 rejection below) as such they cannot be a special technical feature under PCT rule 13.2.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Applicant election of the following species (compound 6):
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is also acknowledged.
Since the species is free of prior art, the examination was expanded to the following species:
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Status of Claims
Claims 1-24 and 27-33 are currently pending and are the subject of this office action.
Claims 14-24 and 28-33 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made with traverse in the reply filed on May 20, 2026.
Claims 1-13 and 27 are presently under examination as they relate to the above elected and expanded species.
Priority
The present application is a 371 of PCT/US2022/043523 filed on 09/14/2022 which claims priority to provisional application No. 63/244,040 filed on 09/14/2021.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sparks et. al. (US 2017/0190689).
For claims 1-3 and 5-10, Sparks teaches the following compound:
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(see compound 8 on Table 1, page 39), wherein B is pyrazole, B’ is a bond, A1 is unsubstituted pyridine, A is imidazole, B’ is a bond and C is unsubstituted phenyl.
Claim Objections
Claims 4, 11-13 and 27 are objected to in part as being dependent upon a
rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, and to recite only the elected species (compound 6).
Note that claims 4, 11-13 and 27 are objected to in part herein insofar as it contains non-elected subject matter to which the prior art search has not yet been extended. That part which has been searched, however (consistent with the election of species requirement as previously discussed), would be allowable if the claim was amended in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, and to remove the currently non-elected subject matter (i.e. all the species except for compound 6).
Conclusion
No claims are allowed.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCOS L SZNAIDMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3498. The examiner can normally be reached Flexing M-F 7 AM-7 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amy L. Clark can be reached on 571 272-1310. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MARCOS L SZNAIDMAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1628
May 21, 2026.
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