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 application is a national stage application of PCT/US2022/048939, filed November 4, 2022, which claims benefit of provisional applications 63/354501, filed June 22, 2022, 63/354505, filed June 22, 2022, and 63/276163, filed November 5, 2021. Claims 1-18 are pending in this application and examined on the merits herein.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miller et al. (PCT international publication WO2022/203866, Reference included with PTO-892) in view of Huang et al. (PCT international publication WO2018/112187, Reference included with PTO-892)
Independent claim 1 is directed to a composition comprising both a positively charged alpha-1,6-glucan and an insoluble alpha-1,3-glucan. Miller et al. discloses a fabric care composition comprising a dextran polymer functionalized with quaternary ammonium groups. (p. 1 paragraph 6) These compositions are used as fragrance deposition aids in a method of treating laundry. (p. 1 paragraph 7) More specifically the dextran polymer is an alpha glucan having about 94-96% alpha-1,6 linkages and about 4-6 mol% alpha-1,3 linkages, as well as pendant quaternary ammonium groups. (p. 4 paragraph 17 – p. 6 paragraph 19) In a specific embodiment the polymer is seen to have a degree of substitution of 0.19 and a mw of about 1820 kDa. (pp. 13-14 paragraph 42) This polymer therefore falls within the scope of polymer (a) recited in present claim 1-4. Miller et al. does not further describe the composition as also including an insoluble alpha-1,3-glucan.
Huang et al. discloses a composition comprising a poly-alpha-1,3 glucan having at least 50% alpha-1,3 linkages. (p. 2 lines 15-20) in a preferred embodiment the poly-alpha-1,3-glucan has a degree of polymerization of at least 10. (p. 19 lines 19-22) These polysaccharides can be used as components of fabric care compositions, for methods of treating fabrics. (p. 6 lines 10-16, p. 41 lines 26 – p. 43 line 4)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to produce a fabric care composition containing both the quaternary ammonium alpha-1,6-glucan polymer described by Miller et al. and the insoluble alpha-1,3-glucan polymer described by Huang et al. One of ordinary skill in the art would have seen the prior art as suggesting that both of these polymers are useful ingredients to include in such a composition.
Regarding claims 6, 7, and 9, Miller et al. discloses a preferred formula for the quaternary ammonium that is an ether group. (pp. 5-6 paragraph 19) The quaternary ammonium can further include a C6-22 alkyl group, which substantially overlaps the C4-20 recited in present claim 7.
Regarding claim 10, Huang et al. describes the poly alpha 1,3 glucan as having at least 95% alpha-1,3- glycosidic linkages. (p. 20 lines 6-8) Regarding claim 11, Huang et al. teaches a Dp of about 500-900. (p. 19 lines 21-22) Regarding claim 12, Miller discloses that the fabric care composition is an aqueous composition. (p. 3 paragraph 13)
Regarding claim 8, Huang et al. discloses antimicrobial activity. (p. 45 lines 11-16) Additionally, a property such as antimicrobial activity is reasonably expected to be an inherent property of a particular chemical structure and would therefore be necessarily present.
Regarding claims 14, 15, and 18 these claims would be infringed by treating a fabric with the fabric care composition, which is necessarily suggested by its disclosed utility. Regarding claim 16-17, Huang et al. specifically suggests a process of washing soiled fabric using the disclosed composition.
Therefore the invention taken as a whole is prima facie obvious.
Conclusion
No claims are allowed in this action.
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/ANDREA OLSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1693 6/15/2026
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