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 .
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
In claim 1, the functional relationship, or nexus, of the last clause beginning “performing post-treatment to obtain the nanofiltration membrane, wherein…” is unclear and ambiguous since it is unclear what material or membrane layer undergoes a “post treatment or treatment following another treatment (is the post-treatment performed on or to the polyamide functional layer, or does such post-treatment concern formation of an additional layer, functional group(s) or other component of the membrane.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action.
Claim 1 would distinguish and be non-obvious over all of the prior art in view of the recitation in independent claim 1 of: “A preparation method for a nanofiltration membrane, comprising the following steps:
preparing a casting solution, and curing the casting solution on a reinforcement material to form a base membrane, wherein the casting solution contains a polymer and a solvent;
contacting the base membrane with a water phase solution and an oil phase solution in turn to perform an interfacial polymerization reaction on the base membrane to form a polyamide functional layer, wherein the water phase solution contains a water phase monomer and an additive, the additive is a glycosylated sulfonamide compound, and the oil phase solution contains an oil phase monomer; and
performing post-treatment (of the membrane generally, or of the polyamide functional layer) to obtain the nanofiltration membrane, wherein the post- treatment comprises hydroxylation treatment and crosslinking treatment, all of which is known or obvious in or over the prior art, now of record, in view of further recitation of wherein the water phase solution additive comprises a glycosylated sulfonamide compound.
The closest prior art concerns the following:
CN patent publication documents and their accompanying English translations of 103223300, 108325399, 111514769, 1129999898 all of which clearly teach the instantly claimed method preparation or formation steps in the claim 1, “preparing, and contacting clauses, except for recitation of an additive being a glycosylated sulfonamide compound or any reasonable closely related material;
Patent publication WO 2022/071123 which teaches a nanofiltration membrane with a polyamide layer which bother undergoes crosslinking and hydroxylation reactions with regard to the polyamide resin of such layer; and
Crich et al USPGPUBS Document 2010/0222546, Matwiejuk et al USPGPUBS Document 2019/0345183 and patent publication AU 2014203694 (all of which teach and describe treatment of pharmaceutical drugs or materials with a glycosylated sulfonamide compound and treatment of such drugs or materials with a nanofiltration membrane, or other form of filtration membrane, however teaching the glycosylated sulfonamide compound, as a material which is treated by a membrane, rather than as an additive utilized in the interfacial polymerization membrane preparation method step as claimed.
The cited Mohmmad et al NPL publication teaches the general state of the art of nanofiltration membrane preparation, however does not suggest utilization of any additive similar to the claimed glycosylated sulfonamide compound.
All of claims 2-20 are deemed to require performing of the method steps of claim 1, so are also deemed to be distinguished and non-obvious, including product-by-process claim 10 which inherently requires a polyamide polyfunctional membrane layer containing a glycosylated sulfonamide compound, or reactant thereof, and a base membrane layer containing a polymer, which are similarly not taught or obvious in view of the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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JWD
08/29/2026
/JOSEPH W DRODGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1773
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