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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of the Group I, claims 1-10, in the reply filed on 5/14/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 11-20 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected invention(s), there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 5/14/2026.
Claims 1-10 as filed on 5/29/2024 in are pending and under examination in the instant office action.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-10 objected to because of the following informalities:
In the claim 1 steps b) and c) are not linked by “and” as recited therein.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-6 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC). {See English translation provided by applicants with IDS filed on 8/22/2025}.
The cited document by US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) discloses a method of producing an antimicrobial composition produced by Aspergillus sp. or Aspergillus oryzae (see English translation; par. 0001), wherein the method comprises steps:
a) inoculating a medium with Aspergillus to produce an inoculated medium (par. 0015);
b) culturing the inoculated medium to produce an Aspergillus fermentate (par. 0016);
c) filtering the Aspergillus fermentate to obtain a cell-free Aspergillus fermentate filtrate (par. 0017, line 2).
Thus, the cited document US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) clearly anticipates claim 1.
As applied to claims 2-6: the cited document by US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) further teaches extracting the cell-free Aspergillus fermentate filtrate with extracting solvent (0019), concentering and/or purifying active fraction of extract, diluting and drying (0023). The list of solvents comprises methanol.
With regard to claim 8: the medium comprises at least one claim-recited nutrient such as dipotassium phosphate (par. 0014, last 3 lines).
As applied to claim 9: Aspergillus sp. is Aspergillus oryzae (see English translation; par. 0001) as well as others (par. 0012).
As applied to claim 10: in the cited method the medium is inoculated with about 104 to 106 conidia or spore per mL of Aspergillus sp (par. 0015); the inoculated medium is cultured for at least about 6 at temperature 25 to 40° C under stirring (shaking) conditions (006-0017). Theus, the culturing conditions are the same and/or fall within the same ranges of condition parameters as recited in the claims.
Thus, the cited document US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) anticipates the claimed invention.
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 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) in view of US 3,056,729 (Seto et al).
The cited document by US 2018/012675 (Hiroshima University NUC) discloses a method of producing an antimicrobial composition produced by Aspergillus sp. or Aspergillus oryzae (see English translation; par. 0001) by culturing Aspergillus in a medium, filtering the Aspergillus fermentate and extracting the filtrate (par. 0014-0020). In particular, the medium comprises carbon sources and salts including dipotassium phosphate. The cited document is silent about enzymatic digest of casein and other nutrients for culturing Aspergillus.
However, the medium comprising enzymatic digest of casein is a common prior art medium which has been knonw and used for culturing Aspergillus; for example: see US 3,056,729 (Seto et al) at col. 4, lines 50-60. Various nutrients including glucose (dextrose), molasses, soybean meal, yeast extract, sodium, potassium are knonw and used for submerged aerobic fermentation of Aspergillus (col. 2, lines 1-45).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to provide various nutrients including enzymatic digest of casein in the medium for culturing Aspergillus with a reasonable expectation of success for culturing Aspergillus and producing its metabolite including antimicrobials because all claim-recited nutrients have been known and used in the prior art for submerged aerobic fermentation of representatives of genius of Aspergillus.
Thus, the claimed invention as a whole was clearly prima facie obvious, especially in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
The claimed subject matter fails to patentably distinguish over the state art as represented be the cited references. Therefore, the claims are properly rejected under 35 USC § 103.
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Vera Afremova
July 14, 2026
/VERA AFREMOVA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1653
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