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
Applicants’ election without traverse of Group I, claims 1, 4, 9, 15 and 18 in the reply filed on 6/30/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 24,26-27,29,35,41,55-57,59,61,63-64 and 66are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 without traverse in the reply filed on 6/30/2026.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 6/18/2024; 5/13/2025; 10/21/2025; 5/5/2026; and 6/30/2026 have been fully considered. Initialed copies of said IDSs are enclosed herein.
Drawings
The drawings filed 6/18/2024 are accepted.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4, 9, 15, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2021/243235 A1 (herein referred to as “CARGILL”) in view of WO 2021/084031 A1 (herein referred to as EVERTREE) and further in view of Anderson (US 2019/0144727).
CARGILL discloses an engineered wood precursor mixture (abstract), comprising: a plurality of wood components (abstract); and a binder reaction mixture present in a range of from 3 parts to 25 parts per 100 parts of the dry weight of the plurality of wood components (abstract). The binder includes an aqueous component and a carbohydrate containing component in the range of 2-85wt% based on the dry weight of the binder reaction mixture (abstract). The aqueous portion further includes 0.1-10wt% sodium trimetaphosphate(abstract). The binder mixture further comprises an at least partially non-dissolved polypeptide-containing component in a range of from 20 wt% to 85 wt%, based on the dry weight of the binder reaction mixture (para [0003] wherein the polypeptide containing component comprising a protein pea flour (0032).
CARGILL is relied upon as above but does not disclose the binder reaction mixture should further comprise a glycerol component comprising glycerol or an oligomer of glycerol, the glycerol component. However, EVERTREE discloses an adhesive composition (abstract) useful to make wood composites (p. 3, In 27-28) wherein the composition comprises glycerol (pages 11-12) which improves the water resistance of properties of the adhesive. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to add glycerol to the aqueous binder composition disclosed CARGILL; the motivation for doing would have been because the presence of glycerol as plasticizer would be expected to improve water resistance of the adhesive (p. 12, In 12-13). Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to optimize the amount of glycerol added to the composition in order to optimize the water resistance of the composition.
Furthermore, CARGILL teaches the polypeptide may comprise pea flour but does not disclose an enhanced protein pea flour wherein the enhanced protein pea flour comprises 40 wt% to 85 wt% protein. However, Anderson teaches a wood adhesive (abstract) for use in production of engineered wood (0019) that utilizes a pea flour having a high protein content of 25-55% (0014). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to combine the utilize of the high [enhanced] protein pea flour of Anderson as the polypeptide component of CARGILL; the motivation for doing so would have been because it is functionally equivalent in wood adhesive compositions to the proteins disclosed in Cargill.
With regards to claim 2, CARGILL discloses the engineered wood precursor mixture of claim 1, wherein the aqueous portion further comprises 1 wt% to 33 wt% of a base, based on a dry weight of the binder reaction mixture (0004).
With regards to claim 4, Cargill teaches the aqueous composition should have a PH of greater than 10 (0003).
With regards to claim 9, Cargill teaches the binder composition comprises a carbohydrate containing component in the range of 2-85wt% based on the dry weight of the binder reaction mixture (abstract) wherein the carbohydrate- containing component comprises glucose, fructose, sucrose, or a mixture thereof, and the combined wt% of glucose, fructose, sucrose, or a mixture thereof in the carbohydrate-containing component is at least 60 wt% (abstract). The aqueous portion further includes sodium sulfite, sodium bisulfite or sodium metabisulfite (0034).
With regards to claim 15, Regarding claim 15, CARGILL discloses the engineered wood precursor mixture comprises less than 5 wt% of urea-formaldehyde (0035).
With regards to claim 18, Cargill teaches moisture content of the binder reaction mixture and the plurality of wood components together is in a range of from 7% to 25% (0036).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN R KRUER whose telephone number is (571)272-1510. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/KEVIN R KRUER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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