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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Amendment filed 12/17/2025 has been entered and fully considered. Claim 1 is cancelled. Claim 2 is pending and amended. No new matter is added.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/17/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the cited art does not teach or suggest a red and green wax in a 1:1 ratio, as is now claimed.
Examiner notes that this limitation was not previously presented and will be addressed hereinafter.
Claim 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 recites “a green wax and a red wax and a 1:1 ratio of said green wax and said red wax”. While ratios are inherently unitless because they compare amounts of the same unit, the claim still is indefinite because there is no indication which units are being compared. Specifically, the if the ratio is of volumes of waxes, waxes that have different densities will have different masses. If the ratio is of masses of waxes, then the volume of each wax would be different when having different densities. The ratio could also be a molar ratio. Thus, the nominal ratio when comparing different units would change based on the units being compared. Therefore, claim 2 is indefinite.
Allowable Subject Matter
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
CHEN discloses a tool (Abstract) comprising a tubular portion, 41, connected to an adhesive sphere protrusion, 43, that is inserted into a connector, 312, located on the tool (Paragraphs [0038]-[0041]).
GUPTA discloses that the adhesive is wax and allows the material to be durable enough for repeated use over many applications (Paragraph [0015]).
KAPLAN discloses the making of wax shapes (Abstract; Column 2, lines 60-68; Column 3, lines 1-40) to precise shapes by implicitly providing (i.e., preparing) a wax and melting it (Column 4, lines 25-60) and then injecting it into a mold. After injecting the melted wax into the mold, it is cooled and then removed from the mold.
RUFF et al. discloses that the shape of the wax tip may be shaped to a point, such as a conical shape (Paragraph [0044]) so that said wax tip can pieces can be held and transported and manipulated by the apparatus (Paragraph [0045]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to provide the wax tip of CHEN in a conical shape, as taught by RUFF et al. so that the tip can then contact a surface of particular size and then be held and manipulated.
BAROUH et al. (US 3,974,539) discloses a pick-off device (Abstract) having a wax tip, 16, (Figures 4, 6, 7 and 9). The wax tip can be colored as desired (Column 3, lines 2-20) and may be comprised of two different waxes at a 40:60 ratio.
CIERRA (How to use Candle Dye Chips- Using and Mixing Candle Wax Dye Chips for Custom Colors) disclose various wax colors made from mixing separated colored waxes. The Dark Red-Brown color is formed mixing one chip of red wax and 1 chip of Christmas green wax. Thus, it is known that a desired color of wax can be formed using a 1:1 chip ratio of red to green wax.
However, the wax mixture of BAROUH et al. isn’t necessarily a 1:1 ratio of waxes and the particular mix is described as providing the desired properties needed for the stated purpose. Moreover, it is unclear if a 1:1 ratio in BAROUH would be suitable for its intended purpose and there is no further teaching or suggestion that simply mixing according to CIERRA could or should be performed. Lastly, it is unclear if one of ordinary skill in the art would look to candle waxes for a teaching of mixing ratio given that the use case is different than that of the previously cited art.
Performing such a modification of the cited art with BAROUH and CIERRA would appear to only be performed using the claims as a roadmap, and is therefore impermissible hindsight.
Conclusion
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/ALEX B EFTA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1745