DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed August 28, 2026. Applicant has amended claims 1 and 2. Claim 6 has been cancelled. Claims 10-11 remain withdrawn from consideration. New claims 12-14 have been added. Currently, claims 1-5 and 7-14 remain pending in the application.
The text of those sections of Title 35 U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in the prior Office action, Paper No. 20260602.
The rejection of claims 1-9 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, is withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendments and remarks.
The rejection of claims 1-9 under 35 U.S.C. 102((a)(1)) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Bernhard et al, WO 2007/027522, is withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendments and remarks.
NEW GROUNDS OF REJECTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
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 1-5, 7-9 and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102((a)(1)) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Daviot et al, US 2004/0137736.
Daviot et al, US 2004/0137736, discloses an aqueous phosphoric acid composition for cleaning semiconductor devices (see abstract). It is further taught by Daviot et al that the pH of the solution is 2-6 (see paragraph 6), that the composition contains 94% by weight of water (see paragraph 23), that the composition contains 0.01-10% by weight of phosphoric acid (see paragraph 24), that the composition contains 0.05-6% by weight of an additional acid, such as oxalic acid (see paragraph 29), 0.5-4% by weight of an amine (see paragraph 31), and 2-15% by weight of an organic solvent, such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (see paragraphs 77-78), per the requirements of the instant invention. Specifically, note Examples 1-33 in Tables 1-3. Although Daviot et al is silent with respect to the pKa value of their phosphoric acid and oxalic acid components, the examiner asserts that these acids disclosed in Daviot et al would inherently meet the pKa requirement of the instant invention, since products of identical chemical composition cannot have mutually exclusive properties. Therefore, instant claims 1-5, 7-9 and 12-14 are anticipated by Daviot et al, US 2004/0137736.
In the alternative that the above disclosure is insufficient to anticipate the above listed claims, it would have nonetheless been obvious to the skilled artisan to produce the claimed composition, as the reference teaches each of the claimed ingredients within the claimed proportions for the same utility.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-5, 7-9 and 12-14 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN P MRUK whose telephone number is (571)272-1321. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:00am-5:30pm Monday-Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached on 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN P MRUK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
Brian P Mruk
October 13, 2026
