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 .
This action is responsive to applicants’ amendment and response received March 3, 2026. Claims 1-11 are currently pending.
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.
All rejections set forth in the previous action are withdrawn in view of applicants’ amendment and response.
Claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McGrane et al, US 2022/0195338 in view of Miracle et al, US 2006/0287210.
McGrane et al teach a solid laundry sour softener (¶49) with a pH between 2 and 5 (¶24 and 315), from 10 to 30% of an acidulant (¶20) which may be citric acid (¶18), a chelant which may also be citric acid (¶76), and as little as 10% surfactant (¶140), including ethoxylated alcohols (¶145) and alkyl ether sulfates (¶177). This composition is applied to fabrics during a pre-soak phase, followed by a wash phase and a rinse phase (¶23) and the soak phase may take place over several hours (¶293). The sour treatment may be packaged with a conventional detergent composition that includes surfactants, an alkalinity source, and the like (¶288).
With respect to the weight of the solid, the laundry sour is in the form of a powder, particle, agglomerate, flake, granule, pellet, tablet, lozenge, puck, briquette, brick, solid block, unit dose, or any solid form known to those of skill in the art (¶49). The examiner maintains this runs the gamut of all possible solid detergents known, and so certainly falls within the weight range claimed.
With respect to the amount of water used for dilution, this varies with the amount of clothing and the degree of soiling, but 10-20 times the amount of detergent is a standard dilution amount for a pre-soak, well known to those of skill in the art. Dilution is according to the needs of the formulator and is not inventive.
To recap, the reference teaches a low pH solid in a pre-soak step, followed by a wash step using a detergent comprising surfactants and an alkalinity source, but further information on the washing step is not provided.
The alkaline wash claimed, however, is extremely broad, requiring only a surfactant and an alkaline source, such as sodium carbonate, which are ubiquitous in laundry detergents. Just one example is Miracle et al, who teach a granular laundry detergent comprising surfactants, sodium carbonate, and sodium silicate with a dilution of 3500 ppm in water and a pH of 10 (¶94). Note that 200g of detergent in 57 liters of detergent will result in a 3500 ppm dilution, however as discussed above, dilution is according to the needs of the formulator and is not inventive.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use a standard laundry detergent in combination with the pre-soak composition of McGrane et al as McGrane et al teach a pre-soak used in combination with a standard wash detergent, just one example of which is the solid laundry detergent of Miracle et al
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES I BOYER whose telephone number is (571)272-1311. The examiner can normally be reached M-S 10-430.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew can be reached at 5712722817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHARLES I BOYER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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