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 .
Status of Claims
Pursuant to the preliminary amendment, filed on October 23, 2024, claims 1-7 are cancelled and claims 8-14 have been added. Claims 8-14 are pending and examined.
Priority
This application, filed on October 23, 2024, is a National Stage entry from International Application No. PCT/JP2023/010034, filed on March 15, 2023, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 or 365 to the benefit of Japanese Application No. JP2022-071921, filed on April 25, 2022. The certified copy of the foreign application has been received.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on October 23, 2024, has been acknowledged and received.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US7,018,950 (“Yamamoto”) in view of JP2010179279 (IDS – Foreign Patent Document, Cite No. 4, Citations of Translated Version) (“Kawabata”).
Yamamoto teaches a process for producing a titanium-containing silicon oxide catalyst having (1) an average pore diameter of 10 Å or more, (2) a pore diameter of 90% or more of the total pore volume of 5 to 200 Å, 3) a pore volume of 0.2 cm3/g or more and, (4) a quaternary ammonium ion represented by the following general formula (I) is used as a template and then the template is removed [NR1R2R3R4]+ (I) (wherein, R1 represents a linear or branched hydrocarbon group having 2 to 36 carbon atoms, and R2 to R4 represent an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms. Yamamoto teaches adding an alkali metal in the mixture within the range of alkali metal/titanium ≤ 3 (mol/mol) (col. 1, ll. 25-60). Yamamoto teaches the alkali metal is necessary to add to obtain a catalyst maintaining extremely high activity at the aforementioned range including alkali metal/titanium ≤ 1 (mol/mol) (col. 3, ll. 42-55). Table 1 shows Example 1: the catalyst has a (1) 30.9 Å pore diameter, (2) 0.74 cm3/g specific pore volume, (3) the template agent is hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium hydroxide, and (4) a ratio of K+/Ti 0.5 mol/mol.
Yamamoto does not teach using ammonium chloride as a salt to maintain high activity of the catalyst.
Kawabata teaches adding a buffer salt is effective during a method of producing an olefin oxide to prevent a decrease in the catalyst activity, further increase the catalyst activity, and improve the utilization efficiency of the raw material gas. Preferred buffer salts include ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrate, etc. (p. 4, 1st ¶).
Yamamoto and Kawabata are analogous art to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of preparing a catalyst to use during the oxidation of an olefin to prepare an epoxide. Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA), before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of the prior art to arrive at the claimed titanium-containing silicon oxide composition and to apply the composition in a method of producing a titanium-containing silicon oxide catalyst to arrive at the invention instantly claimed. It would have been prima facie obvious to prepare the catalyst with a (1) 30.9 Å pore diameter, (2) 0.74 cm3/g specific pore volume, (3) the template agent is hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium hydroxide, and (4) a ratio of K+/Ti 0.5 mol/mol, based on the teachings of Yamamoto, and substitute the salt with ammonium chloride, as taught by Kawabata. Based on the teachings of Yamamoto and Kawabata, adding salt to the mixture is important to obtain a catalyst having extremely high activity. The salts added are considered equivalents known for the same purpose (MPEP §2144.06(II)). Accordingly, claim 8 is prima facie obvious.
Regarding claims 9 and 11-14, Yamamoto teaches the catalyst can be used to produce an oxirane compound in which an olefin is reacted with a hydroperoxide (col. 6, ll. 59-62). The olefin compound can be a hydrocarbon including ethylene, propylene, etc. (col. 7, lines 2-5). Cumene peroxide is the hydroperoxide that can be used and used as a liquid phase (col. 7, ll. 38-42 and ll. 60-67).
Regarding claim 10, Yamamoto teaches a process for producing a titanium-containing silicon oxide catalyst comprising the steps of (1) obtaining a solid containing a catalyst component and a template by mixing and stirring a silica source, a titanium source and, as the template, the quaternary ammonium ion to prepare a solid, (2) an alkali metal, (3) molding the solid, (4) remove the template from molded solid by solvent extraction, (5) subjecting the molded solid after removing the template to silylaltion to obtain a silylated catalyst (col. 8, ll. 30-66; claim 1). Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA), before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of the prior art to arrive at the method instantly claimed. It would have been prima facie obvious to prepare the catalyst with the steps of (1) obtaining a solid containing a catalyst component and a template by mixing and stirring a silica source, a titanium source and, as the template, the quaternary ammonium ion to prepare a solid, (2) an alkali metal, (3) molding the solid, (4) remove the template from molded solid by solvent extraction, (5) subjecting the molded solid after removing the template to silylaltion to obtain a silylated catalyst based on the teachings of Yamamoto, and substitute the salt with ammonium chloride, as taught by Kawabata.
Conclusion
No claims are allowed.
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/SAHIL CHANDER AGGARWAL/Examiner, Art Unit 1623
/ADAM C MILLIGAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1623
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