DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/930,686. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
Claims 1-9 and 17-20 have been withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
The applicant’s amendment filed August 13, 2026 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on June 18, 2026. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on August 13, 2026 and elected Group IV, claims 10-16, without traverse. Accordingly, claims 1-9 and 17-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 11 is allowable over the closest prior art of LI et al. The reference does not teach or suggest that the positively charged polymer comprises polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §§ 102 and 103
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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 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 10 and 12-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by LI et al (US 2021/0371813).
LI et al teaches a system comprising a plurality of hollow glass microspheres coated with a first polymer layer (par. 33, 40). The first polymer layer comprises positively charged poly-L-arginine (par. 41). A second polymer layer coating comprises negatively charged biotinylated (biotin modified) alginate (par. 41, 54). The microspheres are further capped with biotinylated antibodies (par. 15, 42, 48). The antibodies are used for bacteria (par. 33). The system further comprises an alginate lyase enzyme for degrading the film coating (par. 49). The hollow glass microspheres comprise a negative charge (par. 11).
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 September 15, 2026
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