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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Note: The amendment of October 17th 2025 has been considered.
Claim 10 has been amended.
Claim 21 was added.
Claims 1-21 are pending in the current application.
Claims 1-9 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claims 10-21 are examined in the current application.
Any rejections not recited below have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35 of the U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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 10-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL Garcia Martinez et al., "Synthetic fat from petroleum as a resilient food for global catastrophes: preliminary techno-economic assessment and technology roadmap" (from Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Volume 177, January 2022, pp. 255-272) and NPL Whitmore, “Organic Chemistry”, in view of NPL Roopashree et al., "Effect of medium chain fatty acid in human health and disease" (from Journal of Functional foods 87 (2021)), NPL Verruck et al., "Dairy foods and positive impact on the consumer's health" (from Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, 2019), NPL Senyilmaz-Tiebe et al., “Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans” (from Naturae Communications (2018) 9:3129), NPL Ediriweera et al., “Odd-chain fatty acids as novel histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitors” (from Biochimie 186 (2021) 147-156), NPL Venn-Watson et al., “Increased dietary intake of saturated fatty acid heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) associated with decreasing ferritin and alleviated metabolic syndrome in dolphins” (from PLOS One July 22nd, 2015) and NPL Gao et al., “Isolation and identification of C-19 fatty acids with anti-tumor activity from the spores of Ganoderma lucidum (reishi mushroom)” (from Fitoterapia 83 (2012) 490-499).
Regarding claims 10-20: Garcia Martinez discloses synthetic fatty acids that are esterified with glycerol to produce triglyceride fats/oils (see Garcia Martinez abstract; sections 2.3 and 2.4) through a process developed in the 1930’s, wherein a mixture of synthetic fatty acids are attained by the oxidation of paraffins and/or petroleum products, and the mixture of fatty acids is separated into different fractions based on their chain lengths through different distillation techniques, which allows for the isolation of fatty acids with desired properties for further use, such as forming edible triglyceride oils/fats with fatty acids with desired chain lengths (see Garcia Martinez abstract; sections 2.3 and 2.4; see Whitmore, page 256), but fails to disclose the triglycerides comprising the fatty acid profiles recited in claims 8-13; However, Roopashree discloses the health benefits (i.e., immune function improvement, gastro intestinal health, diabetes treatment, Alzheimer’s disease therapy, obesity treatment, cancer therapy and epilepsy treatment) associated with caproic acid (C6:0), caprylic acid (C8:0), capric acid (C10:0) and lauric acid (C12:0) intake (see Roopashree abstract; section 4). Moreover, Verruck discloses the health benefits (i.e., cardiovascular health) associated with Myristic acid (C14:0) intake (see Verruck page 1) and Senyilmaz-Tiebe discloses the health benefits (i.e., fat digestion and LDL cholesterol reduction) associated with stearic acid intake (See Senyilmaz-Tiebe abstract; pages 1-2). Furthermore, Garcia Martinez discloses the oxidation of paraffins and petroleum products provided odd and even chain fatty acids and recognized the health benefits of odd chain fatty acids (see Garcia Martinez section 1.4). Ediriweera recognizes the anti-proliferative (i.e., anti-cancer) effects of valeric acid (C5:0), heptanoic acid (C7:0), nonanoic acid (C9:0), undecanoic acid (C11:0) and pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) (see Ediriweera abstract; Introduction), Venn-Watson discloses the protective properties of heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) against metabolic syndrome (i.e., lower risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes) (see Venn-Watson abstract) and Gao teaches of the anti-tumor properties of nonadecanoic acid (C19:0) (see Gao abstract). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan at the time the application was filed, to have modified Garcia Martinez and Whitmore and to have selected synthetic fatty acids with desired health benefits to produce the synthetic triglyceride oils at the relative contents recited in claims 10-20, in order to provide the consumer with the health benefits, and thus arrive at the claimed limitations. As set forth in MPEP §2144.05 discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable, involves only routine skill in the art.
As to fat formulation comprising two sets of triglycerides with similar melting points and different triglyceride profiles recited in claim 10: While modified Garcia Martinez fails to disclose the triglyceride mixture comprises a mixture of two sets of triglyceride mixtures with similar melting points and different triglyceride profiles, modified Garcia Martinez meets the claimed fatty acid profiles. The fact the triglyceride mixture appears is formed from two different sets of triglyceride mixtures with similar melting points is met by the mixture in modified Garcia Martinez.
Regarding claim 21: Given the fact the fatty acids contemplated by Whitmore, Verruck, Senyilamaz-Tiebe, Biochimie, Venn-Watson and Gao, are all linear and not branched, the prior art references meet the claimed limitations.
Conclusion
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/ASSAF ZILBERING/Examiner, Art Unit 1792