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 .
Summary
Claims 1-4 are pending in this office action. All pending claims are under examination in this application.
Priority
The current application filed on March 10, 2025 is a 371 of PCT/KR2023/009913 filed July 12, 2023, which in turn claims priority to Korean patent application KR10-2022-0095372 filed on August 21, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
Receipt of the Information Disclosure Statements filed on January 24, 2025 and March 10, 2025 is acknowledged. A signed copy of each form PTO/SB/08 is attached to this office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
This claim, as well as the specification, mentions “glycerin of 25ºC to 45 ºC” which is not understood. Obviously, some properties of glycerin are temperature-dependent such as viscosity, but the claim seems to be stating that glycerin at one temperature is different from glycerin at some other temperature.
In addition to the above, the reason for which said glycerin of 25ºC to 45 ºC does not have any patentable weight.
This claim is being examined as if it had no patentable weight.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103
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.
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 1-3 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 Shao et al., CN 108114588 A, published 2018-06-05, Reference D1 on the 237 with evidence provided by Li, CN 102329702 A, published January 25, 2012.
Shao et al. teach deodorizing compositions comprising 0.5-60% citrus extract such as grapefruit extract, 5-50% polyol such as glycerin and water, see claims 1-4, 6 and 7. They do not teach that the glycerin is from palm oil.
The claims are anticipated because the reference broadly teaches glycerin which includes glycerin from any source.
Alternatively, should the source of the glycerin matter, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the instant effective filing date, to use glycerin from palm oil since such is known for use in cosmetics as taught by Li in paragraph [0012].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. While Kobayashi teaches the use of acerola fruit extract in deodorizing compositions and citric acid is already present from the grapefruit in Shao et al. examiner is unable to find motivation to add the acetic acid that is claimed.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Robert A. Wax whose telephone number is (571)272-0623. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM -4:00 PM Monday - Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jennifer Michener can be reached at (571) 272-1424. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Robert A Wax/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1615
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