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 .
Drawings
The Drawings filed 27 January 2025 are approved by the examiner.
Citation Notation
The following citations are made for the convenience of the reader:
Citations to PG publications are made to paragraph number under the ¶ format. Citations to other publications made under the format “ col 1/2” or pp 1 are directed to column and line number or to a page - whichever is appropriate. It is noted that any reference to a figure or a table is also directed to any accompanying text in the specification or the document. Notwithstanding those citations, the reference(s) is (are) relied upon for the teachings as a whole.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of the phenylene group without any fluorine substituent in the reply filed on 22 April 2026 is acknowledged. It is noted that the elected specie is found allowable and the search was extended to the general formulae.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 4 and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities: the phrases [chem.2], [chem. 3] and [chem. 4] seem unnecessary and add some ambiguity to the claims. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-10 are 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.
Claim 1 recites parentheses after the formulae and is missing an ending preposition – thus it is unclear which limitations are being recited. Claims 2-4 and 9-10 are dependent on claim 1 thus inherit the same deficiencies.
Claims 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 recite limitations within parentheses starting on line 5 (claim 2), line 8 (claim 3), line 4 (claim 5), line 6 (claim 6) and line 8 (claim 7), it is unclear as to the limitations in the parentheses are being claimed.
Claim 2 recites “the substituents” in line 9, there is a lack of antecedent basis for the limitation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The claims are allowable over the following closest prior art references:
Yano discloses a polymer or compound having the dihydrothieno, sulfonyl and divalent linker elements/groups of the claimed formulae but fails to disclose each of the functional groups in the specific bonding schematic; and
Knight discloses compounds with the benzenesulfonamide, dihydrothieno, sulfonyl and dioxin functional groups but fails to disclose a compound with each of the claimed groups and there is no motivation to select each of groups and the specific chemical bonding schematics.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRI V NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6965. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arrie Lanee Reuther can be reached at 571.270.7026. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRI V NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764
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