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 .
According to paper filed on Jan. 26, 2026, the applicants have canceled claims 2 and 10 and furthermore, have amended claims 1, 8-9 and 11.
Claims 1, 3-9 and 11-18 are pending in the application.
Information Disclosure Statement
In the IDS filed on Jan. 26, 2026, one reference was lined through since the year of publication was missing.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on Jan. 26, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive regarding both obviousness rejections and provisional ODP rejections over applications 17/572,896 and 18/035,543. The applicants have filed a terminal disclaimer to overcome provisional ODP rejection over claims of the cited application 18/707,318. Regarding both obviousness rejections and provisional ODP rejections, the applicants argue on page 7 that Alam (WO 2016/007616 A1) as well as the claims of both applications (17/572,896 and 18/035,543) do not teach treating lewy body dementia with no tau pathology with Nelflamapimod. The examiner agrees with this argument since Alam as well as both applications are silent about tau pathology in lewy body dementia. However, Alam as well as the claims of the two cited applications do teach treating lewy body dementia with Nelflamapimod. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to treat lewy body dementia without tau pathology with reasonable expectation of success unless applicants provide unexpected results of superior activity (lower doses etc.) of Nelflamapimod for treating lewy body dementia with no tau pathology versus treating lewy body dementia in general.
Conclusion
The obviousness rejection of claims 1, 3-9 and 11-16 under 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) over Alam in view of Fujishiro is maintained.
The obviousness rejection of claims 1, 3-7 and 17-18 under 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) over Alam in view of Adamowicz is maintained.
Both provisional ODP rejections over claims of applications 17/572,896 and 18/035,543 are maintained.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARANJIT AULAKH whose telephone number is (571)272-0678. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00-3:30.
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/CHARANJIT AULAKH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1621
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