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
Claim Objections
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: The limitation reading “wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to edge” should read “wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to the edge”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 18, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by JP 2010082762 A, Sato.
Regarding Claim 1, Sato discloses a saw blade (first par. of Description, where it is disclosed that the blade described is a cutter attached to a rotating tool for cutting concrete), comprising:
a backing strip 2 comprising a length and an edge extending along the length (see annotated fig 1 below);
a toothed cutting edge (edge of blade 2, to which the teeth are attached) comprising a plurality of teeth (combination of parts 4-7) formed on the edge (fig 1), each tooth of the plurality of teeth comprising a discrete section of binder layer (combination of layers 5-7 and 9), the binder layer comprising a binding material (par 16 of “Description” Section, where it is disclosed that “The chip 4 is for fixing the bonding bond layer 6 and the substrate 2 by welding via the bonding bond layer 6 that does not include the diamond abrasive grains 10 that are part of the chip 4. A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al and the balance Cu is subjected to a solid solution treatment at 940 ° C. and then cooled. A high-strength alloy can be obtained by reheating at 0 ° C. However, particularly when it is made of a Cu-based alloy, there is an advantage that it is easily deformed and stretched, and has excellent bondability with the bond composition”); and
abrasive particles 10 bound to the teeth by the binder layer (par 16 of “Description” Section, and fig 5, where the particles are shown bonded to a part of the binder layer);
wherein each discrete section of the binder layer comprises a first region 6 bonded to the edge of the backing strip (at 7, see fig. 5, par. 14 of Description), a second region 5, and a third region (top plate 9), the first region being completely separated from the third region by the second region (fig. 5); and
wherein the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions differ from each of the other regions in at least one of composition or amount of abrasive particles (parts 6 and 7 have no abrasive particles thereon, while layers 5 and 9 have abrasive particles thereon, and plate 9 has less abrasive particles thereon than layer 5, [thus the layers differ in the amount of abrasive particles thereon] also, the layer 4 is made of “A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al” [par 16 of Description] while layer 9 is made of Cu [par 16 of Description], while layers 7 and 6 are metal bonded to each other which makes the composition of these layers different than the rest of the layers which are not treated to such metal-bonding [par 16 of Description] and are made of Fe [par 15 of Description]);
wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to the edge (fig 5).
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Regarding Claim 4, in Sato, the abrasive particles are bound to the third region of each tooth of the plurality of teeth (fig. 5).
Regarding Claim 6, in Sato, the abrasive particles are bound to the second region of each tooth of the plurality of teeth (fig 5).
Regarding Claim 18, in Sato, adjacent teeth of the plurality of teeth are separated by a gap (fig. 5).
Regarding Claim 20, in Sato, the first region 16 of each tooth does not contain abrasive particles (fig 5, and par 17 of Description “the bonding bond layer 6 that does not include the diamond abrasive grains 10”).
Regarding Claim 21, in Sato, the binder layer of the plurality of teeth is welded to the edge (at part 16, par 17 of Description).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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, 16, 19 and 22, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over USPGPUB 20130174701, Elliston in view of Sato.
Regarding Claims 1, 16, 19 and 22 Elliston discloses a saw blade (10, par 0035), comprising:
a backing strip 11 comprising a length (fig 1) and an edge extending along the length (edge along which teeth 13 are formed; a toothed cutting edge (edge along which teeth 15 extend) comprising a plurality of teeth 15 formed on the edge (fig 1) (Claim 1), and wherein the backing strip is steel (par 0038) (Claim 16), and wherein the edge extending along the length is a linear edge (fig 1)(Claim 19), and wherein the saw blade is a reciprocating saw blade (title and par. 0037)(Claim 22).
Elliston lacks each tooth of the plurality of teeth comprising a discrete section of binder layer, the binder layer comprising a binding material; and abrasive particles bound to the teeth by the binder layer; wherein each discrete section of the binder layer comprises a first region bonded to the edge of the backing strip, a second region, and a third region, the first region being completely separated from the third region by the second region; and wherein the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions differ from each of the other regions in at least one of composition or amount of abrasive particles ;wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to the edge (Claim 1).
Sato discloses a saw blade (first par. of Description, where it is disclosed that the blade described is a cutter attached to a rotating tool for cutting concrete), in the same field of endeavor as the aw blade of the present invention, and of Elliston, and discloses that in such an assembly it is known to include the blade comprising: a toothed cutting edge (edge of blade 2, to which the teeth are attached) comprising a plurality of teeth (combination of parts 4-7) formed on the edge (fig 1), each tooth of the plurality of teeth comprising a discrete section of binder layer (combination of layers 5-7 and 9), the binder layer comprising a binding material (par 16 of “Description” Section, where it is disclosed that “The chip 4 is for fixing the bonding bond layer 6 and the substrate 2 by welding via the bonding bond layer 6 that does not include the diamond abrasive grains 10 that are part of the chip 4. A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al and the balance Cu is subjected to a solid solution treatment at 940 ° C. and then cooled. A high-strength alloy can be obtained by reheating at 0 ° C. However, particularly when it is made of a Cu-based alloy, there is an advantage that it is easily deformed and stretched, and has excellent bondability with the bond composition”); and abrasive particles 10 bound to the teeth by the binder layer (par 16 of “Description” Section, and fig 5, where the particles are shown bonded to a part of the binder layer); wherein each discrete section of the binder layer comprises a first region 6 bonded to the edge of the backing strip (at 7, see fig. 5, par. 14 of Description), a second region 5, and a third region (top plate 9), the first region being completely separated from the third region by the second region (fig. 5); and wherein the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions differ from each of the other regions in at least one of composition or amount of abrasive particles (parts 6 and 7 have no abrasive particles thereon, while layers 5 and 9 have abrasive particles thereon, and plate 9 has less abrasive particles thereon than layer 5, [thus the layers differ in the amount of abrasive particles thereon] also, the layer 4 is made of “A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al” [par 16 of Description] while layer 9 is made of Cu [par 16 of Description], while layers 7 and 6 are metal bonded to each other which makes the composition of these layers different than the rest of the layers which are not treated to such metal-bonding [par 16 of Description] and are made of Fe [par 15 of Description]); wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to the edge (fig 5), in order to develop a thin cutter that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior and to having an effect of suppressing damage to the abrasive chips and to improve the cutting performance (par 7 of “Description” section).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Elliston by having each tooth of the plurality of teeth comprising a discrete section of binder layer, the binder layer comprising a binding material; and abrasive particles bound to the teeth by the binder layer; wherein each discrete section of the binder layer comprises a first region bonded to the edge of the backing strip, a second region, and a third region, the first region being completely separated from the third region by the second region; and wherein the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions differ from each of the other regions in at least one of composition or amount of abrasive particles; wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to the edge, in order to: develop a thin cutter that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior and to having an effect of suppressing damage to the abrasive chips and to improve the cutting performance, as taught by Sato.
Claims 2-3, 5, and 8-9 and 12, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato as applied to Claim 1 above and in view of USPN 3886926, Hall.
Regarding Claims 2-3, 8, and 12 Sato discloses all of the limitations of Claims 1 and 5.
Modified Culf lacks the binding material includes a ductile braze material (Claim 2) and the ductile braze material is in combination with a binder material (Claim 3), and the binding material includes a nickel braze material (Claim 8), where the abrasive particles are diamond (Claim 12).
Hall discloses a method of forming a cutting edge of a cutting tool (Col. 1, 50-67) which cutting edge is formed via the deposition of a binding material (“Bonding matrix” of 24) mixed with abrasive particles (diamond particles; col. 5, 15-40), in the same field of endeavor as the present process of forming teeth on a saw blade via a mixture of a bonding agent and abrasive particles, and discloses that the wherein the binding material includes a ductile braze material (“brazing powder”); and wherein the abrasive particles are bound by the ductile braze material (claim 2), the ductile braze material is/being in combination with a binder material (col. 5, 15-50) (Claim 3), and wherein the binding material includes a nickel braze material (col. 5, 30-40) (Claim 8), the abrasive particles are diamond (col 5, 15-20) (Claim 12), in order to prevent diamond particles in cutting portions from penetrating the braze and cutting or nicking the cutter support to which the cutting portions are attached to, and therefore from creating stress concentration points at which the cutting support would break (Col. 6 lines 15-21).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sato by having the binding material include a ductile braze material (Claim 2) and the ductile braze material is in combination with a binder material (Claim 3), and the binding material includes a nickel braze material (Claim 8), where the abrasive particles are diamond (Claim 12), in order to prevent diamond particles in cutting portions from penetrating the braze and cutting or nicking the cutter support to which the cutting portions are attached to, and therefore from creating stress concentration points at which the cutting support may break, as taught by Hall.
Regarding Claim 9, in modifying Sato to include the abrasive particles be ductile nickel braze particles, it also would have been obvious to have the nickel braze material be bound to the third region of each tooth of the plurality of teeth since the mixture of binding material and abrasive particles is disclosed in Sato as being applied to each of the top two layers above the backing strip and above layer 6.
Regarding Claim 5, Sato discloses: a tool blade (first par. of Description, where it is disclosed that the blade described is a cutter attached to a rotating tool for cutting concrete), comprising:
a backing strip 2;
binding material forming a binder layer (combination of layers 5-7 and 9), the binder layer comprising a binding material (par 16 of “Description” Section, where it is disclosed that “The chip 4 is for fixing the bonding bond layer 6 and the substrate 2 by welding via the bonding bond layer 6 that does not include the diamond abrasive grains 10 that are part of the chip 4. A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al and the balance Cu is subjected to a solid solution treatment at 940 ° C. and then cooled. A high-strength alloy can be obtained by reheating at 0 ° C. However, particularly when it is made of a Cu-based alloy, there is an advantage that it is easily deformed and stretched, and has excellent bondability with the bond composition”), with discrete regions of the binder layer formed as teeth along an edge of the backing strip (fig 1 and 5); and
abrasive particles 10 bound to the teeth by the binder layer (par 16 of “Description” Section, and fig 5, where the particles are shown bonded to a part of the binder layer);
wherein the discrete regions of the binder layer formed as teeth are formed with a first region 6 bonded to the backing strip (at 7, see fig. 5, par. 14 of Description), a second region (4 and 5), and a third region (9), the first region being completely separated from the third region by the second region (fig 5); wherein the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions differ from each of the other regions in at least one of composition or amount of abrasive particles (parts 6 and 7 have no abrasive particles thereon, while layers 5 and 9 have abrasive particles thereon, and plate 9 has less abrasive particles thereon than layer 5, [thus the layers differ in the amount of abrasive particles thereon] also, the layer 4 is made of “A copper alloy having an age-hardening composition consisting of 0.3% Be, 2% Ni, 0.5% Al” [par 16 of Description] while layer 9 is made of Cu [par 16 of Description], while layers 7 and 6 are metal bonded to each other which makes the composition of these layers different than the rest of the layers which are not treated to such metal-bonding [par 16 of Description] and are made of Fe [par 15 of Description]);
wherein a whole portion of each of the first regions, the second regions, and the third regions of the plurality of teeth are substantially parallel to (the) edge (fig 5);
Sato lacks: wherein the binding material includes a ductile braze material; and wherein the abrasive particles are bound by the ductile braze material.
Hall discloses a method of forming a cutting edge of a cutting tool (Col. 1, 50-67) which cutting edge is formed via the deposition of a binding material (“Bonding matrix” of 24) mixed with abrasive particles (diamond particles; col. 5, 15-40), in the same field of endeavor as the present process of forming teeth on a saw blade via a mixture of a bonding agent and abrasive particles, and discloses that the binding material includes a ductile braze material (“brazing powder”); and wherein the abrasive particles are bound by the ductile braze material, in order to prevent diamond particles in cutting portions from penetrating the braze and cutting or nicking the cutter support to which the cutting portions are attached to, and therefore from creating stress concentration points at which the cutting support would break (Col. 6 lines 15-21).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sato by having the binding material include a ductile braze material; and wherein the abrasive particles are bound by the ductile braze material in order to prevent diamond particles in cutting portions from penetrating the braze and cutting or nicking the cutter support to which the cutting portions are attached to, and therefore from creating stress concentration points at which the cutting support may break, as taught by Hall.
Claims 11 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato as applied to claim 1 above and in view of USPGPUB 20160121413, Ly,
Regarding Claims 11 and 13-15, Sato lacks wherein the abrasive particles comprise a mixture of particles of different materials (Claim 11), and the abrasive particles being coated to promote binding with the binding layer (claim 13), and the abrasive particles are coated by a physical vapour deposition or chemical vapour deposition technique (Claim 14), and the abrasive particles are coated with a material which promotes wetting of the abrasive particles by the binding material (claim 15).
Ly discloses an abrasive cutting tool in the same field of endeavor as the abrasive cutting tool of the present invention and discloses that such a tool includes abrasively coated teeth in the same field of endeavor as the tool blade of the present invention, and includes the blade formed by forming a binder layer to which abrasive particles are attached (par 0109 and 01100), wherein the abrasive particles comprise a mixture of particles of different materials (par 0038)(Claim 11), where the abrasive particles are coated to promote binding with the binding layer (par 0110 of Ly) (Claim 13), the abrasive particles are coated by a physical vapour deposition or chemical vapour deposition technique (par 0048 of Ly) (Claim 14), where the abrasive particles of Ly are coated with a material (titanium is disclosed to be one of the materials used to coat the particles, par 0040) which promotes wetting of the abrasive particles by the binding material (as evidenced by Ly, col. 2 lines 10-20) (Claim 15) and where the backing strip is steel (par 0023 of Ly) (Claim 16), in order to have the cutting portions thereof comprise better hardness (par 0012).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sato by including wherein the abrasive particles comprise a mixture of particles of different materials (Claim 11), the abrasive particles being coated to promote binding with the binding layer (claim 13), and the abrasive particles are coated by a physical vapour deposition or chemical vapour deposition technique (Claim 14), and the abrasive particles are coated with a material which promotes wetting of the abrasive particles by the binding material (claim 15) in order to have the cutting portions thereof comprise better hardness as taught via Ly.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/4/26 have been fully considered and are persuasive.
Applicant argues that the combination of Culf, Dion and Patillo as proposed in the previous action, dated 12/4/25, does not obviate the invention of the present invention. Specifically, Applicant argues that the combination Fails because Culf teaches away from being combined with Dion, since Culf, is directed to blades for tools, such as utility knife blades, chisels, and plane irons, which all include straight cutting edges and not toothed blades. See Culf, [0003, while Dion is directed to a composite metal article that "is formed between at least two dissimilar metals" where the metal article may be toothed blade or a toothless blade. Dion, [0047], [0057]. To create the composite metal article, "a metal edge member is bonded on both sides of a metal base along one side of the body of the base." Id. at [0047]. Thus, Applicant argues that a Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art would not look to Dion in ordinary course of research since Culf and Dion each disclose distinct processes for creating blades for tools where the addition of other metals occur in separate, distinguishable locations along the tool blade for each reference, and since Culf explicitly teaches away from its combination with Dion because Culf discloses a process specifically directed to straight-edged tools while recognizing the existence and conventional process for forming toothed-edged tools. This has been found persuasive. As such, a new rejection is made in view of Sato.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPNs 6817936 and 2009598, and JP2010052127A, and JPH11309711A, each disclose state of the art blades with teeth having layer portions and thus each disclose elements of the current invention.
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/FERNANDO AYALA/
Examiner, Art Unit 3724
/BOYER D ASHLEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3724
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