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
Applicants' arguments have been fully considered. Rejections and/or objections not reiterated from previous office actions are hereby withdrawn due to Applicant's amendments and/or arguments (including the 6/4/26 pre-appeal). The 01/30/2026 FINAL Office Action is withdrawn. The following rejections and/or objections are either reiterated or newly applied.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lok et al. (WO 2011/116419).
Re claims 1-3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16, Lok discloses a coating prepared by dispersing 1-60 wt.% particles of a metal oxide in an organic solvent (page 9, lines 21-24). The metal oxides include cerium oxide (page 10, line 6). The coating also includes an organic binder such as polyethylene oxide, i.e. polyether (page 10, lines 18-20). Given that the polyethylene oxide is identical to that claimed, it would necessarily function as a proton conducting polymer phase. When the coating is coated to produce a relief structure (page 12, lines 23-28), the organic solvent would evaporate upon drying to form a film and would only comprise cerium oxide and polyethylene oxide. Lok does not disclose the amount of metal oxide in vol.%. However, given the broad amount of metal oxide in vol% as presently claimed and given that the broad amount of metal oxide in wt.% disclosed by Lok, it is clear the amount of cerium oxide in Lok would necessarily overlap that presently claimed absent evidence to the contrary.
Re claim 6, the metal oxide can be doped (page 5, lines 11-12).
Re claim 11, there is no disclosure in Lok of ligand or capping material.
Re claim 17, the coating has a thickness of 10-1000 nm (page 11, lines 18-19), which overlaps applicant’s ranges for maintaining lightweight properties. In the case where the claimed ranges “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In reWertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In reWoodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990). See MPEP 2144.05.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have selected from the overlapping portion of the range taught by the reference because overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness. MPEP 2144.05.
Re claim 18, given that Lok discloses film as presently claimed, the film would necessarily inherently have proton conductivity as presently claimed.
Claims 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lok et al. (WO 2011/116419) in view of US 20120028125 A1 to Kobori et al.
Re claims 7, Lok doesn’t teach specific metal oxides claimed in the cerium doped samarium or gadolinium oxides as claimed.
Kobori teaches [0085] Examples of the metal double oxide that contains two or more metallic elements and that can be used as the metal oxide in the present invention include cerium oxide doped with gadolinium for a binding material [80].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have modified the metal oxide of Lok to have only the cerium oxide doped with gadolinium, either being excluded other materials in the crystal outside of those precluded of Kobori for serving as a binding material.
In view of the forgoing, the above claims have failed to be patently distinguishable over prior art.
References of Interest
The remaining references listed on form(s) 892 and/or 1449 have been reviewed by the examiner and are considered to be cumulative to or less material than the prior art references relied upon in the rejection above.
Transition metals in a dispersion layer is taught in Miyagi of record.
See also the international search report.
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s amendments are acknowledged; however, the new grounds of rejection are presented above and thus moot. The previous Kobori is used but differently as set forth above.
Conclusion
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TAMRA L. DICUS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1787
/TAMRA L. DICUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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