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 .
Response to Amendment
The reply filed on July 25, 2025 has been entered into the prosecution for the application.
Currently, claims 11, 14, 17-18, 20-22, and 25 are pending. Claims 17-18 and 20-22 are withdrawn. Claims 1-10, 12-13, 15-16, 19, and 23-24 have been cancelled. Claims 11 and 14 have been amended.
All prior art grounds of rejection are withdrawn.
Applicant’s amendments necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 11, 14, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2013020728 A to Takahashi (with reference to the provided machine translation, hereinafter “Takahashi”) in view of U.S. Pat. Pub. 2018/0346370 to Kobayashi (hereinafter “Kobayashi”).
Regarding claim 11, Takahashi teaches a glass-ceramic/silver composite (bonded part formed from two components, Abstract) comprising a silver phase (¶ 0010) and a glass-ceramic phase comprising one or more crystalline ceramic phases (¶ 0010; Abstract). Takahashi teaches wherein the glass-ceramic/silver composite is electrically conductive (¶ 0011). Takahashi teaches wherein said composite comprises 50-80 wt% of said silver phase, based on the combined weight of said silver phase, said one or more crystalline ceramic phases and any residual glass (¶ 0014); this is a range which substantially overlaps the claimed range of 45-60 wt%. In a case where claimed ranges “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art,” a prima facie case of obviousness exists (see MPEP 2144.05).
Takahashi is silent as to chromium; chromium is not specified as a component material in any of the compositions detailed in Takahashi. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably conclude that the glass-ceramic/silver composite of Takahashi is chromium-free.
Takahashi teaches that the material forming the one or more crystalline ceramic phases of the glass-ceramic phase includes SiO2, Al2O3, and, preferably, MgO and/or CaO (both alkaline earth oxides). However, Takahashi does not explicitly teach that the one or more crystalline ceramic phases are formed from a material having the general formula xAO-yAl2O3-zSiO2 in which AO represents an alkaline earth oxide or mixture of alkaline earth oxides and x, y and z represent the mol% of AO, Al2O3 and SiO2, respectively, and in which x = 35-55 mol %, y = 0-15 mol %, and z = 40-60 mol %.
Kobayashi, in the closely related field of glass compositions for producing a glass ceramic sealants for electronic components and the like (see ¶ 0001 and Abstract), teaches a glass composition for producing a glass ceramic (Abstract). Kobayashi teaches multiple embodiments of glasses that have values of AO, Al2O3 and SiO2 that read on claim 11 as amended; relevant data for four such embodiments (Examples 5-8 from Tables 1 and 2 of Kobayashi) are given in Table A below (“Tx” is crystallization initiation temperature):
Table A
Component (mol %) / Property
Claim 11
Example 5 (Table 1)
Example 6 (Table 1)
Example 7 (Table 2)
Example 8 (Table 2)
SiO2
40-60
40.0
41.2
41.6
42.9
Al2O3
0-15
0.0
2.9
4.2
7.1
CaO
35-55 (AO)
40.0
38.2
37.5
35.7
ZnO
20.0
17.7
16.7
14.3
Tg (°C)
625
690
695
704
Tx (°C)
718
841
864
917
Glass-ceramic CTE (10-6 K-1)
9.5
9.0
8.3
8.2
Further, Kobayashi teaches that all of the Examples listed above form crystalline ceramic phases upon firing (see p. 7, Table 1, and p. 8, Table 2, and see ¶ 0122). Thus, Kobayashi teaches one or more crystalline ceramic phases formed from a material having the general formula xAO-yAl2O3-zSiO2 in which AO represents an alkaline earth oxide or mixture of alkaline earth oxides (namely, CaO) and x, y and z represent the mol% of AO, Al2O3 and SiO2, respectively, and in which x = 35-55 mol %, y = 0-15 mol %, and z = 40-60 mol %.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Takahashi by substituting the glass ceramic material of Kobayashi as the glass-ceramic phase in the glass-ceramic/silver composite of Takahashi. Design incentives, such as a desire for a glass-ceramic phase that facilitates repeated use the glass-ceramic/silver composite at the operating temperatures of a fuel cell (see Takahashi at ¶¶ 0002, 0015), would have prompted one of ordinary skill in the art to look to the glass ceramic material of Kobayashi (see Kobayashi at ¶ 0035). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to substitute the glass ceramic material of Kobayashi into the glass-ceramic/silver composite of Takahashi with predictable results and a high probability of success. See MPEP 2143(I)(F). Moreover, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to modify Takahashi with the glass ceramic material of Kobayashi in order to take advantage of excellent sealing properties of the Kobayashi material (see Kobayashi at ¶ 0036).
Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi does not explicitly teach that the glass-ceramic phase has a dilatometric softening temperature above 1000°C. However, given that precursor compositions of the glass-ceramic phase taught by Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi (i.e., Examples 5-8 of Kobayashi) are substantially similar in composition to the precursor glasses of the claimed invention (see Applicant’s Specification, p. 23, Table 1), and given the substantial similarity in such properties as glass transition point (Tg) and the CTE of the resulting glass-ceramic material (compare values in Table A above with Applicant’s Specification, p. 25, Table 2), one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably expect that the glass-ceramic phase of Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi, like the glass-ceramic phase of the claimed invention, would also necessarily possess a dilatometric softening temperature above 1000°C. Where the claimed and prior art products are identical or substantially identical in structure or composition, or are produced by identical or substantially identical processes, a prima facie case of either anticipation or obviousness has been established (see MPEP 2112.01(I), first paragraph). Moreover, since the compositions of the glass-ceramic phase taught by Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi (i.e., Examples 5-8 of Kobayashi) exhibit crystallization temperatures (Tx) well below the melting point of silver (961.8°C) (see Table A above), one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably expect that the glass ceramic phase would exhibit a very high degree of crystallization and thus contain less than 10 volume % of residual glass phase (see Applicant’s Remarks filed July 25, 2025, p. 6).
Regarding claim 14, Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi teaches the composite material as claimed in claim 11, as set forth above. Since Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi teaches a substantially similar in composition as the claimed invention, and since Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi in particular teaches that the glass-ceramic/silver composite comprises 50-80 wt% of silver phase (Takahashi at ¶ 0014), one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably expect that said silver phase is necessarily present in an amount of 20 mol% or more of said composite material.
Regarding claim 25, Takahashi as modified by Kobayashi teaches a material that is substantially free of both B2O3 and P2O5 (see Takahashi at ¶ 0029; see Kobayashi at p. 7, Table 1, and p. 8, Table 2, listing mol % of B2O3 as 0.0 and not listing P2O5 at all; see also Kobayashi at ¶ 0073).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed July 25, 2025 with respect to claim(s) 11, 14, and 25 have been fully considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
U.S. Pat. Pub. 2018/0370844 to Kumar et al. (“Kumar”) teaches a seal composition that includes a first alkaline earth metal oxide, a second alkaline earth metal oxide which is different from the first alkaline earth metal oxide, aluminum oxide, and silica (Abstract). In one particular embodiment, Kumar teaches a precursor glass that comprises 12.9 mol% CaO, 15.7 mol% BaO, 13.3 mol% Al2O3, 57.3 mol% SiO2, and 0.9 mol% K2O (p. 4, Table 1, Example 3).
U.S. Pat. Pub. 2007/0037031 to Cassidy et al. (“Cassidy”) teaches interconnect and gas separator for a solid oxide fuel cell includes a cermet material comprising a first conductive phase and a second ceramic phase (Abstract).
U.S. Pat. Pub. 2002/0068677 to Crosbie (“Crosbie”) teaches a glass composition consisting essentially of (by mol percent) about 55<SiO2<75; 5<BaO<30; and 2 <MgO<22 for use as a matrix of composite materials (Abstract).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,837 to Aitken et al. (“Aitken”) teaches a solid electrolyte fuel cell (claim 1; Abstract) that includes a sealing glass (Col. 8, lines 37-54). Aitken discloses one particular embodiment of the sealing glass comprising 30.0 mol% BaO, 5.0 mol% Y2O3, 5.0 mol% La2O3, and 60 mol% SiO2 (Col. 9, Table 1, example 8).
Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/P.A.F./Examiner, Art Unit 1731
/JENNIFER A SMITH/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1731