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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/6/2026 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
Per the RCE filing of 1/6/2026, the restriction that was initiated on 6/5/2024 is being reinstituted. The restriction was originally withdrawn per the allowance dated 10/6/2025 but since the allowance was responded to with the RCE claims 2, 3, 9-11 and 21-24 are hereby withdrawn again. Claims 1 and 4-8 will be examined in the below action.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 4-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ruby et al. (2017/0302251).
Ruby et al disclose a device in Figure 1C comprising: a substrate (108); a non-planar surface (118) over at least a portion of the substrate; a layer (103) over the non-planar surface; and a resonator (102) over the layer and the non-planar surface, in which at least a portion of the layer is between the non-planar and the resonator (para. 35 and 40).
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Greyscale
Regarding claim 4, wherein the layer is a first layer (103), the non-planar surface is of a second layer (114) over the substrate and formed by: depositing the second layer on a surface of the substrate; and roughening the second layer to form the non-planar surface. The patentability of a product does not depend on its method of production. If the product in the product-by process claim is the same as or obvious from a product in the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior product was made by a different process (see MPEP 2113).
Regarding claim 5, wherein the layer has a different acoustic impedance from the substrate (Para. 53).
Regarding claim 6, wherein the non-planar surface is formed according to a patterning film of photoresist material. See MPEP 2113.
Regarding claim 7, wherein the non-planar surface is formed according to a greyscale reticle. See MPEP 2113.
Regarding claim 8, wherein the layer is a first layer (103) and the device further comprises a second layer (114) between the first layer and the resonator, the second layer having a different acoustic impedance from the first layer (Para. 53).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CRAIG M SCHNEIDER whose telephone number is (571)272-3607. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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/CRAIG M SCHNEIDER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3753