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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-18 and 20-38 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/22/2025.
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 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, 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.
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shkolnik (US 2010/015356 A1) in view of DeMuth (US 20180326663 A1) and Hunze (US 20200023467 A1).
Claims 19. Shkolnik discloses an additive manufacturing system (100, Fig. 1) that
at least two high power lasers to generate beams (142 and 144, Fig. 1A), with at least some beams being partially mixed (laser beams irradiate an overlapping area simultaneously, Fig. 7A, par. 247, where the broadest reasonable interpretation of “partially mixed beams” include when the patterns generated overlap, par. 254);
wherein mixing of at least one phase patterned beam with another beam occurs at a print bed (laser beams irradiate an overlapping area simultaneously, Fig. 7A, par. 247) and
DeMuth discloses an additive manufacturing device wherein the energy patterning unit is dynamic and eases image pattern where at least some unmixed beams are recycled to provide further beam patterning (par. 41 and 49).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Shklolnik to incorporate the teachings of DeMuth and replace Shklolnik’s patterning optics with DeMuth’s energy patterning unit which recycles unused energy. Doing so would have the benefit of reducing energy cost to the system (par. 74, DeMuth) and improve the flexibility and ease of image patterning (par. 41, DeMuth).
Shklolnik in view of DeMuth does not explicitly disclose receiving and altering the phase a beam.
Hunze discloses an additive manufacturing device wherein the laser’s phase is controlled in order to control the intensity distribution of the irradiation pattern (par. 12).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Shklolnik in view of DeMuth to incorporate the teachings of Hunze and control the laser’s phase with phase modulators. Doing so would have the benefit of controlling the intensity distribution of the irradiation pattern (par. 12, Hunze).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SIMPSON A CHEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6422. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5.
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/SIMPSON A CHEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/ELIZABETH M KERR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761