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
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-25 in the reply filed on 11/06/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-9, 14, 16-20, 22-23, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Berggren US 2018/0171434.
Regarding claim 1, Berggren teaches a method of recovering a rare earth element (REE) from a permanent magnet material (Abstract), the method comprising: converting the permanent magnet material to a higher surface area form (Abstract); treating the converted permanent magnet material with an aqueous solution of alkaline carbonates, such as ammonium carbonate, to dissolve the REE (Abstract); filtering the treated and converted permanent magnet material to yield a filtrate (Paragraph [0011]); and treating the filtrate with at least one of a precipitating agent or a precipitating condition to form REE solids (Paragraph [0024]).
Regarding claim 2, the magnetic material includes neodymium, iron and boron (Claim 2).
Regarding claim 3, the process includes converting the permanent magnet material to a higher surface area material is performed by hydrogen decrepitation (Paragraph [0023]).
Regarding claim 4, the process includes converting the permanent magnet material to a higher surface area material may include grinding (Paragraph [0038]).
Regarding claim 5, the permanent magnet material may be treated at temperatures between 50 and 1500 deg. C (Paragraph [0045]).
Regarding claim 6, the permanent magnet material may be subject to grinding, which is a mechanical shock treatment (Paragraph [0038]).
Regarding claim 7, the permanent magnet material may be subject to oxidation (Paragraph [0038]).
Regarding claim 8, the alkaline carbonate may include carbon dioxide (Abstract).
Regarding claim 9, the alkaline carbonate may be recycled (Abstract).
Regarding claim 14, the process may add air, oxygen, or hydrogen peroxide as and oxidant (Paragraph [0055]).
Regarding claim 16, the dissolution may occur at room temperature and pressure (Paragraph [0069]), which is between 0 and 100 deg. C and more than 1 bar because atmospheric pressure is slightly more than 1 bar. Also claim 16 indicates that the process may occur at a pressure between 0 and 500 psi (Claim 16).
Regarding claim 17, the treatment vessel may be made from glass (Paragraph [0034]).
Regarding claim 18-20, the precipitation process may include treating with carbon dioxide and evaporation (Experiment 1, Paragraph [0069]).
Regarding claim 22, the process is a continuous loop (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 23, the material may also include praseodymium and/or dysprosium (Paragraph [0007]).
Regarding claims 25, the process may be formed in a sealed vessel (Experiment 3), which would create the physical conditions recited in claim 25.
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, 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) 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berggren US 2018/0171434.
Regarding claim 24, the process may be formed in a sealed vessel (Experiment 3) at a temperature of -20 to 100 deg. C (Claim 15).
Berggren does not expressly state that the temperature may be above 100 deg. C. However, the range of -20 to 100 deg. C (Claim 15) is sufficiently close the claimed range of above 100 deg. C to render the temperatures slightly above 100 deg. C obvious have predictable results. See MPEP 2131.03(III), Titanium Metals Corp. v. Banner, 778 F.2d 775, 227 USPQ 773 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-13, 15, and 21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art does not teach or suggest the cumulative features of each of claims 10-13, 15, and 21.
Regarding claims 10-13, and 15, the prior art does not teach or suggest the feature of dissolving a permanent magnet material in an alkaline carbonate including potassium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate.
Regarding claims 15 and 21, the prior art does not teach or suggest applying a potential or voltage a mixture containing alkaline carbonate.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES A FIORITO whose telephone number is (571)272-9921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amber Orlando can be reached at (571) 270-3149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES A FIORITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731