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 final rejection. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/04/2025 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Claims 8, 20-21 and 27-29 are amended. Claims 1-7, 9-13, 16-18, 22-26 and 30-34 are cancelled. Claims 35-39 are new. Claims 8, 14-15, 19-21, 27-29 and 35-39 are pending.
Stats of Previous Rejections
The rejections of Claims 8, 14-15 and 20-34 under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph have been withdrawn in view of the amendment.
The rejections of Claims 8, 15, 20-34 under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lewis (US 2014/0210581), and further in view of Goto (US 2020/0010938) have been withdrawn in view of the amendment.
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.
Claims 35-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Goto (US 2020/0010938), as evidenced by Li (International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials, Vol. 27, No. 4, Page 454-462, 2020).
Regarding claims 35 and 36, Goto teaches a method of making an L10 type FeNi ordered alloy comprising making a FeNi alloy, performing a nitriding and denitriding treatment to the FeNi alloy to obtain L10 type FeNi ordered alloy with high regularity (Abstract; [0035] to [0039]). Goto discloses that the FeNi alloy before nitriding has a random structure (Abstract; [0009]; [0014]), which meets the limitation recited in claims 35 and 36.
Goto does not explicitly disclose that the FeNi alloy contains S. However, S is an unavoidable impurity in iron as evidenced by Li. Li discloses that high purity iron contains 0.003-0.012 wt% S (Abstract; Table 3). Thus, the FeNi alloy disclosed by Goto is expected to contain S as evidenced by Li.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 14-15, 19-21 and 27-29 are allowed.
Claims 37-39 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments dated 12/04/2025 have been considered but are moot in view of the new rejection ground.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Xiaowei Su whose telephone number is (571)272-3239. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00.
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/XIAOWEI SU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1733
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