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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-18 are pending. Claims 1, 4-5, 7-12 and 15-18 are the subject of this NON-FINAL Office Action. This is the first action on the merits.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election with traverse of the species of property pattern of a "light color pattern" configured as a "number pattern" where the desired physical property is "a color of at least a portion of the physical 3D object" to be "produced by FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printing” in the reply filed on 06/01/2026 is acknowledged. The species of print is withdrawn. Applicants assert that no search burden exists. However, claim 1 is very broad, encompassing, as previously explained, vastly different combination of species yielding vastly different effects. This was made abundantly clear in the Requirement for Restriction/Election 05/21/2025:
The species are distinct because (1) the inventions as claimed are either not capable of use together or can have a materially different design, mode of operation, function, or effect; (2) the inventions do not overlap in scope, i.e., are mutually exclusive; and (3) the inventions as claimed are not obvious variants. See MPEP § 806.05(j). In the instant case, the species as claimed not only have a materially different design, mode of operation, function, or effect because the various possible combinations yield vastly in design, mode of operation, structure and/or function; but some also are not capable of use together. For example, an FDM device cannot be used with an SLA device. A “property pattern” encompasses vastly different species. For example, this encompasses length, width, depth of material, material type, material composition, material solidification properties, curvature, smoothness, sensitivity to fracture, cracking or other defects, lift-off characteristics, extrusion defects, and innumerable other completely different species incapable of measurement together; and materially different design, mode of operation, function, or effect. Furthermore, the inventions as claimed do not encompass overlapping subject matter and there is nothing of record to show them to be obvious variants. Simply put: Applicants are claiming the world, which encompasses incompatible, vastly different species
(pgs. 2-3). Applicants fail to address these arguments. The election of species is maintained.
Claims 2-3, 6 and 13-14 are withdrawn.
Note on Claim Breadth
Applicants’ claims encompass any “virtual model” that uses any “light source”; any “property pattern”; and any “light property.” A “light source” could be a laser, or a projector, among many possible options. A “property pattern” could be color, length, thickness, radius, temperature, material composition, curing time, or any of innumerable possible “properties.” Finally, a “light property” could be wavelength, color, length, radius, speed, photons per second, intensity, time, or any number of possible “properties.” As one can see from this, the claims encompass a vast swath of prior art.
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) A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(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; or
(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.
Claims 1, 4-5, 7-10, 12 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by STEINGART (US20120065755).
As to claim 1, STEINGART teaches a method comprising:
providing at least one light source (para. 0040);
computing, by a beam translation module, a property pattern for a layer of a virtual 3D model, the property pattern including at least a first light property configured to produce a desired physical property of a first volumetric unit of a physical 3D object to be printed;
structuring an illumination beam of the at least one light source based on the computed property pattern (paras. 0003, 0015, 0044); and
projecting the structured illumination beam onto a material to produce the physical 3D object having said desired physical property (para. 0040),
wherein the material is a photosensitive resin or a photosensitive extruded material, and
wherein the first volumetric unit is not confined to edges of the layer being 3D printed (SLA; id).
As to claim 4, STEINGART teaches the property pattern is a light color pattern, a light intensity pattern or a light exposure length per pixel pattern (Abstract; paras. 0003, 0015, 0040, 0044).
As to claim 5, STEINGART teaches configuring the property pattern as a number pattern, a letter patterns, a keywords pattern and/or a coordinates pattern (paras. 0003, 0015, 0040, 0044).
As to claim 7, STEINGART teaches the physical property is a property selected from the list consisting of a color of at least a portion the physical 3D object, a translucency of at least a portion of the physical 3D object and shading of at least a portion of the physical 3D object (paras. 0003, 0015, 0040, 0044).
As to claim 8, STEINGART teaches prior to completion of a curing process of the material, a value of the physical property corresponding to the first volumetric unit is based on a value of the first light property of the property pattern, wherein said first light property represents the property of light to be applied to the first volumetric unit (paras. 0003, 0015, 0040, 0044).
As to claim 9, STEINGART teaches the physical 3D object is a 3D dental object (para. 0022).
As to claim 10, STEINGART teaches the physical 3D object is produced by SLA (stereolithography) 3D printing (paras. 0038-40).
As to claim 12, STEINGART teaches the material is selectively treated with a chemical or a defined wavelength of light to activate or deactivate photosensitivity prior to or after printing (paras. 0040).
As to claim 16, STEINGART teaches each layer of the physical 3D object is printed by tracing a geometry of the layer via movement of a scanning mirror (para. 0040).
As to claim 17, STEINGART teaches system to perform claim 1 (Abstract; paras. 0040, 0046).
As to claim 18, STEINGART teaches non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program which, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform a procedure of claim 1 (id.).
Claims 1, 4-5, 7-10, 12 and 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by KOOPS (WO2023012095).
As to claim 1, KOOPS teaches a method comprising:
providing at least one light source (Abstract; Figs. 2-3);
computing, by a beam translation module, a property pattern for a layer of a virtual 3D model, the property pattern including at least a first light property configured to produce a desired physical property of a first volumetric unit of a physical 3D object to be printed;
structuring an illumination beam of the at least one light source based on the computed property pattern (Abstract); and
projecting the structured illumination beam onto a material to produce the physical 3D object having said desired physical property (Abstract),
wherein the material is a photosensitive resin or a photosensitive extruded material, and
wherein the first volumetric unit is not confined to edges of the layer being 3D printed (SLA; id).
As to claim 4, KOOPS teaches the property pattern is a light color pattern, a light intensity pattern or a light exposure length per pixel pattern (Abstract).
As to claim 5, KOOPS teaches configuring the property pattern as a number pattern, a letter patterns, a keywords pattern and/or a coordinates pattern (Abstract).
As to claim 7, KOOPS teaches the physical property is a property selected from the list consisting of a color of at least a portion the physical 3D object, a translucency of at least a portion of the physical 3D object and shading of at least a portion of the physical 3D object (Abstract).
As to claim 8, KOOPS teaches prior to completion of a curing process of the material, a value of the physical property corresponding to the first volumetric unit is based on a value of the first light property of the property pattern, wherein said first light property represents the property of light to be applied to the first volumetric unit (Abstract).
As to claim 9, KOOPS teaches the physical 3D object is a 3D dental object (Abstract).
As to claim 10, KOOPS teaches the physical 3D object is produced by SLA (stereolithography) 3D printing (Asbtract).
As to claim 12, KOOPS teaches the material is selectively treated with a chemical or a defined wavelength of light to activate or deactivate photosensitivity prior to or after printing (Abstract).
As to claim 15, KOOPS teaches the illumination beam is structured spatially by a DMD (digital micromirror device) prior to projecting the structured illumination beam onto the material (Fig. 2).
As to claim 16, KOOPS teaches each layer of the physical 3D object is printed by tracing a geometry of the layer via movement of a scanning mirror (Fig. 2).
As to claim 17, INZIELLO teaches system to perform claim 1 (Figs. 1-3).
As to claim 18, INZIELLO teaches non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program which, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform a procedure of claim 1 (Figs. 1-3).
Claim Rejection - 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 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over STEINGART (US20120065755) or KOOPS (WO2023012095), in view of US 20140152383.
It would have been prima facie obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the 3D print art to apply the voxel modeling methods of the prior art for SLA to other familiar substitutes such as FDM with a reasonable expectation of success.
Neither above references explicitly teach FDM.
However, US 20140152383 explicitly teaches that voxel-based modeling is applied in SLA or FDM (para. 0047). Thus, it is clear from the prior art that FDM was a substitute for SLA.
Prior Art
The following prior art also teaches voxel-based modeling of 3D printed object to “structure an illumination beam” accordingly: US 20210201562; US 20210362427; US 20200307105; US 20170042501; US 20140277661; CN113400641A; KR 20160109153A.
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/YUNG-SHENG M TSUI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1684
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