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
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-3 and 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Hausrath et al (US 2020/0216351, of record, ‘351 hereafter).
Regarding claims 1-3, ‘351 discloses a glass composition for glass fiber comprising SiO2 in a range of 50.0 to 56.0% by mass, B203 in a range of 16.0 to 25.0% by mass, Al203 in a range of 12.0 to 17.0% by mass, P205 in a range of 3.0 to 7.0% by mass, TiO2 in a range of 0 to 5.0% by mass, CaO in a range of 0.25 to 6.0% by mass, MgO in a range of 0 to 4.0% by mass, and F2 and Cl2 are 0% by mass in total, with respect to the total amount of the glass composition ([0007]-[0009]), which significantly overlap instantly claimed ranges; wherein a value of S/A)2x(PxT)12/(C + M)3 as recited in the present claimed formula (1) can be 5.57 (value is calculated from the composition of Example 107), which satisfies instantly claimed formula (1) to (3) as in the present claims 1-3. ‘351 does not specifically exemplify an embodiment having all contents of each component falling within the presently claimed ranges, however, as set forth above, '351 discloses that the content range of each component significantly overlaps the presently claimed ranges, a person of ordinary skill would have used any of the contents disclosed by '351, including the contents within the presently recited ranges. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the contents of each component within the instantly claimed range to render an glass composition having desired properties. "The normal desire of scientists or artisans to improve upon what is already generally known provides the motivation to determine where in a disclosed set of percentage ranges is the optimum combination of percentages", In re Peterson 65 USPQ2d 1379 (CAFC 2003). Also, In re Geisler 43 USPQ2d 1365 (Fed. Cir. 1997); In re Woodruff, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (CCPA 1976); In re Mala, Qari, 182 USPQ 549, 553 (CCPA 1974) (See MPEP 2144.05).
Regarding claims 5-7, ‘351 also discloses a glass fiber, glass woven fabric and fiber reinforced composition comprising the glass composition ([0036], [0037], [0103], and Claim 19).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim 1, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of its base claim and any intervening claims. The reason for the allowance is that the prior art of record does not specifically disclose or fairly suggest a glass composition as recited in the present claim 1, wherein the contents of S, A, P, T, C and M satisfy formula (4) as in the present claim 4.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUIYUN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-7934. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arron Austin can be reached on 571-272-8935. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RUIYUN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1782