DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE This Office action is in response to the application filed November 15, 2022. 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. (a)(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. 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. Claims 1 , 2, 14 and 1 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over OGIHARA et al (8,603,732) and HATAKEYAMA et al (JP-2007-199653) in view of FARID et al (4, 743,429) The claimed invention recites the following: OGIHARA et al report a resist underlayer comprising a buckminsterfullerene meeting the claimed type II molecule of formula (12) , shown here on column 38, lines 20-35 : The solvent for dissolving the underlayer on a semiconductor substrate, are reported in col. 30, lines 1-7 by incorporation by reference of the specific solvents are reported in JP-2007-199563 (HATAKEYAMA et al), para. [0091], shown here: Etching is typically used to transfer the resist pattern to the underlayer, however using a developer can also be done to remove the exposed areas of the underlayer. In fact, FARID et al is cited to disclose that liquid developers can be any convenient liquid and in its simplest form can be the same liquid employed as a solvent in coating the composition, see column 14, lines 50-56, shown here: Claims 2 is met by the buckminsterfullerene compound of OGIHARA et al. Claims 14 and 15 are conventional developing steps that is taught in FARID et al wherein a coating solvent can be used as a developing solvent for the resist underlayer at the conventional etching step reported in column 31, lines 42-44, wherein the exposed regions are removed. It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of processing photoresist compositions and underlayers, to use Example UDL-25 found in Table 2 of column 40, lines 1-15 with conventional mixed organic solvents as reported in HATAKEYAMA et al as a developer for the resist underlayer as taught in FARID et al wherein coating solvents can be developers as well with the reasonable expectation of same or similar results for ultra fine wiring having a line width of 40 or less. Claims 3-13 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. None of the prior art references of record disclose developing method with the organic solvents recited in claims 3 and 4, and the type 1 and type III compounds in the dependent claims, steps of claims 5-7, the ratio of the first organic solvent to the second organic solvent of claim 8, the steps and additional layers of claims 9-13 . The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. SUKA et al ( 2013/0189620) disclose conventional solvents as developers to include those claimed in claims 3 and 4 for the first and second organic solvents, see para. [0202) to [0204]. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN S CHU whose telephone number is (571)272-1329. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, IFP-Flex. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mark Huff , can be reached at telephone number 571-272-1 385 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal . Should you have questions about access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice . /John S. Chu/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 J. Chu November 13, 2025