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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Status of Application
Claims 1-12 are pending and presented for examination.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's request for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)-(d). Certified copies of the priority documents have NOT been received. Accordingly, the earliest effective filing date of the instant claims is that of the US filing, 29 March 2023. An intervening reference is being applied and Applicants are reminded that a certified human translation of the priority document must also be filed to perfect the foreign priority date and thusly overcome any intervening rejection.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-12 are objected to for failing to utilize chemical subscripts (“Ag2Te” should read --Ag2Te--).
Claim 1 is objected to as it is two sentences. Claims must only be one sentence (See MPEP §608.01(n)).
Claims 2 and 7 are objected to as the micron symbol shows up as a square.
Claim 6 is objected to as “Silver’ and “Tellurium” in limitation a should read --silver—and --tellurium—to comply with IUPAC element naming conventions.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claims 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Claims 7-12 are drawn to “The method as clamed in claim 1”, but claim 1 is a product and as such they are unable to further limit a method. It appears that these claims should be dependent upon claim 6 which is a method of making and accordingly this is how the claims are being construed for the purposes of compact prosecution. Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
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 1-4, 6, 7 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Synergistic Approach Toward a Reproducible High zT in n‑Type and p‑Type Superionic Thermoelectric Ag2Te” to Jakhar et al. (hereinafter, “Jakhar at __”). This reference names Jakhar and Singh who are the named inventors in the instant application but also names as authors Bisht and Katre, and given that foreign priority conditions are not met the reference qualifies as prior art.
Regarding claims 1 and 3, Jakhar discloses a high-density nanostructured pellet of thermoelectric material suitable for near-room temperature applications comprising Ag2Te having a ZT of 1.2 at 570-600 K (Jakhar at 53924 L col).
As to claim 2, the diameter is 20 nm (Jakhar at 53920 L col).
Turning to claim 4, the density is 100% (“Table 1 CP1”).
Concerning claims 6, 10 and 12, the material of claim 1 (with the same amount of Ag/Te as added) is made by a process comprising:
Providing Ag and Te powders (Jakhar at 53924 R col);
Loading the powders into a stainless steel container using Ar along with stainless-steel balls (Id.);
Milling of the powders in a vibration mill at a frequency of 2 Hz (Id.) for 2.33 hours (“Table 1. CP1”);
Consolidating the formed nanoparticle at RT using KBr cold-press die to obtain high density pellets of the nanoparticles (53924 R col).
As to claim 7, ratio is 2:1 (Id.).
Regarding claim 9, Ar gas is utilized (id.).
Turning to claim 11, while the die set size or pressure are not disclosed given that the same
product is formed it would thusly follow as inherent that the same process step must occur.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Facile synthesis of
Ag2Te nanowires and thermoelectric properties of Ag2Te polycrystals sintered by spark plasma sintering” to Chang et al. (hereinafter, “Chang at __”; cited and provided by Applicants).
Regarding claims 1 and 3, Chang discloses a 70.58% dense (versus theoretical; Chang at “Table
1”) nanostructured nanowire (meeting broadest reasonable interpretation of pellet as sintering is performed) comprising Ag2Te having a zT of over 1 at 600 K (Chang at “Figure 8(f)”).
Turning to claim 2, the diameter is ~200 nm (Chang at “Abstract”).
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.
Claims 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jakhar as applied to claim 1 and 6 (respectively) above.
As to claim 5, “no pores” (Jakhar at 53922 R col, or 100% dense per “Table 1 CP1”) are observed which overlaps “about 0.1%” as claimed and is thusly prima facie obvious (see MPEP §2144.05).
Turning to claim 8, the ratio in Jakhar is 1:2.5 which is considered to abut upon “1:2.4” which is thusly prima facie obvious.
Conclusion
Claims 1-12 are rejected.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M RUMP whose telephone number is (571)270-5848. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 06:45 AM to 04:45 PM.
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RICHARD M. RUMP
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1759
/RICHARD M RUMP/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759