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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 4/28/2026 is acknowledged.
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.
Claim(s) 1-8, 10, and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN 109055768.
Regarding claim 1, CN ‘768 teaches a process of forming highly pure rare earth metal in a vacuum furnace (Abstract). The process reacts a rare earth powder with a lanthanum metal reducing agent and collecting the metal (Description. The process occurs by monitoring the vacuum pressure and temperature (Description).
Regarding claim 2, the rare earth metal may be gadolinium (Description, Example 2).
Regarding claim 3 and 4, the pressure and temperature are both controlled in the process (Description).
Regarding claim 5, the lanthanum and rare earth oxide is mixed together to form a homogeneous mixture (Description).
Regarding claim 6 and 7, the lanthanum remains a solid, while the rare earth metal evaporates and condenses and is collected in a cooling region (Description).
Regarding claim 8, the process operates at 0.1Pa, which is 0.007 torr (Description).
Regarding claim 10, rare earth metal may be collected by condensation after sublimation at temperature of 400 to 1000 deg. C (Description) and the rare earth metal may include ytterbium (Description).
Regarding claim 21, the heating may occur by induction heating (Description).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9, 11, and 22-29 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art does not teach or suggest the cumulative features of each of claims 9, 11, and 27.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES A FIORITO whose telephone number is (571)272-9921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amber Orlando can be reached at (571) 270-3149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES A FIORITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731
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