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 invention I, claims 1-16, in the reply filed on 10/30/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 17-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/30/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The term “substantially” in claim 2 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “substantially” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. The limitation “substantially oriented in (001) direction” of the claim has been rendered indefinite by the use of the term “substantially”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 and 3-16 are allowed.
Claim 2 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record, Jeong (US 2019/0305040), discloses a magnetic memory device comprising: a substrate; a seed layer above the substrate; a chemical templating layer above the seed layer, the chemical templating layer comprising a binary alloy of CoAl; and a first magnetic layer above the chemical templating layer, the first magnetic layer comprising a Heusler compound having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. See Jeong, FIG. 9, and paragraphs [0027], [0030] and [0034]. The prior art of record, McAlister (A.J. McAIister, The Al-Co (Aluminum-Cobalt) System, Bulletin of Alloy Phase Diagrams Vol. 10 No. 6 1989, pp. 646-650), teaches a binary alloy of CoAl having a CsCl prototype structure. See McAlister, Table 2. The prior art of records, individually or in combination, do not disclose nor teach “a binary alloy having a Cu3Au prototype structure or a BiF3 prototype structure” in combination with other limitations as recited in claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHIH TSUN A CHOU whose telephone number is (408)918-7583. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-16:00 Arizona Time.
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/SHIH TSUN A CHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2811