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 .
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.
In claim 2, the phrase “wherein fineness of a fiber material serving as a precursor” is indefinite because the precursor is not part of the claimed product. The fiber material serving as a precursor contemplates some process of making the activated carbon fibers that is not described in the claims. Thus, it is unclear how the person having ordinary skill in the a would ascertain the scope of the claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1, and 3-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2019218943 in view of Stabler US 2018/0297008.
Regarding claim 1, JP ‘943 teaches a formed adsorber that includes an activated carbon fiber sheet (Abstract). The activated carbon fiber sheet may include a binder (Retention of catalyst). The activated carbon fibers in the sheet may have a size of 40mm (Example 1).
JP ‘943 does not expressly state the ratio of binder to activated carbon fiber in the sheet.
Stabler teaches a gas storage article that includes a binder in an amount of 0.5 to 30 weight percent of the binder (Paragraph [0017]), or 16 wt% (Example 1), or 14 wt% (Example 2), and the gas absorbing material may be activated carbon fibers (Paragraph [0040]). The binder in combination with the gas absorbing material provide excellent chemical resistance to the gas storage environment (Paragraph [0016]).
The time of invention it would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art to form the adsorbing article of JP ‘943 having the binder in an amount of 16 wt% in view of Stabler. The suggestion or motivation for doing so would have been to form a gas adsorbing material having excellent chemical resistant to a gas storage environment (Stabler, Paragraph [0016]).
Regarding claim 3, JP ‘943 teaches the surface area of the activated carbon fiber is 1400 to 2200 m^2/g (Abstract).
Regarding claim 4, JP ‘943 the total pore volume of the activated carbon fiber is 0.5 – 1.2 cm^3/g (Claim 2).
Regarding claim 5, JP ‘943 teaches the pore volume of the pores having a pore diameter of more than 0.7 nm and 2.0 nm or less is 0.20 to 1.20 cm 3 / g (Abstract).
Regarding claim 6, JP ‘943 teaches the lower limit of the existence ratio R 0.7 / 2.0 of the ultra micropore volume in the micropore volume is preferably 25% or more (Ratio of micropore volume to micropore volume: R 0.7 / 2.0).
Regarding claims 7-10, the adsorbing material may be a canister mounted on and automobile (Abstract).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2019218943 in view of Stabler US 2018/0297008 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP 2002161439.
Regarding claim 2, JP ‘943 in view of Stabler does not expressly state that the fineness of a fiber material serving as a precursor of the activated carbon fiber ranges from 4.0 to 60 dtex.
JP ‘439 teaches a process of making activated carbon fibers by processing a phenolic fiber precursor having a fineness of greater than of equal to 5 dtex (Abstract).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art to form the fibers of JP ‘943 in view of Stabler with the process of making taught by JP ‘439. The suggestion or motivation for doing so would have been to provide a process of making the activated carbon fibers that was required in JP ‘943 but not disclosed.
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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