DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/261,436. Claims 16-45 are pending in the application.
Claims 26-45 are withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on July 16, 2025. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on September 15, 2025 and elected Group I, claims 16-24, with traverse. In traversing the restriction requirement, the Applicant argues that the groups of inventions have a common feature that provides a contribution over the prior art. However, the applicant does not identify the common technical feature providing the contribution. Furthermore, the groups include both composition and method claims. Therefore, the argument is not persuasive. However, the restriction requirement as to Group 2, claim 25, is withdrawn.
Accordingly, claims 26-45 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. § 112 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(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.
(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.
Claims 16-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because the claims include broad and narrow ranges for the same quantity in the same claims. In particular, the claims include broad and narrow ranges for the ratio of graphite to carbon, for the solvent vapor pressure, for the ratio of conductive particles to binder, for the amount of conductive particles in the composition, for the solid content of the composition, for the dimensions of the graphite flakes, for the size or length of the additional conductive particles, for the ratio of ethanol and pentanol, for the storage modulus, loss modulus and yield stress for particle content in the solids, and for electrical conductivity. See MPEP § 2173.05(c).
Regarding claims 16-25, the term “vapor pressure between 1 Pa and 6 kPa” is interpreted to mean the vapor pressure at any temperature since no temperature is specified.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because the term “the solid content” lacks antecedent basis. MPEP § 2173.05(e).
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because the term “the solid composition” lacks antecedent basis. MPEP § 2173.05(e)
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. 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://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 October 10, 2025