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 Objections
Claims 18 and 21 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 18 recites “include” in line 2, but should be amended to recite --includes--.
The numeral designations of various steps in claim 21 (e.g. “2a-th”, “2a-l-th”, “2-1-th”, “2-2-th”) are unconventional and somewhat awkward. The examiner suggests amending these to a more conventional form for clarity and ease of reading. For example, “a 2a-th step” may be --a step 2a--, and so on.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 11-21 are 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.
Claim 1 recites the term “hard”. The term “hard” is a term of degree, and the scope of thereof is not necessarily clear.
The term “hard” is similarly used elsewhere in the claims and should be addressed accordingly.
Claim 1 recites “the hard particle comprises a multilayer structure” in line 4. However, it is unclear how a particle would have the claimed multilayer structure. It appears that this should instead recite --the hard particle layer comprises a multilayer structure--.
The remaining claims are rejected by virtue of their dependency on claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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, 11-17, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Takeshita et al. (U.S. PGPub 2021/0001410, cited in IDS).
Claim 1: Takeshita discloses a cutting tool (e.g. title) comprising a base material (12 - paragraph 101) and a coating (11) disposed on the base material, wherein the coating comprises a hard particle layer formed from a hard particle (metallic compounds as discussed below), the hard particle comprises a multilayer structure (e.g. 113) in which a first unit layer and a second unit layer are alternately stacked (C and D layers - paragraph 140), the first unit layer is formed from a first compound having a cubic crystal structure (paragraph 114), the second unit layer is formed from a second compound having a cubic crystal structure (Id.), each of the first compound and the second compound consists of one or more metal elements selected from the group consisting of a periodic table group 4 element, a periodic table group 5 element, and a periodic table group 6 element (e.g. Ti - paragraphs 146 and 152), silicon (Id.), and one or more elements selected from the group consisting of carbon, nitrogen, boron, and oxygen (e.g. boron - paragraphs 150 and 156), and a percentage of the number of atoms of the silicon to a sum of the numbers of atoms of the metal element and the silicon in the first unit layer is different from a percentage of the number of atoms of the silicon to a sum of the numbers of atoms of the metal element and the silicon in the second unit layer (paragraph 159; Tables 3-4).
Claim 2: The first unit layer and the second unit layer have the same crystal orientation (paragraph 160 discloses that “a crystal lattice can be continuous between the C layer and the D layer”, which implies a same crystal orientation, otherwise the lattice would be discontinuous at the boundary between orientations).
Claim 3: In each of the first unit layer and the second unit layer, the percentage of the number of atoms of the silicon to the sum of the numbers of atoms of the metal element and the silicon is 0.5% or more and 10% or less (paragraphs 146 and 152; Tables 3-4).
Claim 4: A thickness of the hard particle layer is 3 μm or more and 15 μm or less, and a thickness of the coating is 3 μm or more and 30 μm or less (paragraph 113; Tables 3-4).
Claim 11: A thickness of the hard particle layer is 5 μm or more and 10 μm or less, and a thickness of the coating is 10 μm or more and 20 μm or less (paragraph 113; Tables 3-4).
Claim 12: A difference between the percentage of the number of atoms of the silicon, Asi, to the sum of the number of atoms of the metal element, AM, and the number of atoms of the silicon, Asi, {Asi/(Asi + AM)} x 100, in the first unit layer and the percentage of the number of atoms of the silicon, Asi, to the sum of the number of atoms of the metal element, AM, and the number of atoms of the silicon, Asi, {Asi/(Asi + AM)} x 100, in the second unit layer is 0.5% or more and 10% or less (paragraph 159; Tables 3-4).
Claim 13: In the first unit layer, the percentage of the number of atoms of silicon, Asi, to the sum of the number of atoms of the metal element, AM, and the number of atoms of silicon, Asi, { Asi/(Asi + AM)} x 100, is 6.0% or more and 10% or less (paragraph 146; Tables 3-4).
Claim 14: In the second unit layer, the percentage of the number of atoms of silicon, Asi, to the sum of the number of atoms of the metal element, AM, and the number of atoms of silicon, Asi, { Asi/(Asi + AM)} x 100, is 0.5% or more and 1.0% or less (paragraph 155; Tables 3-4).
Claim 15: The coating comprises a base layer (e.g. 111) disposed between the base material and the hard particle layer, the base layer is formed from a third compound, and the third compound consists of one or more elements selected from the group consisting of a periodic table group 4 element, a periodic table group 5 element, a periodic table group 6 element, and aluminum (paragraphs 169-170), and one or more elements selected from the group consisting of carbon, nitrogen, boron, and oxygen (e.g. boron - paragraph 172).
Claim 16: The coating comprises a base layer disposed directly on the base material, and the base layer consists of at least one selected from the group consisting of a TiN layer, a TiC layer, a TiCN layer, a TiBN layer, and an Al2O3 layer (e.g. examples of TiC, TiN, and TiCN materials - paragraph 177).
Claim 17: The coating comprises a surface layer (protection layer - paragraphs 109-110) disposed on a topmost surface thereof, the surface layer is formed from a fourth compound, and the fourth compound consists of one or more elements selected from the group consisting of a periodic table group 4 element, a periodic table group 5 element, a periodic table group 6 element, and aluminum, and one or more elements selected from the group consisting of carbon, nitrogen, boron, and oxygen (e.g. Al2O3, Id.).
Claim 19: The coating comprises an intermediate layer (114) disposed between the base layer and the hard particle layer (paragraph 161; Fig. 2).
Claim 20: An average of a period width of the multilayer structure is 2 nm or more and 20 nm or less (paragraph 141 - the minimum contemplated range of thickness for each C and D layer is 5nm and 1nm, respectively, for a period as small as 6 nm). See also Tables 3-4.
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 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeshita et al. in view of Ahlgren (U.S. PGPub 2011/0188950, equivalent to WO2009128782 cited in the IDS).
Takeshita et al. discloses a cutting tool substantially as claimed except for wherein the surface layer includes a TiN layer. However, Ahlgren teaches a similar cutting tool comprising a surface layer disposed on a topmost surface thereof, wherein the surface layer includes a TiN layer (paragraph 13). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have made the surface layer to include a TiN layer for wear detection or coloring purposes (Id.).
Claims 3, 4, and 11-14 are alternatively rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeshita et al.
Regarding claims 3, 4, and 11-14, in any case where it is determined that a cited range does not sufficiently anticipate the claimed range (i.e. by MPEP 2131.03 I-II), it has been held that in the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists (MPEP 2144.05 I.). In every instance, the cited ranges at least overlap with those claimed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 21 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 prior art fails to disclose or teach the subject matter of claim 21. For example, Takeshita et al. discloses forming the coating layers by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method differing from the claimed CVD method (paragraphs 191-193).
U.S. PGPubs 2018/0305811 and 2019/0177839 disclose CVD methods for forming hard titanium aluminum nitride coatings with columnar structures using rotating nozzles. However, the methods utilize different gases corresponding to the different coating compositions, and further lack the claimed nozzle hole configuration.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S Patent 5,700,551 discloses an alternating multilayer hard coating for a cutting tool, where at least one layer is made of a compound whose crystal structure is cubic system and at least another one layer is made of a compound whose crystal structure is not cubic system and/or is amorphous.
U.S. PGPubs 2018/0281078 and 2018/0236563 disclose hard coatings for tools having alternating multilayer structures comprising compounds containing Ti, an element of at least one kind selected from the group consisting of Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Al and/or Si, and N.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW P TRAVERS whose telephone number is (571)272-3218. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00AM-6:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sunil K. Singh can be reached at 571-272-3460. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Matthew P Travers/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3726