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
Claims 9-17 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 6/1/26.
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I, claims 1-8, in the reply filed on 6/1/26 is acknowledged.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 5, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawano in US20210194300 in view of Lei in US20180134926.
Regarding Claim 1: Kawano teaches a magnet 31 comprising a permanent magnet material (magnet matrix; 311) and a bond coating arranged at a surface of the magnet matrix (312). The bond coating contains an adhesive layer including a foaming agent (foam adhesive layer; 312a; first layer) and a second adhesive layer arranged further away from the magnet matrix than the layer containing a foaming agent (312b; second layer; See Figure 3). Kawano teaches that this magnet is intended to be used in a motor (See Paragraph 3 and paragraph 30).
Kawano is silent in terms of the polymers used in the first and second adhesive layers.
However, bond coating sheets having both adhesive and foaming (expandable) layers used in motors are known in the art and taught by Lei. Lei teaches a bond coating sheet (see Figure 1-7) containing a first adhesive layer, being an expandable adhesive layer (2). The first adhesive layer preferably contains epoxy resin as a main component. Epoxy resin is a thermosetting resin (See paragraph 58 of original disclosure). The first adhesive layer further comprises a temperature sensitive foaming agent (See Paragraph 52). The sheet of Lei may further comprise a backing layer (1), which may be a second adhesive layer such as a resin film (4). The resin film of Lei may be a thermoplastic material such as polyester and polycarbonate, amongst others. Lei thus teaches a bond coating comprising a thermosetting adhesive layer including a foaming agent and a thermoplastic adhesive layer.
Those of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to apply the adhesive sheet components of Lei, being a first thermosetting polymer containing an expanding agent and a second thermoplastic polymer, to the magnetic matrix of Kawano as the adhesive layers of Lei are expressly created for the purpose of being used to secure components in the construction of motors. Both Kawano and Lei teach that such a layer is applied to the surface of a component, and the component is inserted into a cavity or adjacent to a second component, and the layer is expanded to provide mechanical contact with a surface of the cavity (See Abstract of Kawano and paragraph 3 of Lei). Those of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use the polymers of Lei as adhesive layers with the magnetic matrix of Kawano on the basis that the adhesive polymers of Lei provides fast curing times, good filling power, and ensures excellent properties such as thermal conductivity (See Paragraph 12).
Regarding Claim 5: Lei teaches that the thickness of the bond coating may be less than 250 microns (See Paragraph 77). Thus it would have been obvious to provide the bond coating of Kawano in view of Lei in an overlapping range of thicknesses. Overlapping ranges have been held to present a prima facie case of obviousness over the prior art. Those of ordinary skill in the art would only need to select from the overlapping portion of the range to arrive at the invention as claimed.
Regarding Claim 8: Lei teaches that the thermosetting adhesive layer may include a hardener, such as an imidazole based compound (an aromatic amine; See paragraph 51), a filler, such as aluminum oxide (see paragraph 65), and auxiliary agents, such as coupling agents (See Paragraph 66).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 and 6-7 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 indicated claims include subject matter not taught by the prior art. The closest prior art is considered to be Kawano and Lei. The prior art does not teach the application of a bond coating including a plurality of bond coatings as they are set forth in claims 1-2. Each of these bond coating requires a first layer of a thermosetting adhesive including a foaming agent and a thermoplastic adhesive layer, wherein each thermosetting layer is arranged closer to the magnetic substrate than the thermoplastic layer. Lei teaches that multiple layers may be formed, but those layers are sandwiched, having two thermoplastic layers between two thermoset layers, wherein the second thermoset layer is further away from the surface than the second thermoplastic layer (See Figures). Kawano and Lei also fail to teach modulating the layer thicknesses relative to one another such that the ratio of claim 6 is met. Kawano and Lei fail to teach the additives as set forth in claim 7.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW E HOBAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3585. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan Johnson can be reached at 571-272-1177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Matthew E. Hoban/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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