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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 7 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matsuchika Keija (JP 2021-040128).
Regarding claim 1, Keija anticipates a liquid processing apparatus that applies a coating liquid onto a substrate, comprising:
A liquid processing apparatus (Fig 2, RC 1) that applies a coating liquid (Fig 2, RC 7) onto a substrate (Fig 2, RC W), comprising: a substrate holder (Fig 2, RC 2) configured to hold and rotate the substrate (W); a coating liquid supplier (Fig 2, RC 9, 17) configured to supply the coating liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holder; a cup (Fig 2, RC 23, 21) provided to surround the substrate held by the substrate holder; and a solvent supplier (Fig 2, RC 7, 13) configured to supply a solvent for the coating liquid to a coating liquid collector (Fig 2, RC 41, ¶0041 ), wherein the cup includes: an outer cup (Fig 2, RC 23) arranged outside the substrate holder; an inner cup (Fig. 3, RC 21) arranged on an inner peripheral side of the outer cup and below the substrate holder, the inner cup having a downwardly-extending wall (Fig. 2, RC 26); an exhaust path (Fig. 2, RC PT1, PT3, 35) ) provided between the outer cup and the inner cup; a cylindrical wall (Fig. 2, RC 38) portion provided below the inner cup and having an upwardly-opened exhaust port (Fig. 2, 35) communicating with the exhaust path; and the coating liquid collector arranged below the downwardly-extending wall of the inner cup with a gap (Fig. 2, ¶0054) between the coating liquid collector and a lower end of the downwardly- extending wall (Fig. 2, RC 26A), and wherein the coating liquid collector is fixed to the cylindrical wall portion (Fig. 2, Near RC 31A).
Regarding claim 2, Keija anticipates wherein a fixing portion (Fig. 2, RC 31a) between the coating liquid collector and the cylindrical wall portion is located lower than an upper end of the cylindrical wall portion (Fig. 2, RC 31A).
Regarding claim 7, Keija anticipates wherein the coating liquid collector is not in contact with the cup except for a fixing portion (Fig. 2, RC 45) between the coating liquid collector and the cylindrical wall portion.
Regarding claim 8, Keija anticipates wherein the coating liquid collector has a cylindrical or annular shape and is provided with a plurality of openings through which an exhaust flow passes (Fig. 2a, RC 43).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 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.
Conclusion
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/VISHAL I PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1746
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