DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 6 and 15 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 6 recites the limitations Z1a, Z1b, and Z1c in lines 4-8. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 15 recites the limitations Z1a, Z1b, and Z1c in lines 3-7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Therefore, it is not clear what is the joint inventor claiming as the invention in claims 6 and 15.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nemoto (WO2021/235283 A1, with machine translation submitted by the applicant on October 11, 2024).
With regard to claims 1 and 7, Nemoto teaches the onium salt of formula (1-2):
PNG
media_image1.png
150
202
media_image1.png
Greyscale
(par.0050), which is a photoactive compound comprising an organic cation and an anion of Formula (1) in claim 1, wherein X is an organic group, Z2 is hydrogen, Y1 is -COO-C(CH3)3, Y2 is a non-hydrogen substituent, X and Y2 together form a ring.
The organic cation is a sulfonium cation, as required in claim 7.
With regard to claim 2, in the onium salt of formula (1-2) X comprises an imide group (-CO-NH-CO-) directly attached to N- in the Formula (1).
An imide group is an electron withdrawing group, as evidenced in par.0034 of Zampini et al. (US 2002/0004570).
With regard to claim 4, the anion of the onium salt of formula (1-2) is free of fluorine.
With regard to claim 5, the anion of the onium salt of formula (1-2) comprises a group -COOC(CH3)3 (t-butyl ester group).
A tert-butyl ester is an acid labile group, as evidenced in par.0198 of Kwon et al. (US 2011/0092384).
With regard to claims 8 and 9, Nemoto teaches teach a radiation-sensitive resin composition comprising the onium salt and a resin that contains a structural unit having an acid cleavable group (abstract).
Nemoto further teaches that the radiation-sensitive resin composition further comprises an acid generator different from the onium salt (par.0139).
With regard to claim 10, Nemoto teaches a pattern-forming method comprising the steps of:
-applying the radiation-sensitive resin composition onto a substrate to form a resist film;
-exposing the resist film; and
-developing the exposed resist film (par.0167).
With regard to claims 11 and 17, in the onium salt of formula (1-2) X comprises an imide group (-CO-NH-CO-) directly attached to N- in the Formula (1).
An imide group is an electron withdrawing group, as evidenced in par.0034 of Zampini et al. (US 2002/0004570).
With regard to claims 13 and 19, the anion of the onium salt of formula (1-2) is free of fluorine.
With regard to claims 14 and 20, the anion of the onium salt of formula (1-2) comprises a group -COOC(CH3)3 (t-butyl ester group).
A tert-butyl ester is an acid labile group, as evidenced in par.0198 of Kwon et al. (US 2011/0092384).
With regard to claim 16, the onium salt of formula (1-2) above has a sulfonium cation.
Claims 1, 3, and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Conway et al. (“Benzylammonium 2,4-bis(dicyanomethylene)-2,3-dihydroisoindolide”)
With regard to claim 1, Conway et al. teach the compound below:
PNG
media_image2.png
124
144
media_image2.png
Greyscale
(page 1), which is a compound comprising an organic cation and an anion of Formula (1) in claim 1, wherein X is an organic group, Y1 and Y2 are non-hydrogen substituents, Z2 is hydrogen, and X and Z2 form a ring.
With regard to claim 3, the anion above comprises a group X of formula (2a) wherein Z1a is an unsubstituted C6 aryl group, Y3 and Y4 are non-hydrogen substituents, and Z1a and Z2 form a ring.
With regard to claim 4, the anion of the compound above is free of fluorine.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 and 18 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.
Nemoto (WO2021/235283 A1, with machine translation submitted by the applicant on October 11, 2024) fail to teach the resist composition in claim 12 and the method in claim 18.
There are no prior art teachings that would motivate one of ordinary skill to modify Nemoto et al. and obtain the resist composition in claim 12 and the method in claim 18 of the instant application.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANCA EOFF whose telephone number is (571)272-9810. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10am-6:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Niki Bakhtiari can be reached at (571)272-3433. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722