FINAL OFFICE ACTION
This Final Office action addresses U.S. Application Serial No. 18/375,210, entitled COIL COMPONENT.
Claims 1-21 are pending.
I. STATUS OF APPLCIATION
Applicant’s amendment and remarks filed August 27, 2026 (hereinafter the “Aug 2026 Amendment”) have been entered and have been fully considered. In the Aug 2026 Amendment, independent claim 1 was amended and dependent claims 2-20 were unchanged. Thus, claims 1-21 are pending in this application.
In view of the Aug 2026 Amendment, particularly the substantial amendments to all the claims via the amendments to the only independent claim 1, all previous objections and rejections are withdrawn in view of the new grounds provided in this Final Office action.
II. PRIORITY
Examiner recognizes the Applicant’s claim of foreign priority to Korean Patent Application No. KR10-2023-0030737, filed March 8, 2023.
III. CLAIM REJECTIONS 35 U.S.C. §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.
III.A. Obviousness Rejections Applying Lim and Arai
Claims 1-3, 6, 8-12 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0383959 to Seung Lim et al. (hereinafter “Lim”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0304666 to Takayuki Arai et al. (hereinafter “Arai”).
Regarding claim 1, Lim teaches:
1. A coil component comprising:
See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7, reprinted below.
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a body having a recess;
See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above, body 110 having recesses R1 and R2.
a support member disposed within the body; a coil disposed on the support member; and
See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above, support 300.
an external electrode disposed on one surface of the body, the external electrode extending to the recess to be connected to the coil,
See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above, external electrodes 400 and 500.
wherein the external electrode is spaced apart from the support member and disposed on the recess to be in contact with the coil.
See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above, note external electrodes 400/500 are spaced apart from support 300 and connected to coil 200.
However, while Lim teaches the external electrodes above, Lim do not explicitly teach a first metal layer and a conductive resin therefore. Nevertheless, Arai teaches an analogous coil component (See Arai FIG. 2a, reprinted below) comprising external
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electrodes 70/72. Arai further teaches at ¶0073 that the “external electrodes 70, 72 have a multi-layer structure comprising a bottom layer formed by copper, aluminum, nickel, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal material or an alloy material containing the foregoing, a middle layer formed by silver or a conductive resin containing silver, and a top layer being a nickel-and-tin plating layer, for example.” Thus, Arai teaches a first metal layer contacting the coil and a conductive resin layer over that layer and a second metal layer forming three layer external electrodes. It would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to use the three layer external electrodes as taught by Arai for the external electrodes 400/500 of the Lim. One having ordinary skill in the art would do so because as stated in ¶0077 of Lim, “the external electrodes 400 and 500 may be formed in a single layer or multilayer structure” with Arai disclosing such a multilayer structures for external electrodes.
In view of these teachings, the external electrodes 400/500 of Lim as modified:
includes a first metal layer spaced apart from the support member and disposed on the recess to be in contact with the coil a conductive resin layer having at least a portion in contact with the first metal layer.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. If the electrodes 400/500 shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim are three layer as taught by Aria, the first metal layer would be in the recess and in contact with the coil 200 and the conductive resin middle layer would be in contact with the first metal layer.
Regarding claim 2, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
2. The coil component of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first metal layer extends between the one surface of the body and the conductive resin layer.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. If the electrodes 400/500 shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim are three layer as taught by Aria, the first metal layer would be closest to the body 100 and in between the conductive resin and the body.
Regarding claim 3, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
3. The coil component of claim 2, wherein the external electrode further includes a second metal layer covering at least a portion of the conductive resin layer.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. If the electrodes 400/500 shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim are three layer as taught by Aria, there would be a first metal layer, a middle conductive resin and a second metal layer.
Regarding claim 6, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
6. The coil component of claim 1, wherein the conductive resin layer extends onto the first metal layer disposed on the recess.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. If the electrodes 400/500 shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim are three layer as taught by Aria, all three layers of the external electrodes 400/500 would be in the recess.
Regarding claims 8 and 9, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
8. The coil component of claim 1, wherein the conductive resin layer includes a resin and a metal dispersed within the resin.
9. The coil component of claim 8, wherein the resin is a thermosetting resin, and the metal includes at least one of silver (Ag) or copper (Cu).
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. Further see Arai ¶0073 wherein the middle layer “formed by silver or a conductive resin containing silver.”
Regarding claim 10, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
10. The coil component of claim 1, wherein the first metal layer includes a metal that is the same as a metal included in the coil.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. As stated in ¶0072 of Lim, the coil patterns are formed of “a conductive material such as copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), Tin (Sn), gold (Au), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), or alloys thereof.” Further, the first layer of the external electrodes as taught by Arai ¶0073 is “formed by copper, aluminum, nickel, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal material or an alloy material containing the foregoing.”
Regarding claim 11, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
11. The coil component of claim 1, wherein the first metal layer includes at least one of copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), tin (Sn), gold (Au), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and titanium (Ti).
Note combination proposed above. Further, the first layer of the external electrodes as taught by Arai ¶0073 is “formed by copper, aluminum, nickel, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal material or an alloy material containing the foregoing.”
Regarding claim 12, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 3 as provided above and further:
12. The coil component of claim 3, wherein the second metal layer includes at least one of nickel (Ni) or tin (Sn).
Note combination proposed above. Further, the second layer of the external electrodes as taught by Arai ¶0073 “being a nickel-and-tin plating layer, for example.”
Regarding claim 19, Lim and Arai teach the component of claim 1 as provided above and further:
19. The coil component of claim 1, wherein the first metal layer extends continuously from the coil to along the one surface of the body.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed. Further see Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above wherein the external electrodes 400/500 extend continuously along a side surface in the recess and part of the bottom of the body 100.
III.B. Obviousness Rejections Applying Lim, Arai and Watanabe
Claims 16, 18, 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim in view of Arai as applied to claims 1 and 19 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0311841 to Ryoto Watanabe et al. (hereinafter “Watanabe”).
Regarding claim 16, Lim and Arai teaches the features of claim 1 above and further the external electrode includes first and second external electrodes disposed on the one surface of the body to be spaced apart from each other. See Lim FIGS. 5 and 7 above wherein the external electrodes 400/500 are spaced apart on the bottom of the body. However, this combination does not teach a groove in the body. Nevertheless, Watanabe teaches an analogous coil component (See Watanabe FIG. 2, reprinted below) wherein on bottom surface of the body includes a groove 12b in a
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region between the first and second external electrodes 13/14.
It would have been obvious at the time the invention was filed to provide a groove in the body 100 of the coil component shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim as taught by Watanabe. One having ordinary skill in the art would so to prevent unwanted contact between the body of the component and any substrate on which the coil component is mounted. Furthermore, such a combination is predictable as a groove in the bottom of the body of the coil component of Lim would not change the operation thereof, but would merely improve the mounting thereof on substrates.
Regarding claim 18, Lim, Arai and Watanabe teach the component of claim 16 as provided above and further:
18. The coil component of claim 16, wherein the body further has an other surface opposing the one surface, and a distance between the one surface and the other surface is narrowest in a central region of the groove.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed wherein the narrowest dimension of the body would be at the depth of the groove.
Regarding claim 20, Lim and Arai teaches the features of claim 19 above. However, this combination does not teach a groove in the body. Nevertheless, Watanabe teaches an analogous coil component (See Watanabe FIG. 2, reprinted below) wherein on bottom surface of the body includes a groove 12b in a
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region between the first and second external electrodes 13/14.
It would have been obvious at the time the invention was filed to provide a groove in the body 100 of the coil component shown in FIGS. 5 and 7 of Lim as taught by Watanabe. One having ordinary skill in the art would so to prevent unwanted contact between the body of the component and any substrate on which the coil component is mounted. Furthermore, such a combination is predictable as a groove in the bottom of the body of the coil component of Lim would not change the operation thereof, but would merely improve the mounting thereof on substrates.
Regarding claim 21, Lim, Arai and Watanabe teach the component of claim 20 as provided above and further:
21. The coil component of claim 20, wherein the body further has an other surface opposing the one surface, and a distance between the one surface and the other surface is narrowest in a central region of the groove.
Examiners note this is a result of the combination proposed wherein the narrowest dimension of the body would be at the depth of the groove.
IV. ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
Claims 4, 5 7, 13, 14, 15 and 17 are objected to as being dependent on a rejected claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form to include all features of the claims from which they depend.
Regarding claims 4, 5,13 and 17, the prior art of record in this application does not show or teach “the conductive resin layer is disposed on the one surface of the body, and at least a portion of the first metal layer extends onto the conductive resin layer” as recited in the claims and in combination with the other features of the claims.
Regarding claim 7, the prior art of record in this application does not show or teach “the conductive resin layer is in contact with the one surface of the body” as recited in the claim and in combination with the other features of the claim.
Regarding claims 14 and 15, the prior art of record in this application does not show or teach “an insulating layer covering at least a portion of the body and the external electrode, the insulating layer exposing at least a portion of a region of the external electrode disposed on the one surface of the body, wherein the insulating layer extends between the one surface of the body and the external electrode” as recited in the claim and in combination with the other features of the claim.
V. RESPONSE TO ARGUMENTS
Examiner has fully considered the Applicant’s arguments provided in the Aug 2026 Amendment. However, Examiner notes they are generally moot in view of the new grounds of rejection provided in this Office action.
VI. CONCLUSION
Claims 1-3, 6, 8-12, 16 and 18-21 are rejected.
Claims 4, 5, 7, 13-15 and 17 are objected to.
Applicant's substantial amendments to the claims provided in the Aug 2026 Amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP §706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 C.F.R. §1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 C.F.R. §1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 C.F.R. §1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH WHITTINGTON whose telephone number is (571)272-2264. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am - 5:00pm, Monday - Friday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Fischer can be reached at (5712726779. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/KENNETH WHITTINGTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
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