DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/483,862. Claims 1-57 are pending in the application.
Claims 2, 6, 9-15, 17-19, 24-26, 29-57 have been withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions or species.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on July 31, 2025. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on October 22, 2025 and elected Group 3, claims 7 and 50, plus linking claims. The applicant also elected the species of aqueous solvent, metal oxide nanoparticles and polar solvent as dispersion component. Since the election was not made with traverse, it is treated as being made without traverse.
Accordingly, claims 2, 6, 9-15, 17-19, 24-26, 29-57 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions or species.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §§ 102 and 103
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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 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.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 16, 20-23, 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by OREN et al (US 2019/0231267).
OREN et al teaches a method of making a pattern on a substrate (p. 19, claim 1). The substrate is a template stamp as that term is described in the specification. The substrate is contacted with a solution (dispersion) of nanomaterials (p. 19, claim 1; par. 57). The solution includes water (aqueous solvent) (par. 86). The substrate template has a pattern on the surface (p. 19, claim 1). The nanomaterial includes nanoparticles (par. 84). The dispersion solution fills the pattern (p. 19, claim 1). The solution is partially removed (p. 19, claim 1). The remaining nanomaterial forms a thin film structure which conforms to the pattern (p. 19, claim 1). The thin film structure is a metasurface as that term is described in the specification.
Regarding claims 3, 5, 7, 8, 16, 20-23, 28: The thin film structure contacts the surface (p. 19, claim 1). The dispersion solution fills (infiltrates) the pattern (p. 19, claim 1). The remaining thin film structure constitutes a residual film comprising nanoparticles within and beneath the structure. The film has a thickness of about 10 µm (par. 29). The nanomaterial includes metal oxide (par. 84). The substrate includes PDMS (par. 29). Solvent removal includes vacuum drying, which involves adjusted pressure (par. 84). In an examples, the amount of nanomaterial in the dispersion is 23 wt% (par. 114). The surface includes planar surface (Fig. 8B). The thin film structure having a thickness is necessarily three-dimensional.
Claim 27 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious over OREN et al (US 2019/0231267).
OREN et al teaches a method of making a pattern on a substrate as described above. OREN et al does not teach the temperature at which the process is performed. However, it would have been to a person of ordinary skill in the art to perform the process at room temperature, since a different temperature is not required (par. 84).
Claims 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Watkins et al (US 2020/0285145).
Watkins et al teaches a method of making a pattern on a substrate (abstract). The substrate includes a template (par. 4). The substrate is a template stamp as that term is described in the specification. The substrate is contacted with a nanoparticle ink (par. 4). The ink includes water (aqueous solvent) (par. 26). The substrate template has a pattern on the surface (par. 8). The ink dispersion fills the pattern (par. 36). The solvent is removed (par. 107). The remaining nanoparticles forms features (structures) conforming to the pattern (par. 6). The features have a characteristic dimension of 0.05 µm, which equates to 50 nm (par. 41). The structure is a metasurface as that term is described in the specification.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 January 5, 2026