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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 7-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kato et al. (US20150162118A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Kato teaches a soft magnetic material with a composition of the type Fe-Si-B-Cu-Si, a finemet material [0052], with a composition having the following composition:
Element
Prior art range (at%)
Claimed range(at%)
Fe
76-84 [0054]
75.5-79.5
Cu
0.1-10 (Table 1)
0.3-2.0
Nb
0.01-5 [0058]
2-4
B
8-18 [0056]
6.5-19.9
Cr
0.01-5 [0052, 0058]
0.12-0.37
Si
0-12 [0055]
1.31-9.99
The crystallite diameter is 100 nm or less, encompassing the claimed range of 6-13 nm [0051] (in the case where a claimed range overlaps or lies inside of a claimed range, a prima facie case of obviousness exists. (See MPEP 2144.05(I))
Regarding Claim 2, the prior art teaches the following limitations:
Element
Prior art range (at%)
Claimed range(at%)
Fe
76-84 [0054]
75.5-79.5
Cu
0.1-10 (Table 1)
0.3-2.0
Nb
0.01-5 [0058]
2-4
B
8-18 [0056]
9-13.5
Cr
0.01-5 [0052, 0058]
0.5-2.2
Si
0-12 [0055]
4-8
(in the case where a claimed range overlaps or lies inside of a claimed range, a prima facie case of obviousness exists. (See MPEP 2144.05(I))
Regarding Claim 4, oxygen is considered to be an impurity and in a content of 0.5% atom or lower [0058] overlapping with the claimed range of 1500 ppm or less (in the case where a claimed range overlaps or lies inside of a claimed range, a prima facie case of obviousness exists. (See MPEP 2144.05(I))
Regarding Claim 5, the prior art is silent regarding the maximum magnetization property, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect similar magnetization properties as that claimed under the expectation that similar products have similar properties (See MPEP 2112.01(I)).
Regarding Claim 7, the prior art is silent regarding the properties of a DSC curve and temperature difference between peaks as claimed, however one of ordinary skill in the art would expect similar properties as that claimed under the expectation that similar products have similar properties (See MPEP 2112.01(I)).
Regarding Claims 8-10, the product is a powder (dust) core (abstract) which serves as a magnetic element in an electronic device [0002]
Claim(s) 3 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kato et al. (US20150162118A1) in view of Kudo et al. (US20180090251A1).
Regarding Claim 3, Kato is silent regarding the dimensions of ring-shaped molded body, however Kudo teaches a soft magnetic powder of similar composition to that of Kato (abstract) where the powder may be molded into ring shaped molded body having an exemplary outer diameter of 28 mm, inner diameter of 14 mm and a thickness of 5mm [0168] where a coil wire of 0.8 mm diameter is coiled with 7 turns [0190-0193], and a frequency of 100 kHz a magnetic permeability greater than 20.9 is obtained (Tables 3-4); the choke coil molded product of the prior art is larger than the coil of the claimed invention, however one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to form a smaller choke coil than that claimed for the purpose of forming high-density smaller sized electronics and can use smaller wire thickness such as that claimed; with similar dimensions and the composition of Kato, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect the prior art product to have similar magnetic permeability (See MPEP 2112.01(I)).
Regarding Claim 6, Kudo teaches the molding is done with 2% weight epoxy resin and press molding at 98-981 MPa [0162]; and Kato teaches a density over 5 g/cm3 is formed (Table 4)
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/RICARDO D MORALES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1738