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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks, filed 21 November 2025, with respect to claims 1-2, 4, and 6-22 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Fan (US Patent No. 5051334) and Lei et al. (CN 107286609).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 4, 8, and 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fan (US Patent No. 5051334), as evidenced by Hunt et al. (US Serial No. 2009/0017256) and Kohlstrung et al. (US Serial No. 2022/0033604).
Regarding claims 1-2, 4, and 10; Fan teaches, in a preferred embodiment, a photohardenable composition comprising 60 vol% of an actinic radiation curable component including trimethylolpropane triacrylate (viscosity of 106 cP, density 1.1 g/cm3), 1.6 vol% of Irgacure® 651 (photoinitiator), and 40 vol% hollow glass spheres (Sphericel B110 P8, density 1.1) [Ex3C].
Hunt et al. provides evidence that trimethyloylpropane triacrylate has a viscosity of 106 cP [Table 1].
Kohlstrung et al. provides evidence that trimethylolpropane triacrylate has a density of 1.1 g/cm3 [Table 2].
Regarding claim 8; Fan teaches the hollow spheres may further comprise a surface treatment, such as silane treatment [col11, line41-43].
Regarding claim 11; Fan teaches the composition further comprising a dispersant [col7, line50].
Regarding claim 12; Fan teaches the hollow spheres and reactive components were mixed with a mechanical mixture until a homogenous mixture was received [Ex3C].
Claim(s) 8 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fan (US Patent No. 5051334), as evidenced by Hunt et al. (US Serial No. 2009/0017256) and Kohlstrung et al. (US Serial No. 2022/0033604), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lei et al. (CN 107286609), wherein the machine English translation is used for citation.
Fan teaches the basic claimed composition, as set forth above, with respect to claim 1.
Regarding claims 8 and 9; Fan teaches the hollow spheres may be surface treated, however fails to teach a surface coating of metal. Lei et al. teaches a composition suitable for use in three dimensional printing, comprising hollow glass microspheres surface coated with a metal, such as silver, copper, aluminum or iron [0021-0027]. Ren et al. and Lei et al. are analogous art because they are both concerned with the same field of endeavor, namely compositions containing hollow glass microspheres, suitable for use in three dimensional printing. At the time of filing, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to add a glass microspheres having a metal coating, as taught by Lei et al., to the composition of Fan, and would have been motivated to do so in order to achieve desired properties of the 3D printed article, depending on its intended use (i.e. thermal or electrical conductivity, as suggested by Lei et al. [0028].
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JESSICA ROSWELL whose telephone number is (571)270-5453. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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/JESSICA M ROSWELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1767
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