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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 25, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Wendeln et al (US Pub 2019/0169751).
Wendeln et al discloses a computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions/a substrate liquid processing method comprising: preparing a substrate having a recess on a surface thereof (i.e. see at least claim 1, step (a); paragraph 0027 disclosing the substrate having a recess), a seed layer being formed on a surface of the recess (i.e. see at least claim 1, step (b)); bringing a first pretreatment liquid, containing a reducing agent (i.e. “reducing agent” recited in claim 1), a pH adjuster (i.e. see at least paragraph 0139 disclosing the use of acids and/or bases), and an additive (i.e. “a thiol” recited in claim 1) configured to accelerate or inhibit an electroless plating reaction, into contact with the seed layer (i.e. see at least claim 1, step (c)); and precipitating, after the bringing of the first pretreatment liquid into contact with the seed layer, a plating metal in the recess by supplying a first electroless plating liquid to the recess (i.e. see at least claim 1, step (d)).
Furthermore, it would have been inherent from Wendeln et al that the disclosed substrate liquid processing method would have been saved onto a computer-readable recording medium or in the alternative, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have the disclosed substate liquid processing method on a computer-readable recording medium so the process can be executed multiple times.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY HO whose telephone number is (571)270-1432. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM - 5PM, Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Marlon Fletcher can be reached at 571-272-2063. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHONY HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2817