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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 4-6 in the reply filed on 3/25/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the International Search Authority did not find a lack of unity of invention and thus it is present. This is not found persuasive because while the International Search Authority did not restrict the claims due to lack of unity does not mean that there is not a lack of unity, only that the International Search Authority did not apply one. The restriction dated 2/2/2026 provides sufficient rational as to how there is a lack of unity between the groups of invention and Applicant has not pointed to any errors in the restriction or how the inventions have unity of invention in view of Iskikawa.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 4-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ishikawa et al. (US 2017/02399625 in IDS).
Regarding claim 4, Ishikawa teaches membrane cartridge manufacturing method for manufacturing a membrane cartridge in which a filtration membrane is joined to a support plate that comprises a reference surface (surface between areas 231 and 232), a first joint portion (231) protruding from the reference surface, and a second joint portion(232) retreated from the reference surface, the membrane cartridge manufacturing method comprising: placing the filtration membrane on a pre-joining support plate (21) in which the reference surface and the first joint portion have been provided in advance; and joining between the filtration membrane and the support plate at the first joint portion and the second joint portion through forming the second joint portion by pressing a pressing member (51) against the filtration membrane placed on the pre-joining support plate, from above the filtration membrane, so that a portion of the reference surface is retreated, wherein, in the pressing member, a first portion that faces the first joint portion is retreated from a second portion that forms the second joint portion (Figs. 2 and 5-8).
It is noted that the while support plate (21) would have portions that would be considered the reference surface and the first joint portion and would therefore read on the limitation of a pre-joining support plate having the two portions in advance absent any further structural details of the reference surface and first joint portion.
Regarding claim 5, as can be seen in Fig. 8 the first portion of the retreated in comparison to the height of the second portion in a distance smaller than the height of first joint portion from the reference surface.
Regarding claim 6, Ishikawa teaches that the pressing member is heated (hot plate) ([0038]).
Conclusion
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/PETER KEYWORTH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777
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