CTNF 18/609,572 CTNF 69777 DETAILED ACTION Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114 07-42-04 AIA A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on April 28, 2026 has been entered. 07-103 AIA The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103 07-27-aia Claims 1-4, 6 and 9-11 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 FUJITA (US- 2022/0392676). Claim 1: Fujita teaches a coated soft magnetic powder comprising a soft magnetic powder; and an insulating coating film covering the particle surface of the soft magnetic powder (abstract); the insulating coating compound having a hydrophobic functional group derived from a coupling agent (para. 0037-0039), wherein the soft magnetic powder has an average particle size (D50) of about 3 µm (Page 11, Table 1-1, Example 1), which is well within the claimed range from 2.0 µm to 25.0 µm, the soft magnetic powder has a specific surface area of 0.46 m²/g (Page 8, Example 1, para. 0099,) which is well within the claimed range of 0.05 m²/g to 0.60 m²/g. With regards to the ratio of the specific area and the oxygen content, A/S, Fujita does not measure the oxygen content, but the coating compound is a coupling agent (silane) that is the same silane coupling agent of the claimed invention, forms a coating thickness of 5 nm (Fujita, Example 1) and a coverage ratio of 87 (Fujita, Page 11, Table 1-1, Example 1) which is well within the coverage ratio (85%-110%) of the claimed invention (instant specification, page 42); therefore, the oxygen content is such that the ratio A/S is necessarily within the claimed range of 3000 to 20000. With regards to the water content, as stated in the description at page 36, paragraphs 0175-0176 and shown at Table 2 (page 42) of the instant specification, when an insulating coating film comprising a hydrophobic-functionalized coupling agent, i.e. silane coupling agents, is formed over the soft magnetic powder with a coverage ratio of 65% or higher, the water content falls within the claimed range of 30 ppm to 500 ppm. Here, Fujita teaches forming an insulating coating film of silane coupling agent (Fujita, para. 0029) over the magnetic powder as discussed immediately above, with a coverage ratio of at least 70% (Fujita, paragraph 0041), it is expected that the insulator-coated soft magnetic powder comprises a water content of 30-500 ppm as claimed. Furthermore, Fujita teaches filtering the slurry containing the coated soft magnetic powder and drying the coated soft magnetic powder at 100°C for 10 hours (Fujita, para. 0106); therefore, the water content is expected to be within the claimed range of from 30 ppm to 500 ppm. With regards to the newly added claim feature: the soft magnetic powder has an average circularity from 0.75 to 1, Fujita shows that the soft magnetic powder used has substantially spherical shape (Fujita, Figures 2 and 4) which inherently exhibits a circularity of approximately 1; therefore, the circularity of the magnetic powder of Fujita is necessarily within the claimed range of 0.75 to 1. Claim 2: Fujita does not measure the oxygen content, but the coating compound is a coupling agent (silane) that that is same silane coupling agent of the claimed invention (see claim 3 below), forms a coating thickness of 5 nm (Example 1) and a coverage ratio of 87 (Page 11, Table 1-1, Example 1) which is well within the coverage ratio (85%-110%) of the claimed invention (instant specification, page 42);; therefore, the oxygen content is expected to be from 200 ppm to 5000 ppm. Claims 3-4. The coating compound comprises a hydrophobic functional group which is a is a linear alkyl group having from 1 to 6 carbons (Fujita, para. 0039) Claim 6: The insulating coating film has a coverage ratio of 87-98% (Page 11, Table 1-1, Examples 1-3) which is well within the claimed range of 20% to 120%. Claims 9-11: Fujita teaches using the insulating coated magnetic powder as magnetic core in an electronic device as in the art (Fujita, para. 0001). 07-21-aia AIA Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujita as applied to claims 1-4 and 6 above, and further in view of Wakabayashi (us- 2022/0250145). Fujita teaches the claimed insulating coated soft magnetic powder as discussed above, wherein the insulating coating compound comprises a short chain silane. Wakabayashi teaches silanes comprising an alkyl linear groups or a cyclic group are functionally equivalent as the insulating coating compounds for metal powder (Wakabayashi, para. 0085-0087 and 0092-0104). Therefore, it would have been obvious to expand the coating compound taught by Fujita to include silane having cyclic group as taught by Wakabayashi. Claims 7 and 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujita as applied to claims 1-4 and 6 above, and further in view of IKUO (JP- 2019-016806). Claim 7: Fujita teaches the insulator-coated soft magnetic powder as discussed above and the use of such powder as magnetic core by molding. However, Fujita does not give details of the process steps of molding. Ikuo teaches a forming magnetic core from insulating coated soft magnetic powder by compression molding with an epoxy resin in the amount of 1 to 5% by mass (translation copy, page 5, 5th paragraph) which overlaps the claimed range of about 2 mass%, at a pressure between 200-500 MPa, which is well within the claimed range of 294MPa the powder to form the magnetic core (translation copy page 6, 2ⁿᵈ paragraph). Ikuo then teaches heating the molded body at 170°C for 45 to 80 minutes (translation copy, page 6, 3ʳᵈ paragraph) which is slightly higher than the claimed temperature of 150C and claimed duration of 30 minutes. However, the heating temperature and duration are dependent on the softening temperature of the epoxy resin. Therefore, it would have been obvious to arrive at lower heating temperature and shorter duration by selecting epoxy with lower softening temperature. Such selection is not unobvious to the POSITA as they do yield expected results, i.e. lower softening temperature epoxy requires lower curing temperature and shorter duration for the curing process. Figures 6 & 7 of Ikuo show a crushing strength of over 100 which is deemed equivalent to a radial crushing strength of 10 MPa or higher. Claims 9-11: Ikuo teaches forming magnetic powder core comprising molding an insulator-coated soft magnetic powder (abstract and claims); therefore, it would have been obvious that the insulating coated magnetic powder of Fujita is suitable for making the magnetic powder core for an electronic device . Response to Arguments Applicant alleges that “Fujita, in its entirety, does not describe that the silicon oxide-coated [ sic ] soft magnetic powder has an average circularity from 0.75 to 1.” First of all, the claim does not require that the silicon oxide-coated soft magnetic powder has an average circularity from 0.75 to 1; rather, it is the pre-coated soft magnetic powder to have such average circularity. Neither does the original specification have support that the coated soft magnetic powder exhibits a circularity within 0.75 to 1. Thus, the response is based on the accurate description in the claim that the average circularity of the soft magnetic powder is from 0.75 to 1. Contrary to Applicant’s allegation, the soft magnetic powder of Fujita does have an average circularity of at least 0.9 based on the photos in Figures 3 and 4, which show the shape of the soft magnetic powder used in Example 1 (Fujita, paragraphs 0027-0028 and 0099); therefore, the soft magnetic powder taught by Fujita necessarily has an average circularity within the claimed range of 0.75 to 1. 07-37 AIA Applicant's arguments filed April 28, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for the reasons stated above . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOA (Holly) LE whose telephone number is (571)272-1511. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alicia Chevalier can be reached at 571-272-1490. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. HOA (Holly) LE Primary Examiner Art Unit 1788 /HOA (Holly) LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788 Application/Control Number: 18/609,572 Page 2 Art Unit: 1788 Application/Control Number: 18/609,572 Page 3 Art Unit: 1788 Application/Control Number: 18/609,572 Page 4 Art Unit: 1788 Application/Control Number: 18/609,572 Page 5 Art Unit: 1788 Application/Control Number: 18/609,572 Page 6 Art Unit: 1788
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