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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claim 7, it is not clear whether each and every element present in claim 1 must also be present in the method. Then should not the claim state that electron conductive fillers are added? The claim is indefinite because it is not clear whether the claim is drawn to a method or an apparatus.
Claims 8-12 are rejected due to their dependency from an indefinite claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over an article entitled “A moisture self-regenerative, ultra-low temperature anti-freezing and self-adhesive polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide/CaCl2/MXene ionotronics hydrogel for bionic skin strain sensor” by Peng et al. (“Peng”) in view of an article entitled “Construction of polydopamine reduced graphene oxide/sodium carboxymethyl cellulose/polyacrylamide double network conductive hydrogel with high stretchable, pH-sensitive and strain-sensing properties” by Yin et al. (“Yin”) and further in view of US 7,308,294 B2 to Hassonjee et al. (“Hassonjee”).
As to claim 1, Peng discloses a dual mode conductive hydrogel-based strain sensor having both an ion conductive mechanism and electron conductive fillers, the hydrogel-based strain sensor comprising:
a hydrogel including:
a first crosslinked hydrogel-forming polymer network (see Sect. 2.3 – “Lastly, the AM solution and PVA-CaCl2-Mxene solution were mixed at room temperature for a period of time, and the mixture gradually was thickened until they converged to form the hydrogel.”);
a second crosslinked hydrogel-forming polymer network, the second crosslinked hydrogel-forming polymer network interpenetrating with the first hydrogel-forming polymer network without crosslinking between the first and second hydrogel-forming polymer networks (see Section 2.3 – PVA is dissolved in DI water at 90° C to form a physically crosslinked network; and Section 3.1 – “PPCM hydrogel is component of PVA-PAM as its basic skeleton structure. Examiner notes that there is no reactive pathway to crosslink the PVA and PAM.);
a water-based liquid entrained by the first and second crosslinked hydrogel-forming polymer networks in an amount of approximately 50-75 wt. % of the hydrogel (see Table 1 – total solids for PPCM-2 are approximately 5.27 g + 12g water = 17.27 with water being about 69.6%), the water including an ionically-conducting salt in an amount of 5-25 wt. % the formed hydrogel (PPCM-2 is about 23.1 wt%) ;
conductive fillers selected from MXene (see Section 2.3).
Peng fails to disclose the addition of graphene or carbon nanotube.
However, in a related device, Yin discloses a PAM double-network hydrogel incorporating polydopamine-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (see Abstract). Yin further states that the such functionalization overcomes the known aggregation and poor dispersibility of graphene and CNTs (see Introduction, p. 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the hydrogel of Peng to include the functionalized graphene oxide of Yin in order to achieve the predictable result of a more robust, dual electronic network with improved sensitivity.
Neither Peng nor Yin discloses stretchable conductive electrodes formed on the hydrogel, the stretchable conductive electrodes selected from conductive particle-filled elastomers, stretchable metal meshes, and stretchable conductive fabrics. The electrodes of Peng are simply wires used to connect the circuit (see, e.g., Fig 7).
However, these are shown by Hassonjee (see col 3, ln 32-63). Hassonjee is analogous art because it is pertinent to the problem faced by inventors of how to maintain electrical contact on a subject who moving about freely during their day to day activities. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to substitute the copper wire of Peng with the conductive fabric electrode of Hassonjee in order to provide the predictable result that is a comfortable and reliable electrical connection for a body-mounted sensing device for a user who is on the move.
As to claim 2, Peng further discloses wherein the first hydrogel-forming crosslinked polymer network includes a polyvinyl alcohol-based polymer and the second hydrogel-forming crosslinked polymer network includes an acrylamide-based polymer or a urethane-based polymer (see treatment of claim 1).
As to claim 3, Peng further discloses wherein the salt is selected from NaCl, CaCl2, LiCl, or KCl (see treatment of claim 1 – CaCl2 is disclosed).
As to claim 6, Peng further discloses strain measure measurement system comprising the dual mode conductive hydrogel-based strain sensor of claim 1 and a wearable flexible strain measurement device connected to the dual mode conductive hydrogel-based strain sensor .
As to claim 7, Peng discloses a method for making the dual mode conductive hydrogel-based strain sensor of claim 1, comprising:
mixing a water-soluble synthetic polymer for the first hydrogel-forming polymer network, a polymerizable monomer for forming the second hydrogel-forming polymer network, and an ion conductive salt solution into a first mixture (see Section 2.3 – PVA dissolved in DI water at 90°C, CaCl2 added to form the PVA-CaCl2 solution, and a separate AM/MBA/APS solution prepared in DI water, then the two solutions are mixed together; and Table 1 showing the mixtures of several);
adding the electron conductive filler to the first mixture (see Section 2.3 – Mxene solid added);
adding a crosslinking agent to the first mixture to crosslink the polymerizable monomer, creating the hydrogel having an interpenetrating network of the first hydrogel-forming polymer network and the second hydrogel-forming polymer network (see Section 2.3 – MBA is the crosslinking agent);
cutting a sensor blank from the hydrogel (see Section 2.4 – cutting the hydrogel samples into dumbbell shaped blanks); and
forming electrodes on the sensor blank (see Section 3.7 showing wires connected to hydrogel for testing; see also Fig 7).
Peng does not disclose adding only one electron conductive filler to the first mixture. However, in a related device, Yin discloses a PAM double-network hydrogel incorporating polydopamine-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (see Abstract). Yin further states that the such functionalization overcomes the known aggregation and poor dispersibility of graphene and CNTs (see Introduction, p. 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the hydrogel of Peng to include the addition of functionalized graphene oxide electron conductive filler of Yin in order to achieve the predictable result of a more robust, dual electronic network with improved sensitivity.
As to claim 8, Peng further discloses adding an initiator to form the second hydrogel-forming polymer network (see Section 2.3 – ammonium persulfate).
Claim(s) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng in view of Yin in view of Hassonjee as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of CN114396867 A to Zhang et al. (“Zhang”).
As to claims 4-5, neither Peng, nor Yin, nor Hassonjee discloses a protective layer formed over the hydrogel, wherein the protective layer is selected from silicone or polyurethane. However, this is shown by Zhang (see Fig 1, element 1 and [n0048]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the sensor of Peng/Yin/Hassonjee with the silicone protective layer of Zhang in order to provide the predictable result that Zhang teaches, which is to solve the hydrogel dehydration problem.
Claim(s) 9-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng in view of Yin in view of Hassonjee as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 2022/0280915 A1 to Yilmaz Kanargi et al. (“Yilmaz Kanargi”).
As to claims 9 and 12, Peng further discloses making the dual mode conductive hydrogel-based strain sensor of claim 8, wherein the mixture includes:
5-15 wt % of the water-soluble polymer for forming the first hydrogel-forming crosslinked polymer network (see Table 1);
5-20 wt % of the polymerizable monomer (see Section 2.3 and Table 1);
5-25 wt % of salt, contributing to the ion conduction (see Section 2.3 and Table 1),
0.005-3 wt % of the electron conductive filler (see Section 2.3 and Table 1);
the crosslinking agent (see Section 2.3 and Table 1);
the initiator for a sol-gel process (Section 2.3 – ammonium persulfate);
and
50-75 wt % of water (see Section 2.3 and Table 1).
Peng, Yin and Hassonjee fail to disclose an accelerator for a sol-gel process, wherein the accelerator is N,N,N′, N′-tetramethylethylenediamine. However, it was well-known that the addition of TEMED would allow the reaction to take place at room temperature rather than the 60°C disclosed in Peng as shown by Yilmaz Kanargi (see [0042] and [0077]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Peng, Yin and Hassonjee with those of Yilmaz Kanargi in order to achieve the predictable result of making the reaction go faster and/or at a lower temperature.
As to claim 10, Peng further discloses wherein the crosslinking agent is N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (see Section 2.3).
As to claim 11, Peng further discloses wherein the initiator is ammonium persulfate (see Section 2.3).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Eric Messersmith whose telephone number is (571)270-7081. The examiner can normally be reached M-Tu, 8:30 am - 5 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JACQUELINE CHENG can be reached at 571-272-5596. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ERIC J MESSERSMITH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3791
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