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 .
This Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed on May 09, 2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-20 are currently presented in the instant application.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, in line 7, “a counts” should be changed to --the counts-- (see line 5)
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 6-12, 16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fuka et al. (US 12,601,697) in view of Wiederin et al. (US 11,515,135).
With respect to claim 1, Fuka discloses in figures 3-4 a method of identifying at least one rare earth element (REE) in at least one sample (column 2 in lines 54-55, e.g., “identifying the REE presence in a sample”), the method comprising: analyzing the at least one sample by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (column 2 in lines 62-65, e.g., “detecting REEs with spectral analysis requires irradiating a sample with higher energy particles to generate emissions that can be captured with a spectrometer”), which comprises measuring, identifying, and recording an estimated concentration (column 2 in lines 1-9, e.g., “the presence of rare earth element in a feedstock includes a measuring instrument that records a measurement for a feedstock sample” and column 5 in lines 35-50) based on counts per second of a target analyte REE proxy indicating a presence or absence of the target analyte REE proxy in the at least one sample via ICP-MS (column 2 in lines 48-53, e.g., “a spectrum captured by spectral analysis of a sample is typically shown as wavelength vs. count rate or number of emissions per second”; and identifying the target analyte REE proxy in the at least one sample at a counts per second (CPS) intensity measurement screening level to verify the presence or absence of the target analyte REE proxy (see column 2 in lines 41-65”).
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Fuka does not explicitly discloses that the sample at the counts per second intensity measurement screening level of equal or greater than a minimum intensity measurement threshold.
Wiederin discloses a method of identifying at least one rare earth element (REE) in at least one sample (column 8 in line 25, e.g., “one or more rare earth elements e.g., thulium”), wherein the sample at the counts per second intensity measurement screening level of equal or greater than a minimum intensity measurement threshold (column 9 in lines 26-54, e.g., “a detection of thulium about 320k counts per second for the missed samples as compared to an average cpc of thulium in detected samples … the amount of thulium present in the detected samples did not exceeds a threshold amount of thulium to indicate a missed sample…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the method of Fuka with a threshold or setpoint value at taught by Wiederin for the purpose of determining the detected amount of samples during the counting process since this configuration for the stated purpose would have been obvious as evidenced by the teaching of Wiederin (column 5 in lines 22-45).
With respect to claim 6, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that further comprising adjusting the minimum intensity measurement threshold, higher to narrow or lower to broaden a scope of identifying the target analyte REE (see column 5 in lines 22-45 and column 9 in lines 26-54 of Wiederin).
With respect to claim 7, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that further comprising: obtaining information on a physical location from which the at least one sample was mined; and quantifying a concentration of at least one REE at the physical location (see column 2 in lines 54-66 of Fuka).
With respect to claim 8, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that further comprising, after identifying the target analyte REE proxy in the at least one sample: collecting additional samples from the physical location to further delineate and quantify potential REE sources (see column 3 in lines 46-59 of Fuka).
With respect to claim 9, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that wherein the target analyte REE proxy is Neodymium (Nd) or Samarium (Sm), each having an isotope mass to charge ratio (m/z) of 144 (see column 4 in lines 61-67 of Fuka).
With respect to claim 10, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that wherein the at least one REE is Scandium (Sc), or Yttrium (Y), or a lanthanide selected from the group consisting of Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Samarium (Sm), Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb), Lutetium (Lu), or any combination thereof (see column 4 in lines 61-67 of Fuka).
With respect to claim 11, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that further comprising: obtaining the at least one sample which is a surface water, a groundwater, or a combination thereof (see column 2 in lines 55-67 of Wiederin).
With respect to claim 12, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that further comprising: obtaining the at least one sample which is an environmental solid, a soil, a sediment, a biota, or a combination thereof and performing a digestion thereof prior to use of the analyzing and the identifying (see Abstract of Fuka, e.g., “predicting rare earth elements” such as an environmental solid thereof).
With respect to claim 16, Fuka discloses in figures 3-4 a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium (440, e.g., a memory) storing a program including instructions that cause a processor (430, e.g., a processor) to execute an operation to identify at least one rare earth element (REE) in at least one sample (column 2 in lines 54-55, e.g., “identifying the REE presence in a sample”), comprising: analyzing the at least one sample by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (column 2 in lines 62-65, e.g., “detecting REEs with spectral analysis requires irradiating a sample with higher energy particles to generate emissions that can be captured with a spectrometer”), which comprises measuring, identifying, and recording an estimated concentration (column 2 in lines 1-9, e.g., “the presence of rare earth element in a feedstock includes a measuring instrument that records a measurement for a feedstock sample” and column 5 in lines 35-50) based on counts per second of a target analyte REE proxy indicating a presence or absence of the target analyte REE proxy in the at least one sample via ICP-MS (column 2 in lines 48-53, e.g., “a spectrum captured by spectral analysis of a sample is typically shown as wavelength vs. count rate or number of emissions per second”; and identifying the target analyte REE proxy in the at least one sample at a counts per second (CPS) intensity measurement screening level to verify the presence or absence of the target analyte REE proxy (see column 2 in lines 41-65”).
Fuka does not explicitly discloses that the sample at the counts per second intensity measurement screening level of equal or greater than a minimum intensity measurement threshold.
Wiederin discloses a method of identifying at least one rare earth element (REE) in at least one sample (column 8 in line 25, e.g., “one or more rare earth elements e.g., thulium”), wherein the sample at the counts per second intensity measurement screening level of equal or greater than a minimum intensity measurement threshold (column 9 in lines 26-54, e.g., “a detection of thulium about 320k counts per second for the missed samples as compared to an average cpc of thulium in detected samples … the amount of thulium present in the detected samples did not exceeds a threshold amount of thulium to indicate a missed sample…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the method of Fuka with a threshold or setpoint value at taught by Wiederin for the purpose of determining the detected amount of samples during the counting process since this configuration for the stated purpose would have been obvious as evidenced by the teaching of Wiederin (column 5 in lines 22-45).
With respect to claim 19, the combination of Fuka and Wiederin disclose that wherein the program further includes instructions that cause the processor to execute an operation of: obtaining information on a physical location from which the at least one sample was mined; and quantifying a concentration of at least one REE at the physical location (see column 2 in lines 54-66 of Fuka).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4, 13, 15, 17 and 20 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 (claims 3, 5, 14 and 18 are also objected as being dependent upon objected claims).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Prior art Zheng et al. – US 2024/0282565
Prior art Niazi et al. – US 2024/0096458
Prior art Sugiyama et al. – US 2019/0214239
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/TUNG X LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844 April 16, 2026
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