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 Species 1 in the reply filed on December 3, 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no serious search and/or examination burden because these are substantially similar products. This is not found persuasive because the two species recite different categories of materials that do not have the subject matter overlap that Applicant asserts.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 4-7 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on December 3, 2025.
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(s) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kessler (Physical Properties and Weathering Characteristics of Slate).
Regarding claim 1, Kessler discloses a fabricated structure having at least two dimensions and formed by a printing operation, the fabricated structure comprising: a body comprising a ceramic material (slate comprises ceramic, p. 383; printing is part of the preamble and does not limit limitations for an object produced by such a method, any fabricated ceramic structure is within the scope of the claim); and wherein the fabricated structure is substantially free of photocuring agents and rheology modifiers (not present in slate).
Regarding claim 2, Kessler discloses wherein the body comprises a ceramic material content of at least 98 vol% (p. 383; as claimed, a portion of the slate sample, including a selected portion would also be within the scope, down to a scale so small as to include only a subset of the present compounds).
Regarding claim 3, Kessler discloses wherein the body comprises a porosity of not greater than 1 vol% (numerous samples of slate with such a porosity, p. 398).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. [0067] of Beaman (US 2018/0072630; 10,611,694) teaches the additive manufacturing of ceramics and subsequent densification in a furnace to achieve complete density (and therefore minimal porosity).
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/NICHOLAS J CHIDIAC/ Examiner, Art Unit 1744
/XIAO S ZHAO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1744
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