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 .
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.
Information Disclosure Statements
The Information Disclosure Statements filed on 14 March 2024, 1 May 2025, 8 October 2025, and 26 January 2026 have been received and considered by the Examiner.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Aburatani et al. (WO 2021/039586 A1; published 4 March 2021, effectively filed 28 August 2019; Foreign Patent Document #2 on the IDS filed 1 May 2025). References to Aburatani in the analysis below are made to US 2022/0281744 A1 (US Patent Application Publication #1 on the IDS filed 1 May 2025), which is an English language equivalent of WO 2021/039586 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Aburatani discloses a hexagonal boron nitride powder consisting of primary particles of hexagonal boron nitride and agglomerates of the primary particles (Example 11, Table 4), wherein the primary particles have an average equivalent circular diameter of 9.2 μm (average long diameter), the primary particles have an average thickness of 1.1 μm, the ratio of the average equivalent circular diameter to the average thickness is 8.43 (aspect ratio), the average particle size is 30 μm (median diameter D1, which is a volume-based average; [0082]), the bulk density is 0.55 g/cm3 (tapped bulk density), and the elution amount of B is 10 ppm (amounted of eluted boron).
Regarding the presence of agglomerates, the fact that the average particle size is larger than the primary particle size indicates that the powders of Aburatani form agglomerates. Regarding the use of powders for a filler, Aburatani further discloses that their powders of hexagonal boron nitride are used as a compounding agent for cosmetics ([0012]), or can be mixed with epoxy resin ([0079]), each of which is interpreted as demonstrating that the boron nitride powders of Aburatani can function as a filler.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Nicholas A Piro whose telephone number is (571)272-6344. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 8:00 am-5:00 pm.
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/NICHOLAS A. PIRO/Assistant Examiner, Art Unit 1738
/PAUL A WARTALOWICZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1735
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