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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, filed 12/30/25, with respect to the obviousness rejections of claims 5, 9, and 14 have been fully considered and overcome the rejections of record. Accordingly, those rejections have been withdrawn.
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.
Claims 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Joralmon, Dylan, et al. "Three-dimensional printing of liquid crystals with thermal sensing capability via multimaterial vat photopolymerization." ACS Applied Polymer Materials 4.4(2022): 2951-2959 [hereinafter Joralmon] in view of Ditter, David, et al. "Microfluidic synthesis of liquid crystalline elastomer particle Transport systems which can Be Remote-controlled magnetically." Advanced Functional Materials 29.29 (2019): 1902454 [hereinafter Ditter].
Regarding Claim 16:
Joralmon teaches a photopolymerization method for preparing a liquid crystal elastomer using liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material (abstract, Fig. 2) comprising said liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material comprises photocurable reactive mesogen, EDDET (2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)diethanethiol), and 5CB (4-cyano-4- pentylbiphenyl) (section 4.1), wherein the method comprises the following steps:
irradiating the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material with light by a light source to cure the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material by a photopolymerization reaction (See Fig. 2b).
However, Joralmon fails to teach:
disposing magnets around the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material,
forming a magnetic field in the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material to orient liquid crystal molecules; and
moving the magnet to control a direction of the magnetic field by an actuator.
Ditter teaches a method of preparing a liquid crystal elastomer, comprising
disposing magnets around the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material (See Fig. 4 and description thereof),
forming a magnetic field in the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material to orient liquid crystal molecules (see Fig. 5 and description thereof); and
moving the magnet to control a direction of the magnetic field by an actuator (Fig. 4 description explains turning the magnet).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective time of filing to add the magnet and associated turning steps of Ditter to the photocuring of Jorelmon. One would have been motivated to do so in order to magnetically control the synthesized liquid crystalline elastomer particles (Ditter abstract).
Regarding Claim 17:
The above modified invention teaches the photopolymerization method of claim 16 wherein at the step of irradiating the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material, light irradiated from the light source is selectively reflected and transferred, by a DMD (digital micromirror device) or a digital mask, toward the liquid crystal elastomer precursor solution material in which the liquid crystal molecules are oriented, thereby forming a pattern with complex shapes. Joralmon Figs 2a (DMD), Fig. 2c.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7, 8, 10-15 are allowed.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WYATT A STOFFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1782. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 0700-1600 EST.
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WYATT STOFFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2881
/WYATT A STOFFA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881
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