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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1,2 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Atsuji et al (2020/0407279A1 from PCT 237 of 4-8-24.
Atsuji discloses an alumina-based sintered body (see Abstract) containing alumina (Al2O3) as a main component and containing magnesia (MgO) whose content with respect to a content of the alumina is 0.00 mol% < MgO 0.20 mol%, wherein a density is 3.96 g/cm3 or greater, and a standard deviation of grain sizes of alumina crystal grains is smaller than 4.0 micro meters (see paras 0016,0024,0031-0035,0041,0052-0056, 0071-0075, tables 1-3, example 2, table 4, Fig. 1).
With regard to claims 2 and 8, the limitations related to voids are intrinsically addressed by the recited density features in the last part of the Abstract.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 9-17 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The above mentioned claims recite additional features, such as the classification and distribution of void types recited in claim 3, that have not been taught or been fairly suggested by the prior art of record.
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SWJackson
November 28, 2025
/STEPHEN W JACKSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838