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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of a CVD single crystal diamond (claims 1-4 and 6-12) in the reply filed on June 15, 2026 is acknowledged.
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, 3, 7, 9, and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Twitchen (WO 2010/149775, of record).
Twitchen is directed to a CVD single crystal diamond having the following characteristics:
NS0 is preferably less than 5 ppm (Table 5 on Page 33) and
(NV0+NV-)/NS0 > 0.16 (Table 5 on Page 34)
Regarding claim 3, Twitchen teaches a hue angle between 0 and 60 degrees (Table 6 on Page 36).
As to claim 7, Twitchen teaches chroma values between 2 and 20 (Table 6).
With respect to claim 9, Twitchen describes a 0.5 round brilliant cut diamond having a fancy pale pink grade (Page 36, Lines 1+).
Regarding claim 11, Twitchen describes the presence of H3 centres (Table 2A on Page 22).
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.
Claim(s) 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Twitchen.
With respect to claims 2 and 6, a fair reading of Twitchen suggests the general manufacture of fancy colored diamonds via an irradiating and annealing method. Twitchen further states that the disclosed method provides diamond material in general, including that suitable for use in spintronic applications (Page 1, Lines 5+) and ornamental applications such as gemstones for jewelry (Page 39, Lines 30+). A fair reading of Twitchen suggests the general manufacture of fancy colored diamonds without limitation in regards to a linear dimension or a total volume. One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to use any number of linear dimensions and/or total volumes that are consistent with those that are commonly used with diamonds, including the broad range of dimensions and volumes required by the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 4, as detailed above, Twitchen is directed to a CVD single crystal diamond. While Twitchen fails to specifically disclose silicon vacancies (SV), the reference does state that an inventive concept focuses on maximizing production of NV centres, while minimizing other undesirable defects (Page 5, Lines 22+). One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the language of Twitchen as encompassing a CVD single crystal diamond having little or no silicon vacancies and such is seen to correspond with the claimed Si-V luminescence (e.g. zero silicon vacancies would result in a luminescence of 0 as defined by the claims).
With respect to claim 8, Twitchen teaches T2 values (observed or effective time) that are preferably greater than 800 µs (Page 40, Lines 19+). It is well recognized that T2* (dephasing time) is always shorter than T2. Thus, given preferred T2 values greater than 800 µs, it reasons that T2* would be at least 5 µs.
Regarding claim 10, given that the diamond material of Twitchen has applicability as gemstones for jewelry, it reasons that Twitchen would encompass the wide variety of conventional clarities required by the claimed invention. It is emphasized that the claims simply exclude diamonds that are included or slightly included, while including all diamonds that are flawless, internally flawless, very very slightly included, and very slightly included.
As to claim 12, Twitchen states that NV- + NV0 is most preferably at least 0.5 times N0S (Page 34). Additionally, Twitchen states that at least one or more of the characteristics set out in Table 2A is present, such as H3 defects. This suggests that H3 defects can actually be zero or approach zero and given that NV- + NV0 is most preferably at least 0.5 times N0S, it reasons that Twitchen encompasses CVBD diamond material having a large ratio as required by the claimed invention (large value for NV- + NV0 and small value for H3).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN R FISCHER whose telephone number is (571)272-1215. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00.
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Justin Fischer
/JUSTIN R FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749 July 10, 2026
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