DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/710,911. Claims 1-27 are pending in the application.
Claims 13, 26, 27 have been withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to a non-elected invention or species.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on October 16, 2025. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on December 15, 2025 and elected Group I, claims 1-25, with traverse. The applicant also elected a species of polyphthalamide. In traversing the restriction requirement, the Applicant argues that search and examination of the entire application could be conducted without serious burden. However, examination of subject matter in different statutory categories, such as those claimed in the instant application, and also including multiple chemical species, requires additional search and consideration for each limitation of the additional claims. Such additional search and consideration constitutes a serious burden for the examiner.
Accordingly, claims 13, 26, 27 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions or species.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §§ 102 and 103
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.
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 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 1-3, 6-9, 11-12, 14-18, 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dufaure et al (US 2011/0281051).
Dufaure et al teaches a composite comprising a polymer matrix and expanded graphite (par. 49-50, 61). The expanded graphite has a surface area of 15-30 m2/g (par. 50). Expanded graphite is graphitic carbon. The polymer matrix includes polyphthalamide (par. 23).
The amount of graphite is 1-50 % by weight (par. 51). The graphite has a particle size of 20-500 µm (par. 16). The polymer includes polyphthalamide (par. 23). Polyphthalamide is an aromatic polymer.
Claims 10 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Dufaure et al in view of Chandrasekhar et al (US 2011/0040007).
Dufaure et al teaches expanded graphite as discussed above. Dufaure et al does not teach the thickness of the graphite.
However, Chandrasekhar et al teaches expanded graphite having a thickness of less than 0.1 µm (100 nm)(par. 48). The expanded graphite provides thermal conductivity (par. 48).
Dufaure et al is silent regarding the thickness of the expanded graphite. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated by design need to combine the graphite thickness of Chandrasekhar et al with the graphite of Dufaure et al in order to obtain a thickness which is suitable for providing thermal conductivity.
Claims 1-6, 11, 12, 14-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Nosker et al (US 2017/0218141) in view of Dufaure et al (US 2011/0281051).
Nosker et al teaches a composite comprising graphene and graphite in a polymer matrix (par. 8-9). The graphite includes expanded graphite (par. 12). The total amount of graphene and graphite is 10-50 % by weight, of which at least 50 % is graphene (par. 9). The resulting amount of graphene is about 5-50 % by weight. The polymer matrix includes polyphthalamide (par. 19).
Nosker et al does not teach the surface area of the expanded graphite. However, Dufaure et al teaches expanded graphite having a surface area of 15-30 m2/g (par. 50). The graphite provides conductivity to the composite material (abstract). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated by design need to combine the graphite surface area of Dufaure et al with the composition of Nosker et al in order to obtain a graphite having surface area suitable for providing conductivity to the composite.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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