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.
Status of Application
Claims 1 and 2 are pending and presented for examination.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's request for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)-(d). Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “High Efficency Generation of Nanomaterials by Pulse-Modulated Inductively Coupled Plasma” to Tanaka (cited and provided by Applicants).
Regarding claim 1, Tanaka discloses a composition of only nanowires (as controlling the cooling process per page 1 of the translated document states only nanowires are produced) having a diameter of ~10 nm (Id.).
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “High-rate synthesis of Si nanowires using modulated induction thermal plasmas” to Ishisaka et al. (hereinafter, “Ishisaka at __”; cited and provided by Applicants).
Regarding claim 1, Ishisaka discloses a composition of only Si nanowire (with a SiOx coating so it meets “at least one of Si and SiO”) having a diameter of 10-30 nm and a length of 500 nm for an aspect ratio of 500/30-500/10 (Ishisaka at 096201-1 R col).
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.
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 2017105680 to Tanaka et al. (hereinafter, “Tanaka-2 at __”; cited and provided by Applicants).
As to claims 1 and 2, Tanak-2 discloses only silicon nanowires (Tanaka-2 at [0007]) having a diameter of 20-50 nm which overlaps the range instantly claimed of 1-40 which is prima facie obvious (see MPEP 2144.05) and a length 10x or more larger than the diameter (Id.).
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub No. 20080261112 to Nagata et al. (hereinafter, “Nagata at __”).
Regarding claims 1 and 2, Nagata discloses only nanowires comprising silicon (Nagata at [0009]) having a diameter of 30-50 nm and a length of 100-10000 nm (Nagata at [0038]) which overlaps that range instantly claimed such that a prima facie case of obviousness exists (See MPEP 2144.05).
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub No. 20110121257 to Hanrath et al. (hereinafter, “Hanrath at __”).
As to claim 1, Hanrath discloses a silicon nanowire (while the claim recites that the composition is only of nanowires Hanrath discloses that less than 1% of the composition is non-nanowires and as such it is prima facie obvious ot cover “only” as “only” would be 0% of non-nanowires and thusly the inherent range is overlapped, see MPEP 2144.05) having a diameter of ~10~20 nm and a length of 1000 nm (Hanrath at [0037] & [0042]).
Conclusion
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M RUMP whose telephone number is (571)270-5848. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 06:45 AM to 04:45 PM.
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RICHARD M. RUMP
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1759
/RICHARD M RUMP/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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