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
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 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 JP-6178779 (JP’779).
JP’779 discloses a superconducting wire connection structure (Fig. 2) comprising: a first superconducting wire (1); and a second superconducting wire (1), wherein the first superconducting wire has a first end portion in a longitudinal direction of the first superconducting wire, the second superconducting wire has a second end portion in a longitudinal direction of the second superconducting wire, each of the first superconducting wire and the second superconducting wire has a base material (10), an intermediate layer (11) disposed on the base material, and a superconducting layer (12) disposed on the intermediate layer, a connection portion (5), which is a portion of the superconducting wire connection structure where the superconducting layer at the first end portion and the superconducting layer at the second end portion are connected, has a first sandwiching member (15) and a second sandwiching member (15, Fig. 2), the superconducting layer at the first end portion and the superconducting layer at the second end portion are sandwiched between the first sandwiching member and the second sandwiching member, a thickness of the connection portion is less than 2 mm (see the machine English translation, layer 10 = 500 µm; layer 11 = 5.5 µm; and layer 12 = 5 µm), and a thermal expansion coefficient of the first sandwiching member and a thermal expansion coefficient of the second sandwiching member are more than or equal to 0.95 times and less than or equal to 1.05 times a thermal expansion coefficient of the base material (layer 10 and layer 15 in JP’779 both made of copper or nickel alloy).
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.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP’779 in view of Iino et al. (5108985).
Claim 6 additionally recites a c-axis direction of crystal grains of an oxide superconductor constituting the superconducting layer being along a thickness direction of the superconducting layer. Iino et al. discloses a superconducting layer, wherein a c-axis direction of crystal grains of an oxide superconductor constituting the superconducting layer being along a thickness direction of the superconducting layer (col. 5, line 38-42 and col. 6, lines 61-68). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to apply the teaching of Iino et al. in each superconducting wire of JP’779 to meet the specific use of the resulting connection. It is noted that since the modified superconducting layer of JP’779 comprises structure and material as claimed, the current density in the c-axis direction of the superconducting layers at the connection portion, when a current of 200 A is flowing through the superconducting wire connection structure, is less than or equal to 50 A/mm2.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAU N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-1980. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 7am to 5:30pm.
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/CHAU N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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