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 .
Summary
This is the Office Action in response to the Response to Election/Restriction requirement filed on 01/30/2026.
Claims 1-16 remain pending in the application with claims 1, 3-6, 12 and 14-16 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2, 7-11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 2 recites “a mass-manufacturing method of new structure thermoelectric elements” (emphasis added) that renders the claims indefinite for the following reasons. The word “mass” implies a quantity of thermoelectric elements being produced; however, when the word “mass” is read in light of the specification, it is unclear as to how many thermoelectric elements have to be produced by a method in order for the method to be considered as a mass-manufacturing method”. The word “new” is a relative term; however, it is unclear as to what new structure means when the word “new” is read in light of the specification. Claims 7-11 and 13 are rejected as dependents of claim 2.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 2, 7 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kagawa et al. (US 5,969,290) in view of Park et al. (KR20210112887 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 2, Kagawa discloses a mass-manufacturing method (the method produces more than one thermoelectric elements, which qualifies the method as mass-manufacturing) of new structure (the structure is not used after it is made; therefore, it is new) thermoelectric elements (fig. 3 and 12-14), comprising:
filing a thermoelectric material powder 16a (powder of thermoelectric material as described in the Abstract) to surround inner and outer parts of a plurality of spacer portions 18 (annotated figs. 6-7 below show the inner and outer parts of a plurality of spacer portions 18 being surrounded by the thermoelectric powder) located inside a mold portion 12 (die 12 in fig. 3);
pressurizing, by a punch portion 20, the plurality of spacer portions 18;
sintering the thermoelectric material powder to generate a plurality of sintered bodies (figs. 6-7, col. 4 ln 27-36); and
cutting the plurality of sintered bodies to a preset size to manufacture a plurality of thermoelectric elements (col. 4 ln 41-56; fig. 14, col. 9 ln 57-65).
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Kagawa is silent regarding the step of sintering by spark plasma sintering device.
Park discloses a manufacturing method of thermoelectric elements; wherein, a die is filled with a plurality layers A of thermoelectric powder separated by spacers B. The plurality of layers are pressurized by punch portion 210 followed by sintering the thermoelectric material powder by spark plasma sintering device to generate a plurality of sintered bodies (paragraphs [0016 and 0030] of the translation document).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the method of Kagawa with the known spark plasma sintering device and step disclosed by Park in order to form the sintered bodies of thermoelectric material via rapid temperature increase, which allows controlled particle grown and production of dense sintered bodies in a short period of time (Park, [0033]).
Addressing claim 7, Kagawa discloses that the spacers 18 and thermoelectric powder layers 16a are sequentially deposited in the die; therefore, the step (a) (annotated fig. 3 below) of Kagawa comprises:
a1. supplying the thermoelectric material powder 16a (the lower most layer 16a in fig. 3) into a spacer portion 18 located at a lower most position after the spacer portion located at the lowermost position among the plurality of spacer portions is located at an upper part of a lower punch provided in the punch portion;
a2. supplying the thermoelectric material powder 16a into an n-layer spacer portion (annotated fig. 3) after the n-layer spacer portion among the plurality of spacer portions is placed at an upper part of the spacer portion located at the lowermost position; and
a3. supplying the thermoelectric powder 16a into a spacer portion located at an uppermost position after the spacer portion located at the uppermost position among the plurality of spacer portions is placed at an upper part of the n-layer spacer portion (annotated fig. 3 shows the layer identified as the spacer portion located at the uppermost position among the plurality of spacer portions at the time it is positioned within the die since the plurality of layers disclosed by Kagawa are positioned sequentially, which meets the limitation of current claim).
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Addressing claim 11, Kagawa discloses in col. 6 ln 21-28 that the assemblies are separated after pressure sintering, which implies the step of current claim wherein the sintered bodies are separated from the mold portion after the upper punch and lower punch provided in the punch portion move upward and downward to be separated from the mold portion.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kagawa et al. (US 5,969,290) in view of Park et al. (KR20210112887 with provided machine English translation) as applied to claims 2, 7 and 11 above, and further in view of Tomida et al. (US 2019/0097115).
Addressing claim 13, Kagawa discloses the sintered bodies are cut into strips 21 and 22 and subsequently cut along lines 51 (fig. 14) to the finished thermoelectric elements shown in fig. 15.
Kagawa is silent regarding the limitation of current claim.
Tomida discloses the sintered bodies of thermoelectric material are cut into cube shaped thermoelectric elements 40 by the following annotated steps:
d1. cutting both sides of the plurality of sintered bodies in a vertical direction;
d2. cutting the plurality of sintered bodies in a horizontal direction while maintaining a predetermined gap in the vertical direction;
d3. cutting the plurality of sintered bodies in the vertical direction while maintaining a predetermined gap in the horizontal direction; and
d4. Manufacturing the plurality of thermoelectric elements 40.
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in art would have found it obvious to modify the method of Kagawa with the known cutting steps disclosed by Tomida in order to obtain the predictable result of manufacturing cube shaped thermoelectric elements (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2143).
Allowable Subject Matter
Pending the 35 USC 112, second paragraph, rejection above, claims 8-10 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.
Conclusion
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 03/11/2026