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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-23 are pending in the current application.
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 and 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lu (CN 111020502 A).
As to claim 1, Lu discloses a method of forming hydrophobic surface on a steel workpiece comprising:
Roughening the steel workpiece by removing part of the steel from the surface so as to form concaves (English translation abstract: stainless steel workpiece grinded and polished and etched to form shaped structure; figure 1: concave/convex structure formed);
Depositing a hydrophobic coating onto the workpiece structure (English translation abstract: sputter deposition of CrN to form hydrophobic coating).
As to claim 12, Lu discloses a cleaning treatment after the roughening (English translation pages 4-5 step (2) – water or alcohol ultrasonic cleaning step).
As to claim 13, Lu discloses a pvd deposition technique (English translation abstract: magnetron sputter deposition).
Claim(s) 1 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated Fuchs-Godec (“Flower-like Superhydrophobic Surfaces Fabricated on Stainless Steel as a Barrier against Corrosion in Simulated Acid Rain”, Materials 2022, 15, 7104).
As to claim 1, Lu discloses a method of forming hydrophobic surface on a steel workpiece comprising:
Roughening the steel workpiece by removing part of the steel from the surface so as to form concaves (abstract: steainless steel substrate; abstract: creating ‘flower structure’ page 2: second paragraph “The next interesting…”: rough structure created on substrate by etching. The ‘roughening’ necessarily creating concave and convex structures [definition of surface roughness]);
Depositing a hydrophobic coating onto the workpiece structure (page 5, section 2.3: deposition of hydrophobic layer).
As to claim 12, Fuchs-Godec discloses a cleaning treatment after the roughening (page 5, section 2.3: cleaning ultrasonically with alcohol and water after grinding).
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) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hsu (US 20200004133).
As to claim 19, Lu discloses sputter deposition of CrN, but is silent as to sol-gel techniques.
Hsu discloses a method in which CrN is deposited at a desired thickness and the technique for deposition can be selected from thin layer deposition methods including sputtering or sol-gel methods as known effective deposition methods (paragraph 37).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use sol-gel as an alternative to sputter deposition, as disclosed by Hsu, in the method of Lu, because his allows for a known effective alternative deposition technique.
Claim(s) 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fuchs-Godec as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kim (Effect of Oxyfluorination of PFA-Coated Metal Mesh with Superhydrophobic Properties on the Filtration Performance of SiO2 Microparticles. Molecules 2023, 28, 3110).
As to claims 16-17, Fuchs-Godec discloses knowledge in the art of depositing hydrophobic materials including fluorochemicals (page 2, second paragraph) with corrosion/acid resistance (page 3, last paragraph), but is silent as to specific polymeric or inorganic fluorine materials or PFA.
Kim discloses a method of protecting stainless steel substrates by providing a PFA coating layer on the steel to obtain a hydrophobic and acid resistant coating (abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use PFA, as taught by Kim, as the fluorine containing layer in Fuchs Godec, because this allows for a material with both hydrophobic and acid-resistant properties.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 and 14-15, 18, 20-23 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.
These claims contain limitations, including further process techniques not taught or suggested by the prior art with a patterned steel substrate with deposited hydrophobic coating. Applicable art which teaches knowledge in the art of similar processes are listed below, however none of these references provide motivation for combination with the applied primary reference for independent claim 1.
KR 19990046514 A – disclosing bead blasting and electropolishing steel substrates, but without further processing for ornamental structures.
KR 20090032485 A – disclosing steel substrate with enamel layer that is sand blasted and further depositing fluorine containing hydrophobic layers.
US 20090093611 – disclosing formation of hydrophobic fluorine and epoxy containing layer by sol-gel methods.
CN 105543791 A – disclosing polishing and cleaning steel substrate and depositing metal oxide hydrophobic layer by sputtering.
Correspondence Information
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/JASON BERMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1794
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