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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of component claims in the reply filed on June 23, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 1, 8 and 10 - 19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on June 23, 2026.
Applicant elected the component group, which originally were only claims 9 and 20. While the Applicant amended the claims in order for claims 1 – 7 be dependent to claim 9, claim 1 is still an apparatus claim while claim 9 is a component claim. Claim 1 is withdrawn from examination as it pertains to a nonelected group. Claim 8 is withdrawn as well for being dependent on claim 1. Claims 2 – 7 will be examined since the claims are directed to the component, not the apparatus. In the event the elected invention/product claims are subsequently found allowable withdrawn claims that include all of the limitations of the allowable product claims will be considered for rejoinder.
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) s 2 - 7, 9 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al ("Preparation and propertied of the VC/Cr3C2/TaC doped ultrafine WC-Co tool materials by spark plasma sintering", Journal of Alloy and compounds, vol. 816, year 2020, pages# 152598).
With regards to claims 4, 9 and 20, Wang discloses a component for use in a cryogenic plasma processing system, comprising a sintering powder comprising a doped carbide, where the carbide is WC and where the dopant is TaC (Abstract, Table 1).
With regards to claims 2 and 5 – 7, the teachings of Wang are presented above. Additionally, Wang teaches that the atomic fraction of the dopant to sintering powder is 0%, 0.4% or 0.8% (Abstract, Table 1).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSHEL RIVERA whose telephone number is (571)270-7655. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12pm - 8pm.
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/JOSHEL RIVERA/Examiner, Art Unit 1746
/MICHAEL N ORLANDO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1746
