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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1 and 2 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 1 is indefinite as it includes recitations in parenthesis in lines 14, 16, 19 and 20. The Examiner notes the claim was considered for examination purposes as if the parenthesis were not present.
Claim 2 is indefinite as it includes parenthesis in lines 16 and 18. The Examiner notes the claim was considered for examination purposes as if the parenthesis were not present.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Albers (US 2020/0181756 A1).
With respect to claim 1, Albers discloses a surface coated cutting tool (abstr.), comprising a substrate and a coating layer on the substrate (abstr.), the coating layer comprising a lower layer A – lower layer LL - and an upper layer B – upper layer UL on the lower layer A (0015-0017), wherein the lower layer has an average thickness At of from 0.5 to 3.0 µm (0016), the upper layer has an average thickness Bt of from 0.5 to 3.0 µm (0017), thus, the average thicknesses satisfy the ratio 2.0<At/Bt less or equal to 5.0. Albers discloses that the lower layer comprises an alternating laminate of sublayers – sublayers A corresponding to A1α sublayers having an average thickness α of from 1 nm to 10 nm, and sublayers B corresponding to A1β sublayers having an average thickness βt of from 1 nm to 10 nm (0016), the thicknesses of sublayers satisfying the ranges of thicknesses recited in the claim. and the ratio of βt/αt recited in the claim.
The A1α sublayers have a composition represented by AlxTi1-xN, wherein the value of x is greater or equal to 0.45 and lower or equal to 0.55 (0016), while the A1β sublayers have a composition AlyTi1-yN, wherein the value of y is greater or equal to 0.6 and lower or equal to 0.75 (0016), the values of x and y being within the recited ranges and satisfying the ratio yavg/xavg greater or equal to 1.2.
Albers discloses the upper layer having a composition TinAloSipN wherein n+o+p=1, corresponding to AlaTi1-a-bSibN recited in the claim, wherein the average value of a is greater or equal to 0.4 and lower or equal to 0.6, and the average value of b is greater or equal to 0.05 and lower or equal to 0.2 (0017) the values overlapping the recited ranges; overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness (MPEP 2144.05).
Examiner’s Note
Claim 2 is 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, and amended to overcome 35 USC 112(b) rejection as discussed above.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the closest prior art Albers discloses a surface coated cutting tool wherein the lower layer comprises a bottom half segment in contact with the substrate and a top half segment in contact with the upper layer of claim 1, but the reference fails to teach or suggest the remaining limitations with respect to the thicknesses of the segments as well as to sublayers A2γ and A2δ as recited in the claim.
Information Disclosure Statement
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOANNA PLESZCZYNSKA whose telephone number is (571)270-1617. The examiner can normally be reached M-F ~ 11:30-8.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Maria Veronica Ewald can be reached at 571-272-8519. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Joanna Pleszczynska/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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