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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 13-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 July 9, 2026. While Applicants have respectfully requested reconsideration of the Restriction Requirement because they believe multiple groups can be searched and examined together without undue burden. This is not persuasive because the inventions require a different and separate field of search and search strategies which would be an undue burden. Therefore, the restriction requirement is maintained.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on October 8, 2024 and December 20, 2024, have been considered by the examiner.
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 1-12 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. Specifically, claims 1 and 11 disclose a “MXene polymer fiber.” However, MXene are not know to be polymers, so it is unclear why Applicant is setting forth the MXene to be a polymer itself. MXenes are 2D inorganic nanomaterials, not polymers. Clarification is required. The remaining dependent claims are rejected as being dependent upon a rejected base claim.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102[ (a)(1) as being anticipated by WO 2022/228330 (hereinafter WO ‘330). WO ‘330 disclose a composite materials and preparation method and application thereof. the present application provides a pressure sensing fiber, a tension sensing fiber, a temperature sensing fiber, a humidity sensing fiber, a multifunctional fabric, and a preparation method and application thereof. The pressure sensing fiber comprising a core layer and a cladding layer (page 1). A tension sensing fiber, characterized by comprising a tension sensing layer, the tension sensing layer comprising a polymer material and a conductive material, and in terms of the mass percentage of the tension sensing layer, the conductive material is 0.01 %-50%, preferably 1%-20%, and the polymer material is 50%-99.99%, preferably 90%-99%. A multifunctional fabric comprising sensing fibers, wherein the sensing fibers are selected from one or both of pressure sensing fibers, tension sensing fibers, temperature sensing fibers and humidity sensing fibers above (page 2). As seen in Figures 7 and 8, The temperature sensing fiber of the present application has a core-wrapped structure, the core layer is made of a polymer material with high resistance to stress change, the fiber will not be deformed due to tensile force, and the hydrophobic layer outside the cladding layer can eliminate the humidity factor on the fiber. interference, so as to achieve the best sensing effect. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a pressure sensing fiber in an embodiment: (a) a schematic diagram of a pressure sensing fiber with twisted conductive filaments; (b) a schematic diagram of a pressure sensing fiber with double conductive filaments; (c) the helical distribution of the conductive filaments The schematic diagram of the pressure sensing fiber; (d) the schematic diagram of the pressure sensing fiber with the short fiber wrapping layer. (page 3). For the pressure sensing fiber, the electrode layer is a conductive wire and the dieletric layer is a short fiber wrapping layer. The short fiber material can be synthetic or natural fibers, specifically, the fibers can be polyester, acrylic, nylon, aramid fibers, cotton. The polymer layer can be polycarbonate, polyacrylonitrile, or polyvinylidene fluoride (page 5). The conductive wire can be carbonaceous material including MXene. Regarding claim 7, in an embodiment of the method for preparing a pressure sensing fiber, there are two or more conductive wires, and the conductive wires are twisted and passed through the through hole, preferably three conductive wires are twisted (page 6). In one embodiment, a pressure sensing double twisted yarn is provided, which is formed by twisting two or more pressure sensing yarns, and the pressure sensing yarns are selected from one of the above-mentioned pressure sensing yarns or two or more. The sensing fibers or yarns include one or more of pressure sensing fibers, pressure sensing yarns, and pressure sensing double-twisted yarns; the pressure sensing fibers are selected from one or more of the above-mentioned pressure sensing fibers;
The pressure-sensing yarn is selected from one or more of the above-mentioned pressure-sensing yarns;
The pressure-sensing double-twisted yarn is selected from one or more of the above-mentioned pressure-sensing double-twisted yarns. In one embodiment of the pressure-sensing fabric, It is woven from the sensing fibers or yarns with synthetic fibers and/or natural fibers. The synthetic fibers include: polyester fibers, spandex fibers, acrylic fibers, aramid fibers, nylon fibers, polypropylene fibers, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers, nylon fibers, acrylic fibers, polyester fibers, etc.; The natural fibers include: cotton, wool, flax, silk fibers and the like. (page 8). Regarding claim 9, in a specific embodiment, the content of the conductive material may be 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2%, 0.25%, 0.3%, 0.35%, 0.4%, 0.45%, 0.5%, 0.55%, 0.6%, 0.65%, 0.7%, 0.75%, 0.8%, 0.85%, 0.9%, 0.95%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and the amount of polymer material can be in the amount of 99%, 98.5%, 98%, 97.5 %, 97%, 96.5%, 96% (page 10). Regarding claim 6, the In the present application, at least one conductive core layer is disposed in the tension sensing layer, the conductive core layer includes electrode material, and the diameter of the conductive core layer is 10 μm-150 μm, preferably 10 μm-50 μm (page 11). In the present application, the diameter of the tensile force sensing fiber is 1 μm-3000 μm, preferably 50 μm-1000 μm, more preferably 500 μm (page 12). A hydrophobic coating layer is placed upon the tensile force sensing fiber The hydrophobic coating layer can be a polycarbonate or polyacrylonitrile polymeric layer (page 11).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ULA CORINNA RUDDOCK whose telephone number is (571)272-1481. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-4:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Srilakshmi K Kumar can be reached at 571-272-7769. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ULA C RUDDOCK/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1729
/ULA C RUDDOCK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1729
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