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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1 and are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noda et al. (US Pub. No. 2020/0094430).
Regarding claims 1 and 2. Noda discloses a manufacturing method for a roll mold comprising performing a process of forming linear grooves, identified as fine concave portions (110), on an outer peripheral or circumferential surface of a roll base material, identified as master substrate (100) (figure 1B). Noda also discloses master substrate (100) is supported and rotated by main rotation device (10) and follower rotation device (12), and cutting tool (60) is moved relative to the master substrate under the control of control device (70) (figure 1B). Furthermore, Noda discloses forming the grooves in the roll axial direction (paragraph 93) and alternatively forming the grooves in a direction inclined relative to the roll axial direction (paragraphs 94–95) thus teaching forming linear grooves in either the roll axial direction or a direction inclined relative to the roll axial direction. Noda also discloses that “pitch” is the distance between the centerlines of adjacent fine concave portions (110) and that a plurality of sets of cutting operations is performed to form the plurality of grooves around master substrate (100) (paragraphs 92-94). Paragraph 104 provides an exemplary pitch of 0.01 mm. For a plurality of n equally pitched grooves distributed around an entire roll circumference, the angular displacement corresponding to one pitch is necessarily 360/n degrees. Thus, the forward or backward one-pitch rotational shift taught by paragraphs 93–94 corresponds respectively to shifting the cutting position by 360/n degrees in a predetermined direction or in a direction opposite the predetermined direction. Noda also discloses grouping cutting operations into sets (paragraph 93 recites that cutting for one or more rows constitutes one set of the cutting process, and paragraphs 96 and 109 establish that controller (72) controls repeated sets of cutting operations and is not limited to the specifically illustrated examples). Paragraph 108 additionally demonstrates that controller (72) can treat two cutting operations as one set. Thus, Nada teaches that its controller is capable of organizing the groove-forming operations into groups containing a selected number of cutting processes.
Noda does not expressly disclose selecting m from 2 through 8 and performing the groove-forming groups in the particular order recited in claim 1, namely, initially forming m circumferentially distributed grooves and thereafter forming successive groups at positions displaced by one pitch in alternating forward and backward circumferential directions. However, Examiner takes Official Notice that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to program controller (72) of Noda to perform its known groove-forming operations in the claimed order, including selecting m=2, which is expressly within the claimed range. The modification would have required only programming controller (72) to select the order of already known cutting positions and would not have required any change to the cutting apparatus or the resulting groove arrangement. Selection of the order for performing otherwise known process steps is prima facie obvious in the absence of a showing of new or unexpected results. See In re Burhans, 154 F.2d 690, 69 USPQ 330 (CCPA 1946), cited in MPEP §2144.
It therefore would have been obvious to perform the first and second cutting processes at 0 and 180 degrees; perform the third and fourth cutting processes at positions displaced by 360/n degrees in a predetermined direction; perform the fifth and sixth cutting processes at positions displaced by 360/n degrees in the opposite direction; continue forming successive two-groove groups alternately in the predetermined and opposite directions; and terminate the operation after forming the nth groove, thereby arriving at the method recited in claim 1.
Conclusion
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/SARA ADDISU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3722 9/5/26
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