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 .
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yao (US 9,530,564).
With respect to claim 1, Yao discloses a multilayer ceramic electronic device (see abstract) comprising: an element body (see FIG. 1, element 1) comprising a dielectric layer and an electrode layer being laminated (see FIG. 1, dielectric layers 6a-6g and electrodes 2a-2f, and col. 6, lines 39-55), wherein the dielectric layer comprises a main component represented by a formula ABO3, where A comprises only Ba or comprises Ba and at least one selected from the group consisting of Ca and Sr (see col. 4, lines 28-35), and B comprises only Ti or comprises Ti and at least one selected from the group consisting of Zr and Hf (see col. 4, lines 28-35); the dielectric layer comprises 0.05 mol or more and 0.25 mol or less Mn oxide in terms of MnO (see col. 6, lines 21-33), 1.00 mol or more and 2.50 mol or less Mg oxide in terms of MgO (see col. 6, lines 21-33), 0.50 mol or more and 1.50 mol or less R oxide in terms of R2O3, where R comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of Y, Dy, Ho, Yb, Lu, Gd, and Tb (see col. 6, lines 12-16 and 21-33), and 0.05 mol or more and 0.45 mol or less Zr oxide in terms of ZrO2 (see col. 6, lines 21-33), with respect to 100 mol of the main component; the dielectric layer further comprises V (see col. 6, lines 21-33); and the dielectric layer has a Zr/V ratio of 2.00 or more and 4.00 or less in atomic ratio (see Table 3, at least sample 42, noting 0.4 of Zr/.15 of V = 2.67).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 3 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: with respect to claim 2, the prior art fails to teach the Si oxide range when taken in conjunction with the limitations of the base claim. With respect to claim 3, the prior art fails to teach the formation of a segregate comprising Mg and Si at an interface between the electrode layer and the dielectric layer, when taken in conjunction with the limitations of the base claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Arai et al. (US 2023/0282423), Guo et al. (US 2022/0234958), and Iguchi (US 2019/0304964) each disclose a ceramic including Zr and V, but fails to identify the claimed relationship between them.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DION R FERGUSON whose telephone number is (571)270-7566. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 5:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Timothy Dole, can be reached at 571-272-2229. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DION R. FERGUSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2847
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