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
Applicants’ election without traverse of Group I, Claims 1-10 in the reply filed 9/2/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities: in line 6, Applicants are suggested to amend “atmosphere inert” to –- inert atmosphere --. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1,2,6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2009/0208780 (US ‘780) in view of EP 913360 (EP ’360) and Xie, M. et al., “In situ hydrothermal deposition as an efficient catalyst supporting method towards low-temperature graphitization of amorphous carbon,” CARBON 77 (2014) 215–225 (now Xie et al.).
As to Claim 1, US ’780 discloses a process whereby a pristine carbon black is subjected to steps of oxidization (activating) and graphitization (para. 0009). The graphitization is carried out using iron catalysts (para. 0062).
However, US ‘780 fails to disclose 1) a steps of using and cleaning recovered carbon black as a starting material, 2) hydrothermal impregnation of the graphitization catalyst and 3) cleaning the graphite to recover the catalyst.
As to the difference 1), EP ‘360 notes a process for recovering carbon black from tires where pieces of tire are pulverized, pyrolyzed at low temperature and then subjected to cleaning steps to produce carbon black (paras 0013-0016). The references notes of finding uses for the problem of waste tires for environmental protection (para. 0002).
As to differences 2) and 3), Xie et al. discloses a method whereby activated carbon is subjected to a hydrothermal impregnation of an iron catalyst to create graphite carbon particles where the reference notes the method allows for conversion of the carbon to graphite at lower temperatures (Abstract). The reference further removes iron catalyst from the graphite using an acid solution (pg. 217, “Experimental”) which the Examiner construes as a recovery step.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the US ‘780 reference to utilize the recycled and cleaned carbon black from EP ‘360 for the purposes of improved environmental friendliness of the process and to utilize the impregnation and recovery steps of Xie for the purposes of yielding a more graphitized particle while reducing environmental impact of the process.
As to Claim 2, see discussion of Claim 1 above.
As to Claim 6, US ‘780 discloses the activation steps that occur at greater than 700 deg C and a reaction time of 0.5 to 2 hours (para. 0088,0091) where under steam (para. 0074) acting as a fluidization agent in a reactor (para. 0082) which the Examiner construes as a type of muffle i.e. isolating the carbon material from contaminants.
As to Claim 7, Xie et al. discloses a process whereby impregnation is conducted with 0.25 M iron nitrate at 120 deg C for 12 hours and then dried, heated and catalyst recovered (pg. 217, first column, 2.2 “Hydrothermal impregnation of iron oxide catalyst”).
As to Claim 8, see Claim 7.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5,9,10 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.
Specifically, none of the prior art discloses the specific steps required by the above claims nor is there any teaching, suggestion or motivation to arrive at the specific steps in view of the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAISON P THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)272-8917. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 9:00 am-3:30 pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert Jones can be reached at (571) 270-7733. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/J.P.T/Examiner, Art Unit 1762
/jt/ 9/28/2026
/MARK KOPEC/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
