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 § 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.
Claims 6-7 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 6, line 2 recites "an abrupt exposure area change". This term is a subjective and relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Dependent claims fall herewith.
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Edelhauser (US PG Pub 2020/0023578).
Regarding claim 1, Edelhauser teaches an apparatus for producing a three-dimensional work piece (Fig. 1) by irradiating layers of a raw material powder with electromagnetic or particle radiation (paras. 0010-0011), the apparatus comprising:
a powder application device (14, 16) for applying a layer of raw material powder onto a carrier (para. 0014, claim 9);
an irradiation device (20) for selectively irradiating the layer of raw material powder with electromagnetic or particle radiation in accordance with a geometry of a corresponding layer of the work piece to be produced (para. 0014, 0070, claim 9); and
a control device (29) which is adapted to control the powder application device and the irradiation device (para. 0069-0070) so as to apply layers of raw material powder and irradiate the layers of raw material powder with electromagnetic or particle radiation until the work piece has reached the desired shape and size (para. 0014, claim 9),
wherein, the control device is adapted to control, for at least a portion of at least some of the layers (referred to as the build material under a scanline in para. 0035; e.g. one of the scanlines 43 in Fig. 4),
an exposure time being defined as a time period during which said layer portion is exposed to electromagnetic or particle radiation (paras. 0019, 0023, 0070, 0076),
a waiting time being defined as a time period during which said layer portion is not exposed to electromagnetic or particle radiation and while no new raw material powder layer on top of said layer portion is applied (para. 0019), and
a raw material powder application time being defined as a time period during which a new raw material powder layer is applied on top of said layer portion (per paras. 0047, 0067, and 0070 recoater 16 moves in horizontal direction H to apply a new raw material powder layer on top of the previous layer portion, and since this application necessarily requires time there is implicitly a raw material powder application time defined as a time period when this application occurs),
are controlled (abstract; para. 0069; implicit control of raw material powder application time per para. 0070 via control of recoater 16; control of waiting time per paras. 0019 and 0077; control of exposure time per paras. 0039, 0070, and 0077) such that a scanning time from the beginning of the exposure of a respective raw material powder layer portion to electromagnetic or particle radiation until the beginning of the exposure of a new raw material powder layer applied on top of said layer portion to electromagnetic or particle radiation (implicit per paras. 0009, 0019, 0023 and the other citations above), which is defined by the equation:
scanning time = exposure time + waiting time + raw material powder application time (implicit per paras. 0009, 0019, 0023 and the other citations above)
does not fall below a specific minimum value which is individually set for said layer portion (paras. 0009, 0019, 0023) in dependence on a layer portion specific quality parameter (parameter is surface quality per paras. 0027-0028, or solidification uniformity per paras. 0024, 0030, 0034, or uniformity of energy input for small-sized object portions per para. 0035).
Regarding claim 2, Edelhauser teaches the control device is adapted to control the scanning time in dependence on a layer portion specific quality parameter (paras. 0027-0028, 0024, 0030, 0034-0035) and/or the corresponding minimum value for the scanning time is/are determined prior to starting production of the three-dimensional work piece (para. 0039) and/or in situ during the production of the three-dimensional work piece (para. 0050, claim 10).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 6-7 are indefinite for the reasons given above with a high degree of uncertainty about the scope of the claim and are therefore rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b). Therefore, per MPEP 2173.06, where there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty as to the proper interpretation of the limitations of a claim, it would not be proper to reject such a claim on the basis of prior art. As stated in In re Steele, 305 F.2d 859, 134 USPQ 292 (CCPA 1962), a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 should not be based on considerable speculation about the meaning of terms employed in a claim or assumptions that must be made as to the scope of the claims
In view of the above considerations, claims 6-7 have not been rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 or 103, but instead stand rejected under U.S.C. 112(b).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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 all intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIM R SMITH whose telephone number is (303)297-4318. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri. 9-6 MST.
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/JIMMY R SMITH JR./Examiner, Art Unit 1745
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