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 § 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 1-19 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. Claim 1 recites, “A composition for forming a conductive bonding material, comprising at least one conductive material selected from the group consisting of metal nanowires and a metal nanowire aggregate; and a solvent…and a content of the conductive material is 30% by mass or more” on lines 1-7, however, the claim does not recite a basis for said 30% by mass or more, e.g., based on a solids content of the composition, based on a total mass of said composition which would include the solvent, etc. Hence, one having ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the claimed invention and could not interpret the metes and bounds of the claim so as to understand how to avoid infringement.
Dependent claims 2-19 do not remedy the above and hence are indefinite for the same reasons.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fujino (JP2015065098A, please refer to the attached machine translation for the below cited sections). Fujino discloses a filamentous or thread-like silver powder with which thixotropy higher than that of conventional silver powder is attained when turned into paste by only wet reduction, as well as a silver powder mixture and conductive paste comprising the thread-like silver powder (Entire document, particularly Paragraphs 0001 and 0004), wherein the conductive paste “can be suitably applied or printed to various substrates such as silicon wafers for solar cells, films for touch panels, and glass for EL elements, either directly onto these substrates or, if necessary, onto a transparent conductive film provided on top of the substrate, thereby forming a conductive coating,” and can be “used in applications such as current collector electrodes for solar cells, external electrodes for chip-type electronic components, RFID, electromagnetic shielding, oscillator bonding, membrane switches, and electroluminescence electrodes or electrical wiring” (Paragraph 0028, e.g., as in instant claims 6, 11, 15, and 18).
Fujino discloses that the thread-like silver powder has an average major axis length of 2 µm to 20 µm (falling within the claimed range of 0.3 to 300 µm as recited in instant claims 4, 9, and 13), an average minor axis length of 50 nm to 900 nm (thereby reading upon the claimed “metal nanowires” as in instant claim 1), and a BET specific surface that although not limited, is preferably 0.1 m2/g to 5 m2/g (i.e., 100 m2/kg to 5000 m2/kg, falling within the claimed range of 100 to 50,000 m2/kg as recited in instant claim 1; Paragraphs 0008 and 0012-0014). Fujino discloses that the silver powder mixture comprises the thread-like silver powder as well as spherical silver powder, flake-like silver powder, or both (Entire document, particularly Paragraphs 0008, 0010, and 0016), wherein the content ratio of the filamentous/thread-like silver powder in the silver powder mixture is not particularly limited and can be appropriately selected depending on the purpose, but is preferably 25% by mass or more, and more preferably 50% by mass or more, with working examples 1-3 specifically comprising a silver powder mixture containing 26%, 54%, or 50% by mass of the thread-like silver powder (Paragraph 0016, Examples 1-3, respectively), with properties as shown in Tables 1-3, and based upon the data and SEM images as shown in Figs. 1A-3B, also including at least some conductive particles having an average major diameter in a minimum enclosing ellipsoid falling within the claimed range of 0.01 and 50 µm and that is 1 to 10 times an average minor diameter of the at least some conductive particles in the minimum enclosing ellipsoid as in instant claim 2 (Examples, Figs. 1A-3B). Fujino also discloses preparation of conductive pastes from the exemplified silver powder mixtures containing at least the silver powder mixture, glass frit, resin (as in instant claims 3 and 8), solvent (as in instant claim 1), and surfactant (Paragraph 0020); with working examples specifically prepared by mixing 8.3 g of the silver powder, 2.0 g of lead-free glass frit, a vehicle mixture of 0.3 g of ethylcellulose (i.e., “a resin material” as in instant claims 3 and 8) and 1.1 g of butyl carbitol acetate (i.e., a solvent as in instant claim 1), and 0.1 g of phosphate ester surfactant to form the conductive paste, which is then utilized to form a wiring pattern on a substrate by applying the paste composition onto the substrate (i.e., “a step of supplying” as in instant claims 7, 12, 16, and 19), such that the exemplified conductive paste of Fujino comprises 70.3% by mass of the silver powder, and given that Fujino clearly discloses that the content mass ratio of the thread-like powder in the silver powder mixture is preferably 50% or more, with working examples specifically containing 50% and 54% of the thread-like silver in the silver powder mixture incorporated into the conductive paste in a content of 70.3% (i.e., about 35% or 38% by mass, respectively, with respect to the total conductive paste composition reading upon the claimed “30% by mass or more” of instant claim 1; Entire document, particularly Paragraphs 0020, 0022, 0026, 0036-0039, and Examples), wherein the conductive paste composition of Fujino reads upon the instantly claimed “composition for forming a conducive bonding material” as well as the instantly claimed “conductive bonding material formed of the composition for forming a conductive bonding material” of instant claims 5, 10, 14, and 17 (given that the claimed “conductive bonding material” is “formed of the composition”), and given the thickness of the wiring lines provided on the substrate (“a device”) in the Examples of Fujino wherein a portion of the wiring/thickness closest to the substrate would read upon the instantly claimed “conductive bonding material” while an outer portion thereof or provided thereon would read upon the instantly claimed “wiring line” as the “member provided on at least one surface of the conductive bonding material” (given that the claims do not require the “member” and/or “wiring line” of the “device” to be formed from a material different than the “conductive bonding material”), the Examiner takes the position that Fujino discloses the claimed invention with sufficient specificity to anticipate instant claims 1-19.
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.
Alternatively, claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujino as applied above and further discussed below.
The teachings of Fujino are discussed in detail above and incorporated herein by reference, and although the Examiner is of the position that the reference is anticipatory for the reasons discussed above, particularly in light of the working examples, the Examiner alternatively takes the position that the claimed invention as recited in instant claims 1-19 would have been obvious over the above teachings of Fujino given that one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to provide the thread-like silver powder of Fujino, reading upon the claimed “metal nanowires” in instant claim 1, in any amount within the preferred ranges taught by Fujino with respect to the silver powder mixture and to utilize similar contents of the components for producing the conductive paste as utilized in the working examples and for any of the application end uses taught by Fujino such that alternatively, the claimed “30% by mass or more”, “bonding material” and “device” of instant claims 1-19 would have been obvious over the teachings of Fujino.
Citation of pertinent prior art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ohbayashi (US2023/0105450A1) discloses an electrically conductive paste for electrolytic capacitor, for connecting a cathode part and a cathode lead terminal of the electrolytic capacitor; the conductive paste includes a thermosetting resin, and conductive particles, and the conductive particles include flaky metal particles and acicular conductive particles; with the content of the conductive particles in the conductive paste being, for example, 50 mass % or more and 70 mass % or less; with the mass ratio of the flaky metal particles to the total of the flaky metal particles and the acicular conductive particles being, for example, 60% or more and 80% or less; and the acicular conductive particles may be metal-coated ceramic whiskers and may have a specific surface area of, for example, 0.5 m2/g to 1.5 m2/g or less.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MONIQUE R JACKSON whose telephone number is (571)272-1508. The examiner can normally be reached Mondays-Thursdays from 10:00AM-5:00PM.
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/MONIQUE R JACKSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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