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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) 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 at lines 12 and 16 recite “in a case…” and this phrase renders the claim indefinite as it unclear if this denotes an optional limitation or if these (111) and (110) features are required. Clarification is required. Claim 2 is included in this rejection as it depends upon a rejected claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-2 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art to the instant claims is that of Shibata (US 2012/0128971). Shibata teaches a coated member (abstract) comprising a hard film for cutting tools (Paragraph 1). The coating may comprise a (AlaJb)(CxNy) where J is one or both of Ti and Cr and 0.5≤ a ≤0.7, 0.3≤ b ≤0.5 and a+b = 1 (Paragraph 32). However, the structure of the coating is only cubic (Paragraphs 8 and 40) and there is no teaching or suggestion to combine cubic and hexagonal crystals combined with the other features of the claims and therefore this would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Chen et al. (US 2011/0117344), He et al. (US 2021/0138557), Yamasaki (US 2022/0176462), and Sasaki (US 2024/0352572) teach cutting tools with hard coatings having (111) planes demonstrating the level of ordinary skill in the art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SETH DUMBRIS whose telephone number is (571)272-5105. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:00 AM - 3:30 PM.
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SETH DUMBRIS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1784
/SETH DUMBRIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1784
