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The patent examiner issued a notice of allowance ("NOA") for this patent on 4/15/13 following an interview with the inventor(s) by telephone. The text from the examiner's NOA is as follows:
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
The claimed invention is directed to providing a method for recycling cutting fluid, which can be processed with a high recycling rate of cutting fluid. See page 2, lines 15-17, of the specification.
The claimed invention specifically provides a method for recycling cutting fluid comprises a step of "separation," by preparing and oxidizing a cutting fluid of silicon including a silicon mixture and a cutting fluid at 150C to 350C in a container, to obtain a vaporized cutting fluid and a silicon slurry; and a step of "recycling," by condensing the vaporized cutting fluid to obtain a recycled cutting fluid. See page 3, lines 2-7 of the specification.
No such combination of methodprocess is disclosed or suggested in the cited references of record.
Thus, the subject matter of claims 1-5 is neither disclosed by the prior art nor is obvious.
The claims are deemed allowable over the prior of record.
The applicant disclosed as prior-art:
- Patents 5,693,596, 6,932,855, 5,795,400, 6,821,437 and no non-patent documents.
The examiner cited as prior-art:
- Patents 5,795,400, 8,029,756, US patent application 2010/0061913 and no non-patent documents
I'm not familiar with technology described in this patent. So I can't speak to whether the invention as described is obvious.
However, if the invention is in fact obvious then this is a good example of why we need to submit prior art to the USPTO within six months after a patent application is published. Under the America Invents Act the patent examiner is allowed to consider any prior art we submit.
AskPatents.com was designed to facilitate the submission of prior art to the patent office during the patent prosecution process. Any interested party can post a Request for Prior Art ("RFPA") on Ask Patents. The interested party is encouraged to answer his own question with any prior art he can cite.
Once a patent is issued it is presumed valid and a re-examination is much more difficult.