Ex Parte VAANANEN

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

Jun 27, 2019

13632351 - (D) (P.T.A.B. Jun. 27, 2019)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
13/632,351 10/01/2012
129597 7590 07/01/2019
Mikko Kalervo Vaananen
PO Box 346
Street address: Unioninkatu 20-22, Suite B351
Helsinki, 00131
FINLAND
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Mikko V AANANEN
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
P201473US_DIV 6439
EXAMINER
BARTON, JEFFREY THOMAS
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1726
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
07/01/2019 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
patents@suinno.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte MIKKO V AANANEN
Appeal 2017-011292
Application 13/632,351
Technology Center 1700
Before LINDA M. GAUDETTE, KAREN M. HASTINGS, and
GEORGE C. BEST, Administrative Patent Judges.
GAUDETTE, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL 1
The Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's
decision finally rejecting claims 1-3 under (1) 35 U.S.C. § 101, (2) 35
U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph, or 35 U.S.C. § l 12(b), and (3) 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a).2 An oral hearing was held on June 17, 2019, before this Board
panel.
1 This Decision includes citations to the following documents: Specification
filed October 1, 2012 ("Spec."); Final Office Action dated December 15,
2016 ("Final Act."); Appeal Brief filed March 15, 2017 ("Appeal Br.");
Examiner's Answer dated July 25, 2017("Ans."); and Reply Brief filed
August 30, 2017 ("Reply Br.").
2 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ).
Appeal 2017-011292
Application 13/632,351
We AFFIRM.
The invention relates to methods for improving the efficiency of solar
cells. Spec. 1: 5---6. Independent claims 1 and 3 are representative of the
appealed claims, and are reproduced below.
1. A method for operating a solar cell, comprising at least
two semiconductor layers, comprising:
- [i] raw solar spectrum hitting first semiconductor layer
with band gap NB 1 ( 600);
- [ii] passing photons with energy ENB 1 and
converting to photocurrent, secondary photons left with E-NB 1
remain from the absorbed photons ( 630);
- [iv] photons with energy E