Fact Pattern 1 Bobby Builder has been constructing houses as long as he can remember. Leveraging years of building experience, Bobby has come up with a building solution enabling super quick construction, reduction of concrete and mortar, and less reliance on expensive, skilled labors. In short, Bobby has come up with inter-locking building bricks enabling construction of wall structures by simply interlocking the bricks together through their connection configuration in the absence of any mortar. The bricks align and engage each other when stacked through a circular ridge on the top side of each brick and a corresponding circular groove in the underside of each brick. Top layer bricks are constructed without the top circular ridge. Lab test performed in August of 2018 indicated bricks of low density, high porosity building material having a porosity ranging between 45-55% while being able to withstand significant sheer stress measured between 2.5-3.5 Pa. Beginning September 4, 2018, Bobby tested many different connection configurations including pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal flange geometries. He revealed that brick weight can be further reduced without a loss in strength by boring a plurality of bores through the brick thickness and filling with mortar. On October 15, 2017, he revealed that while flange height has little effect on the strength of walls after stacking, a conical flange when surrounding each bore opening had significant benefit on wall strength and durability. By January 13, 2019, Bobby narrowed down optimal parameters for his inter-locking brick; conical engagement flange and of a height ranging between 2-4 cm, slope angle of 30-50 degrees relative to outer surface, spaced a porosity of 0.3-0.6, and plurality of bores each with a bore volume of 5.0-12 cc. On June 7, 2019, Bobby filed a patent application based on Track I, for inter-locking building bricks having the following claims: 2 1. An inter-locking building bricks comprising: a. a building brick having a plurality bores traversing the height of said brick each bore having a volume of 5.2-10.3 cc; b. an engagement protuberance surrounding each of a plurality of said bores; and c. an engagement groove surrounding each of a plurality of said bores on an opposite side of said protuberance, each of the engagement grooves having a corresponding geometry of said engagement so as to enable lockage when two of said bricks are stacked on each other, wherein a building from which said brick is constructed has a has porosity between 0.37-0.56 so as to provide a sheer strength of 3.0Pa. 2. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said connection configuration has a polygonal shape. 3. The brick according to claim 2, wherein said polygonal shape is implemented as a hexagon. 4. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said connection configuration is implemented as a conical flange. 5. The brick according to claim 4, wherein said conical flange has a height ranging between 2.0-3.5 cm from a horizonal brick surface. 6. The brick according to claim 5, wherein said conical flange has a height ranging between 2.0-2.5 cm from said horizonal brick surface. 7. The brick according to claim 4, wherein said conical flange has a 35-45 slope relative to a horizontal brick surface. 8. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said bore has rectangular cross-sectional area. 9. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said bore has pentagonal cross-sectional area. 10. The brick according to claims 8-9, wherein said brick has porosity between 0.37-0.56. On September 12, 2019, after his first Office Actions, the Examiner allowed the patent. As soon as the patent was granted Bobby contracted with Lego Land Bricks Inc., a small brick manufacturer, to make the inter-locking bricks for sale to their many construction contractors. Tommy Tower is a well-known contractor who frequents Lego Land Bricks Inc. weekly. He is intrigued by Bobby's new brick and constructs sheer and moment diagrams to ascertain the points pone to fracture. Equipped with new insight, he develops an improved version and sells it to a 3 large competing brick manufacturer EZ Manufacturers. On Oct 23, 2019 EZ Manufacturers files a Track I patent application listing Tommy Tower as the inventor. The application sets forth the following claims directed to the improvements: 1 A inter-locking building bricks comprising: a. a building brick having two bores traversing the height of said brick each bore having a volume of 5.2-10.3 cc; b. an engagement protuberance surrounding each of a plurality of said bores; and c. an engagement groove surrounding each of a plurality of said bores on an opposite side of said protuberance, each of the engagement grooves having a corresponding geometry of said engagement so as to enable lockage when two of said bricks are stacked on each other, wherein a building from which said brick is constructed has a has porosity between 0.4-0.45, wherein the brick can withstand a sheer stress of 3.5 Pa. 2. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said connection configuration has a polygonal shape. 3. The brick according to claim 2, wherein said polygonal shape is implemented as a hexagon. 4. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said connection configuration is implemented as a conical flange. 5. The brick according to claim 4, wherein said conical flange has a height ranging between 3.0-3.5 cm from a horizonal brick surface. 6. The brick according to claim 5, wherein said conical flange has a height ranging between 2.3-2.5 cm from said horizonal brick surface. 7. The brick according to claim 4, wherein said conical flange has a 40-45 slope relative to a horizontal brick surface. 8. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said bore has rectangular cross-sectional area. 9. The brick according to claim 1, wherein said bore has pentagonal cross-sectional area. 4 10. The brick according to claims 8 or 9, wherein said brick has porosity between 0.37-0.56. The patent specification described all the optimal parameters listed above. On December 31, 2019, the patent application was allowed. Questions: You are a USPTO Patent Examiner tasked with examination of Bobby Builder's application. (20 Points) 1. Searching for prior art, you find (1) an issued patent for a flange-free interlocking brick application filed by SkyHigh Builders; (2) an abandoned, but published, patent application describing inter-locking bricks having a conical flange with an angle of slope between 45-50 degrees relative to the horizontal, and (3) a patent application directed to plastic toy bricks, each having two bores and each bore having a volume of 8.0 cc. What rejection under 102, 103 and/or 112 would you give in an office action and why? (10 points) 2. You are a US patent attorney hired by Bobby Builder. After receiving the office action (of Question 1), he came to you to engage your services. Draft an outline of a response to the rejections in the office action. Suggest amending claims if appropriate.