DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/21/2025 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election with traverse of species of soft phase comprising styrene in the reply filed on 11/12/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 15 and 31 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected sepcies, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Response to Amendment
The amendment of claims 11, 16 are supported by the specification. The new claims 29-30, 32-33 are supported by the specification.
Any rejections and/or objections made in the previous Office action and not repeated below are hereby withdrawn.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 11-12, 14, 16, 27, 29-30, 33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Knoll (US 2014/0011929).
Knoll teaches a carpet backing which reads on the claimed base layer, the carpet reads on the wear layer [0034]. The carpet backing comprising 49-94 wt% of a block copolymer and 1-50 wt% of a polyolefin [0018-0022, 0034]. The block copolymer is S-B/S-S triblock copolymer (example 5). The polyolefin can be ethylene-propylene rubber, natural rubber, copolymer of ethylene with octene etc [0146]. The conjugated diene for the block copolymer can be isoprene which would inherently results in 1-2 vinyl repeating unit. The composition does not contain a crosslinking system.
Knoll does not teach the composition comprising both EPM etc and ethylene octene copolymer.
However, it is well settled that it is prima facie obvious to combine two ingredients in any ratio, each of which is targeted by the prior art to be useful for the same purpose. In re Lindner 457 F,2d 506,509, 173 USPQ 356, 359 (CCPA 1972). The total content of the block copolymer and ethylene octene copolymer would overlap the claimed range.
Claims 11, 16, 26-27, 32-33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wright (US 2005/0112320) as evidenced by Kraton Polymers (Kraton Polymers for Modification of Thermoplastics).
Wright teaches a carpet comprising a foam cushion backing (i.e. a base layer) with a wear layer adjacent to the backing [0078]. The backing comprises a HBEP component, a resilient material component. [0034, 0037]. The HBEP can be an ethylene octent copolymer such as KC8852 or Engage 8185, and the resilient material can be an acrylonitrile-butadiene, or a styrene block copolymer Kraton D-4141 which is SBS as evidenced by Kraton [0042-0043, 0108-0109, Twin 202].
Wright does not teach the composition comprising both acrylonitrile butadiene and styrene block copolymer.
However, it is well settled that it is prima facie obvious to combine two ingredients in any ratio, each of which is targeted by the prior art to be useful for the same purpose. In re Lindner 457 F,2d 506,509, 173 USPQ 356, 359 (CCPA 1972). The total content of the styrene block copolymer and ethylene octene copolymer would overlap the claimed range.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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/WENWEN CAI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763