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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 September 27, 2024 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-15 and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pub No. 2009/0246485 to Panse in view of US Pub No. 2016/0039170 to Nutt.
Regarding Claims 1-15 and 17-19
Panse teaches a laminate structure comprising, in order, an outer textile having an inner and outer surface comprising 50-100% meltable fibers such as polyester fibers (Panse, abstract, fig. 4, paragraphs [0043], [0044]), a heat reactive material comprising polymer resin and expandable graphite (Id., paragraph [0035]), a middle layer which may comprise a thermally stable double layer of ePTFE film having a weight of 46 gsm which is within the claimed range of between 10 and 50 gsm (Id., paragraph [0083]), flame retardant adhesive material (Id., paragraph [0084], [0101]-[0103]) positioned in a pattern such as dots which would necessarily form pockets defined by the surrounding components (Id., paragraph [0122]) and an inner layer having an outer and inner surface, such as a flame retardant textile such as aramid or modacrylic fabric (Id., paragraph [0022], claim 19). Panse teaches that the laminate has a total weight of less than or equal to 340 gsm (Id., claim 10). Panse teaches that the outer textile may comprise a weight of 130 gsm and the inner layer may comprise a weight of 60 gsm, which lies between the claimed ranges of between 30 and 250 gsm and between 20 and 250 gsm respectively (Id., paragraph [0101]- [0103]). Panse teaches that the laminate may form a garment wherein the outer layer faces flame and therefore the inner layer faces a wearer (Id., paragraph [0005]).
Although Panse teaches a discontinuous dot pattern for the flame retardant adhesive and the use of a grid pattern and a surface coverage of less than 70% for the heat reactive material, Panse does not appear to teach that the pockets are surrounded by the inner layer, the middle layer and a portion of the flame retardant adhesive material, or the use of a grid pattern and surface coverage value for the flame retardant adhesive (Id., paragraphs [0036]- [0041]). However, Nutt teaches a multilayer protective fabric comprising an adhesive layer on the backing layer applied in a grid pattern which necessarily creates pockets wherein the adhesive surrounds the pocket area and results in a surface coverage value of less than 70% (Nutt, abstract, fig. 6). Nutt teaches that this pattern improves the flexibility of the fabric when used as a protective garment (Id., paragraph [0001], [0086], [0088]). Nutt teaches that the adhesive pattern also results in mechanically strong light weight arc flash and flash fire resistant fabrics suitable for producing garments (Id.). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to form the multilayer fabric of Panse and to include as the pattern of the adhesive bonding the inner layer, the grid pattern of Nutt, motivated by the desire to form a conventional protective multilayer fabric having improved flexibility and lighter weight.
As set forth above, Nutt appears to teach a surface coverage of less than 70% (Id., fig. 6). Alternatively, it should be noted that the surface area covered by the flame retardant adhesive is a result effective variable. As surface coverage increases, the material exhibits greater flame resistance and adhesion between layers at the expense of breathability, flexibility and hand (Panse, paragraph [0035], Nutt, paragraph [0088]). Absent unexpected results, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to optimize the surface coverage of the flame retardant adhesive since it has been held that where general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 105 USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955). In the present invention one would have been motivated to optimize the surface coverage in order to maximize flame resistance, breathability and hand.
Regarding Claim 6
Regarding the amount the laminate shrinks when tested in accordance with a thermal shrinkage test, in general, a limitation is inherent if it is the “natural result flowing from” the explicit disclosure of the prior art. Schering Corp. v. Geneva Pharms., Inc., 339 F.3d 1373, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2003). Therefore, although the prior art does not disclose a shrinkage of less than 10%, the claimed properties are deemed to be inherent to the structure in the prior art since the Panse reference teaches an invention with a substantially similar structure and chemical composition as the claimed invention. Products of identical structure and composition cannot have mutually exclusive properties. The burden is on the Applicants to prove otherwise.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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/VINCENT TATESURE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1786