DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to a Request for Continued Examination filed October 10, 2025 in regards to a 371 application filed August 31, 2021 claiming priority to PCT/EP2020/055328 filed February 28, 2020 and foreign application EP19160363.8 filed March 1, 2019. Claims 1-9 and 19-20 have been elected without traverse. Claims 10-18 have been withdrawn as non-elected. Claims 1 and 4 have been amended. Claims 21-24 are new. Claims 1-9 and 19-24 are currently being examined.
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 .
Response to Argument
In view of the Remarks and Amendments, the rejections of claims 1-9 and 19-20 under 35 USC § 103 have been maintained.
Only focal arguments which are related to the patentability of the instant Application are addressed as follows:
In regards to claim 1, Applicant traverses the rejection using the prior art of Cevahir et al. in view of Xu et al. stating the disclosure of “Xu et al. does not teach of [sic] suggests “silicates of mica””, “does not refer to a filler” but rubber modifiers, and the rubber modifiers are selected from “a wide range of different compounds”. The primary prior art of Cevahir et al. disclose an aqueous dipping composition for coating a textile reinforcing material comprising a rubber latex, a blocked polyisocyanate, a glycerol based glycidyl epoxy or sorbitol based glycidyl epoxy resin, and acrylic resin as well as disclose the composition are free of resorcinol and formaldehyde meeting the all limitations of the instant claim 1 except one limitation of not disclosing the composition further comprising a filler. The secondary prior art of Xu et al. discloses a dipping solution of an eco-friendly fiber structure material free of resorcinol and formaldehyde comprising a rubber latex; a blocked isocyanate; one or more of a glycidyl ether type, a sorbitol type, a polyglycerin glycidyl ether type, a metacresol type, or a bisphenol A type of epoxy resin, and a rubber modifier (commonly known as rubber fillers to one of ordinary skill in the art). Xu et al. disclose the rubber modifiers (fillers) of carbon black or mica, kaolin, and bentonite of which are all silicates and wherein more than half (5 of 9 and a limited number of choices) of all of the rubber modifiers of Xu et al., meet the limitations of the instant claim. Xu et al. disclose the rubber modifier used in 0.5 to 20 parts by dry weight mixed with the rubber latex can improve adhesion of the fiber framework material and the rubber [0043]. To one of ordinary skill in the art, Cevahir et al. and Xu et al. are to the same technical field of aqueous dipping compositions comprising similar components with similar technical objectives to improve adhesion of rubber to fibers and fabric.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-9 and 19-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cevahir et al. (US2017/0130396A1) in view of Xu et al. (CN 106084362 A – machine translation).
In regards to claims 1 and 5, Cevahir et al. disclose an aqueous dipping composition for coating a textile reinforcing material [0017-0027, 0047-0049, 0055-0056; Tables 1-2; Examples] comprising 6-21% by dry weight of a rubber latex, 0.7-3% by weight of blocked polyisocyanate [0056], 0.1-2% of glycerol based glycidyl epoxy or sorbitol based glycidyl epoxy resin [0055], and 0.1-2% by weight of an acrylic polymer resin [0049]. Cevahir et al. disclose compositions free of resorcinol and formaldehyde [0001, 0014-0017].
Cevahir et al. do not disclose the composition comprising 0.3-10% by dry weight of at least one filler.
Xu et al. disclose a dipping solution of an eco-friendly fiber structure material free of resorcinol and formaldehyde wherein the dipping solution comprises 100 parts of butylpyrrolidone latex (Example 1 of Table 1, 16.1 wt.% = 100/618.6), 3.3-190 parts by dry weight of a blocked isocyanate compound, 0.5-20 parts by dry weight of a rubber modifier, and 17.9 parts by dry weight of an epoxy resin (Example 1 in Table 1, 2.8 wt.% = 17.9/618.6). Xu et al. disclose the epoxy resin [0013] comprises one or more of a glycidyl ether type epoxy resin, a sorbitol type epoxy resin, a polyglycerin glycidyl ether type epoxy resin, a metacresol type epoxy resin, or a bisphenol A type epoxy resin. Xu et al. disclose the rubber latex comprises one or more of a carboxylated butadiene-vinylpyridine carboxylic acid latex, a carboxylated styrene-butadiene latex or a carboxylic acid acrylonitrile butadiene rubber latex [0014]. Xu et al. disclose using carbon black or the silicates of mica, kaolin, and bentonite as rubber modifiers [0015-0016] and are also commonly known in the art as rubber fillers, therefore the use of 0.5-20 parts by dry weight of a rubber modifier [Abstract; 0011, 0015-0016] meets the instant claim limitation of 0.3-10% by dry weight of at least one filler.
Xu et al. disclose the rubber modifier used in 0.5 to 20 parts by dry weight mixed with the rubber latex can improve adhesion of the fiber framework material and the rubber [0043]. To one of ordinary skill in the art, Cevahir et al. and Xu et al. are to the same technical field of aqueous dipping compositions comprising similar components with similar technical objectives to improve adhesion of rubber to fibers and fabric. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add the filler and in the amounts of the instant application to a latex dipping composition as done in Xu et al. to the dipping solution of Cevahir et al. to improve the adhesion and coverage of the dipping solution to the fibers of the textile materials.
In regards to claim 2, Cevahir et al. disclose the rubber latex comprising vinyl pyridine (VP) and styrene-butadiene latexes [0057].
In regards to claim 3, Cevahir et al. disclose a blocked isocyanate of 4,4”-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate [0046, 0056].
In regards to claims 4 and 21-24, Xu et al. disclose using carbon black or the silicates of mica, kaolin, and bentonite as rubber modifiers [0015-0016] and are also commonly known in the art as rubber fillers, therefore the use of 0.5-20 parts by dry weight of a rubber modifier [Abstract; 0011, 0015-0016] meets the instant claim limitation of 0.3-10% by dry weight of at least one filler.
In regards to claims 6 and 19, Cevahir et al. disclose ammonium hydroxide [0053].
In regards to claim 7, Cevahir et al. disclose colorants [0058].
In regards to claims 8 and 20, Cevahir et al. disclose a solid content of 5-30 % by dry weight [Examples; Tables 1-2] and is 15% by dry weight in a non-limiting example [0053].
In regards to claim 9, Cevahir et al. disclose the ratio of rubber latex to the other components is 4 [Tables 1-2; Examples 1-10].
Conclusion
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/RONALD GRINSTED/Examiner, Art Unit 1763