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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior office action.
All outstanding rejections, except for those maintained below, are withdrawn in light of applicant’s amendment filed on 12/17/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1, 3, 5, 8-11, and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chaudhary (WO 2019/027961) in view of Armitage (GB 9184654).
With respect to claims 1, 3, 5, and 14-17, Chaudhary discloses an insulation or jacket layer for a coated wire cable prepared from a crosslinkable composition comprising a silane-functionalized polyolefin and 0-20 wt % of a silanol condensation catalyst (abstract), wherein the silanol condensation catalyst can be acidic (paragraph 0087). Inventive Example 1 includes 3 wt % of a catalyst masterbatch comprising 0.52 wt % dibutyltin dilaurate silanol condensation catalyst (paragraph 0189; Tables 1 and 2), which provides for an amount of silanol condensation catalyst of 0.016 wt %.
Chaudhary discloses that an optional ultraviolet absorber or stabilizers (paragraph 0094) but fails to disclose that the UV stabilizer is a benzophenone in an amount of 0.0001-0.35 wt %.
Armitage teaches that polyolefin compositions exhibit improved stability, light resistance, and reduced degradation by adding 0.0005-1 wt % of a hydroxybenzophenone compound, preferably having formulae
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, wherein R is an alkyl or aryl hydrocarbon group containing 8-20 carbon atoms (page 1, lines 29-61). Armitage recommends the addition of antioxidant heat stabilizers (page 1, lines 62-82), which are not UV stabilizers.
Given that Chaudhary teaches adding an appropriate ultraviolet absorber and further given that Armitage teaches that hydroxybenzophenones added in an amount of 0.0005-1 wt % are suitable UV stabilizers for polyolefin compositions, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize a known UV stabilizer to the polyolefin composition of Chaudhary.
With respect to claim 8, the silane silane-functionalized polyolefin includes ethylene (paragraph 0051).
With respect to claim 9, Chaudhary discloses that the silane-functionalized polyolefin contains 0.12 wt % silane (paragraph 0048).
With respect to claims 10 and 11, Chaudhary teaches that the polyolefin can include up to 50 wt % of polar monomers such as alkyl acrylates and vinyl acetates (paragraph 0026).
Claims 7, 12, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chaudhary (WO 2019/027961) in view of Armitage (GB 9184654) and further in view of Nylander (US 2010/0267869).
The discussion with respect to Chaudhary and Armitage in paragraph 5 above is incorporated here by reference.
Chaudhary discloses an acidic silanol condensation catalyst such as exemplified dibutyltin dilaurate (paragraph 00189) but fails to disclose that the silanol condensation catalyst comprises an organic sulfonic acid comprising 10-200 carbon atoms and at least one aromatic group.
Nylander discloses a UV stabilized crosslinkable polyolefin composition comprising a crosslinkable polyolefin with hydrolyzable silane groups and a silanol condensation catalyst (abstract) and teaches that preferred acidic silanol condensation catalysts are sulfonic acid and tin organic compounds (paragraph 0053), wherein the acidic catalysts allow crosslinking to quickly take place at room temperature (paragraph 0051). Particularly preferred is an organic aromatic sulfonic acid having 10-200 carbon atoms (paragraph 0059) having formula Ar(SO3H)x where x is at least one (paragraph 0056). The aromatic group Ar can be substituted with C1-C30 hydrocarbyl groups (paragraph 0058).
Given that both Chaudhary and Nylander are drawn to a UV stabilized crosslinkable polyolefin composition comprising a crosslinkable polyolefin with hydrolyzable silane groups and a silanol condensation catalyst and further given that Nylander teaches that an advantageous acidic silanol condensation catalyst is a sulfonic acid compound like claimed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the acidic silanol condensation catalyst of Nylander in the composition taught by Chaudhary.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/17/2025 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection set forth above.
Conclusion
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/VICKEY NERANGIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763
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