DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Arguments regarding the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection of claims 1-3, 9-11, and 13 have been address in the previous Office Action dated 11/20/2025. Applicant argues that the Advisory Action did not provide a solid basis of fact for the feature of “an area fraction Sw/St is 30% or more and 50% or less”, as Takuma teaches a preferred range of 5 to 20%. However, this range is not in reference to the total domain area of the release agent. Takuma teaches that the area ratio of the larger domains – SA, equivalent to Sb/St of the instant application – is in the range of 2.5% to 30%, and preferably in the range of 5% to 20% ([0016]). This is not representative of the area fraction Sw/St, as it does not include the area of the small domains. Further, the preferable range of 5 to 20% is only one embodiment, and the wider range up to 30% is not negated thereby. As Takuma teaches that the area fraction of the larger domains may be 30%, an embodiment utilizing this percentage of SA would necessarily have an area fraction Sw/St that falls within the range of 30% to 50% when the area of the small domains are accounted for.
The sentence “Takuma does not teach any adverse effects of a value of SA above 30%, and as such a person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to optimize this range” has been omitted from the rejection for clarity. It was meant to convey that a person of ordinary skill in the art would not be deterred from optimizing this range as Takuma does not teach away from a value of SA above 30%. Takuma not teaching any adverse effects is not motivating for optimization of the range. The motivation for optimization comes from the properties of the toner which are affected by the release agent – the developability and peeling of the toner.
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.
Claims 1-3, 9-11, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuma (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2017-102395).
Takuma teaches a toner containing a binder resin and a release agent, wherein in the cross section of the toner a large domain A has a length r, related to the major axis length of the toner particle, R, of 0.125 ≤ r/R ≤ 0.375 ([0008]). A small domain B has a length r, related to the major axis length of the toner particle, R, of 0.000625 ≤ r/R ≤ 0.0625 ([0008]). According to Table 3 the length R is 8 µm for all of the exemplary toners. Therefore, the length of the domains A is between 1 to 3 µm, or 1,000 to 3,000 nm, and the length of the domains B is between 0.005 to 0.5 µm, or 5 to 500 nm. The domains A are comparable to domains having a total area Sb of the instant application, and the domains B are comparable to domains having an area Sa of the instant application. The area ratio of the large domains A is defined as SA, equivalent to Sb/St of the instant application, the area ratio of the small domains B is defined as SB, equivalent to Sa/St of the instant application, and the sum of these two area fractions is equivalent to Sw/St of the instant application. The area SA of the large domains is 2.5% to 30% (Abstract). The area of the large domain and its axis length effect the developability and peeling of the toner ([0016]). Since the large domains comprise the majority of the release agent that is exuded to the surface of the toner during fixing, it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to optimize the area for the domain, wherein a larger area may further suppress peeling. Takuma also teaches that the large domain is present at the center of the toner in order for the bleeding of the release agent to be uniform in all directions ([0023]). Since the large domain is present at the center of the toner and the smaller domain acts as a passage for the release agent to the surface when sufficient heat is applied, an increase in the area of the large domain may not exhibit issues such as excessive deformation of the toner at the time of fixing, which may be worse if the large domain were closer to the surface. The difference between an SA value of 30% and 33% is relatively small, and would not fall outside of a reasonable range for optimization testing. Takuma teaches in claim 1 that the toner cross section satisfies both formula (1), 2.5% ≤ SA ≤ 30%, and formula (2), 0.1 ≤ SB/SA ≤ 0.8. In an embodiment utilizing a value SA of 30%, the combination of these formulae results in a total area fraction of the wax domains of 33% to 54%.
The ratio of SB/SA of exemplary toners 1-18 falls in the range of 1.25 to 10 (Table 3). An area SB of the small domains of exemplary toners 4, 5, and 13-15 are values greater than 2% (Table 3). The release agent melting points are shown in Table 1 and range from 75 to 84°C. Release agents 2 and 3, behenyl behenate and dibehenyl sebacate, are ester-based waxes. The binder resin includes a styrene acrylic resin ([0089]). The toners have a glass transition temperature of 57°C, so a difference Tm – Tg is between 18 and 27°C ([0089-90]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuma in view of Takeshi (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-287185).
The complete discussion of Takuma above is included herein. Takuma discloses domains having long diameters of 1500 – 3000 nm, but is silent regarding the circularity of the domains.
Takeshi teaches the circularity of large release agent domains is 0.6 to 1.0 ([0033]). When the circularity of the domain is lower, the stress on the release agent can be larger, causing the toner to be likely to be crushed ([0033]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the toner of Takuma to include the circularity of the large release agent domains of Takeshi in order to prevent crushing of the toner particles.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuma in view of Yosuke (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-040426).
The complete discussion of Takuma above is included herein. Takuma discloses a binder resin that includes a styrene-(meth)acrylic resin, bit the amount of the styrene monomer with respect to the total mass of the toner is not 15 to 25%.
Yosuke discloses a toner that includes a styrene-acrylic resin in the binder resin. Exemplary toners 1, 4, and 5 have a mass% of the styrene monomer of 19.2%, 22.2%, and 17.4%, respectively ([0137-164]). Using this styrene resin as the binder resin is preferable because the image strength after fixing is good ([0029]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the toner of Takuma to have included the amount of styrene monomer with respect to the toner of Yosuke in order to improve the strength of the fixed image.
Claims 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuma in view of Taguchi (US PGP 2015-0044601).
The complete discussion of Takuma above is included herein. Takuma references the use of surfactants in the toner as dispersants ([0052]), but is silent regarding the use of specific cationic and anionic surfactants together.
Taguchi teaches a toner with 2 types of release agent domains within the binder resin (Abstract). Taguchi teaches preparing a vinyl resin dispersion and a release agent particle dispersion for the toner with surfactants with opposing charges ([0136]). The anionic and cationic surfactants are preferable, and may be used in a combination of two or more kinds ([0123-124]). Examples of the anionic and cationic surfactants include sulfonates, and quaternary ammonium salts ([0123]). The toner with the release agent configured as explained above allows for the suppression of offset and increases the image quality when the toner is used for printing ([0015]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the toner of Takuma to have included the surfactants of Taguchi in order to gain the benefits of suppress offset and increased image intensity.
The toner can be used in a developer ([0156]). Taguchi teaches an image forming apparatus comprising an image holding member, a charging unit that charges the surface of the image holding member, a developing unit that develops the charge image, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image to a recording medium, and a fixing unit that fixes the toner to the recording medium ([0169]). The image forming apparatus includes a process cartridge including a developing unit housing the developer that is configured to develop a toner image and is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus ([0173]). A toner cartridge contains the toner and is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus ([0206]).
Claims 21 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuma in view of Ikejiri (US PGP 2017-0336727).
The entire discussion of Takuma above is included herein. Ikejiri teaches a toner containing small ([0038]) and large ([0043]) domains. The large domains occupy 10 to 40% of the area of the toner particle cross section ([0043] line 5-8). Having the large domains present in this range allows for large amounts of the wax to be present in the interior of the toner particle, and therefore the release effects and plasticizing effects are satisfactory and the cold offset resistance and fogging post-heat cycling are improved ([0043] line 14-19). Exemplary toner 10 has an area of the large domains of 39.8% (Table 4) and received A evaluations for cold offset and fogging after heating cycling (Table 5). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the toner of Takuma to have included an SA value of up to 40% in order to improve the cold offset resistance and fogging post heat cycling. This modified toner would have a value Sw/St that falls within the range of 35% to 45% or 40.1% to 47.9% when the area of the small domains is added to the area of the large domains.
Conclusion
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/J.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1734
/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 03/09/2026