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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 October 21, 2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
The 25% by mass upper limit defining the unsaturated carboxylic acid content is beyond the scope per claim 1. Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 60-069159 A (Fumisaku) abstract and machine translation as evidenced by TW 1885200 B (Shinbo)
Claim 1 recites that a specific crosslinking auxiliary “is not substantially used in the chemically crosslinking“ step. Based on the specification disclosure [0070], said “not substantially used” amount will be interpreted as “preferably 5 parts by mass or less”.
Fumisaku discloses the production of a resin composition comprising:
(i) reacting (a) 100 pbw of an ethylene-based ionomer resin inclusive of Himilan 1855 (per Shinbo is an ethylene/methacrylic acid/ethyl methacrylate ionomer with 10 wt.% methacrylic acid - meets Applicants’ ionomer terpolymer (A) and acid content thereof) and (b) 0.5 to 5 pbw of an unsaturated compound such as α, β unsaturated carboxylic acids, monoesters and anhydrides thereof and epoxy group-containing compounds (not precluded from present claims) in the presence of (c) 0.01 to 5 pbw of an organic peroxide crosslinking agent (meets Applicants’ organic peroxide (B)) to generate a modified crosslinked ethylene ionomer (meets Applicants’ first step of chemically crosslinking ionomer (A)); and
(ii) melt blending the resultant modified crosslinked ethylene ionomer with a polyamide (meets Applicants’ second step of melt kneading with a polyamide (C)) (e.g., abstract, pages 1-4, examples, claims).
Specifically, Fumisaku’s unsaturated compound in an amount of 0.5 to 5 pbw (maleic anhydride being the preferred unsaturated compound) is not precluded from the present claims in that said amount falls within the “preferably 5 parts by mass or less” defining the presently recited “not substantially used” crosslinking auxiliary amount per [0070].
As to claims 1 and 4, it would have been within the purview of Fumisaku’s inventive disclosure, and obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, to manufacture a resin composition by (i) reacting (meets Applicants’ chemically crosslinking step) Himilan 1855 (meets Applicants’ ionomer terpolymer (A) and acid content thereof ) and 0.5 to 5 pbw of an unsaturated compound (not precluded from the present claims) in the presence of an organic peroxide crosslinking agent (meets Applicants’ peroxide) and (ii) melt kneading (meets Applicants’ melt kneading step) the resultant modified ionomer with polyamide (meets Applicants’ polyamide). Notably, even if 0.05 to 5 pbw of the preferred maleic anhydride is used as the unsaturated compound, such would not be precluded from the present claims because 0.5 to 5 pbw maleic anhydride falls within Applicants’ “not substantially used” crosslinking auxiliary amount. It is within the purview of Fumisaku’s inventive disclosure, however, and obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, to use an unsaturated compound other than maleic anhydride or itaconic acid, such as a (meth)acrylic acid, fumaric acid, glycidyl (meth)acrylate (not precluded from present claims), with the reasonable expectation of success.
As to claim 2, Fumisaku discloses that the composition preferably comprises from 50 to 90 pbw of polyamide (page 5). Example 13 comprises 65 pbw polyamide.
As to claim 3, Shinbo discloses that the melt flow rate of Himilan 1855 is 1.0 g/10 min.
As to claim 6, Fumisaku discloses a preferred ratio of 100 pbw of ionomer resin to 0.1 to 2.0 pbw of organic peroxide (page 4).
As to claim 7, Fumisaku discloses the manufacture of injection-molded articles (page 6, examples).
As to claims 8 and 9, per Shinbo, Himilan 1855 contains methacrylic acid and ethyl methacrylate units.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed October 21, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants’ argument that Fumisaku does not disclose, teach or suggest the presently claimed ionomer terpolymer (A) is not well taken. While the binary Himilan 1706 is used in the examples, Fumisaku clearly discloses Himilan 1855 as a suitable functional alternative (page 2). Thus, it would have been within the purview of Fumisaku’s inventive disclosure, and obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, to use Himilan 1855 as a viable ionomer resin for its expected additive effect as an ionomer alternative with the reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ana L Woodward whose telephone number is (571)272-1082. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/ANA L. WOODWARD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765