RESPONSE TO AMENDMENT
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 .
Application Status
Amendments to the claims 1 and 16, filed on 18 February 2026, have been entered in the above-identified application. Claims 20-21 have been added and claims 2, 13-15, and 19 have been cancelled by applicant. Claims 1, 3-12, 16-18, and 20-21 are pending.
WITHDRAWN REJECTIONS
The 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 1, 3-7, 9, 10, 12, and 16-18 as over Oji (U.S. Pub. 2022/0076545), made of record on page 4, paragraph 7 of the office action mailed 18 November 2025 has been withdrawn due to Applicant’s amendment in the response filed 18 February 2026. In particular, Oji requires the use of an amide-containing monomer in excess of the amount allowed by the amended claims.
The 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 8 and 11 as over Oji (U.S. Pub. 2022/0076545) in view of WO 2018/092904 A1, made of record on page 8, paragraph 8 of the office action mailed 18 November 2025 has been withdrawn due to Applicant’s amendment in the response filed 18 February 2026. WO ‘904 does not remedy the above-described deficiency of Oji.
NEW REJECTIONS
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1, 3-12, 16-18, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jozuka (U.S. Pub. 2019/0106608).
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Jozuka discloses an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition and an adhesive sheet, see title and abstract. The adhesive composition is formed into a layer on a support, see p. 3, [0031]. The adhesive composition is formed of an acrylic copolymer, see p. 5, [0048], and the alkyl (meth)acrylate component may be heptyl (meth)acrylate, see p. 5, [0051]. An additional alkyl (meth)acrylate monomer such as butyl acrylate or 2-ethylhexyl acrylate may also be included, see p. 5, [0052]. A comonomer with a functional group may be included, suitable functional group containing monomers include amide group containing monomers such as N,N-dimethyl(meth)acrylamide, see p. 6, [0060-0062]. The amount of such a functional group containing comonomer is preferably 5 wt. % of the acrylic copolymer or lower, see p. 7, [0069].
While Jozuka teaches that preferably the acrylic copolymer includes butyl acrylate as the primary monomer in amounts of 60 wt. % or higher (see, e.g. p. 5, [0055]), Jozuka is not limited in scope to such an acrylic polymer. Thus n-heptyl (meth)acrylate may be substituted for butyl acrylate and thus the amount of n-heptyl (meth)acrylate may be in excess of 56.6 wt. % as claimed. It would have been obvious to have substituted a disclosed n-heptyl (meth)acrylate component for butyl acrylate to arrive at the claimed invention.
The adhesive has a gel fraction of 40 wt. % or higher, see p. 2, [0017], which overlaps the claimed range. The gel fraction is most preferably from 55-70 wt. %, see p. 18, [0177], which is within the claimed range.
The adhesive has a 180° peeling strength at 23 °C with respect to an adherend of 8 N/20mm or greater, see p. 2, [0015] and p. 21, [0210]. While Jozuka does not specify the peeling strength with respect to glass (see claim 1) or polycarbonate (see claim 16) as claimed, or being conditioned at 50% humidity as claimed, Jozuka teaches that the adherend is a material used in a component of a mobile electronic device (see p. 21, [0211]) and therefore would be expected to have a similar adhesive peel strength with respect to glass or polycarbonate as these materials can be used in mobile electronic devices.
Regarding claim 3, Jozuka teaches that 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (having a alkyl carbon number of 8) may be used in the adhesive composition in which 2-ethylhexyl acrylate monomer is used in minority amount such as 40 weight% or lower, see p. 5, [0053].
Regarding claim 4, Jozuka teaches including a functional group-containing comonomer, see p. 6, [0060], such as hydroxy group-containing comonomers, see p. 6, [0061]. Such functional groups are crosslinkable with a suitable crosslinker.
Regarding claim 5, the amount of functional group-containing comonomer is in the preferred range of 1-20 wt. %, see p. 7, [0069].
Regarding claims 6 and 7, Jozuka does not expressly teach the value of X to be from 2-50 (as in claim 6) or from 5-30 (as in claim 7). However, Jozuka does teach that the weight average molecular weight of the acrylic copolymer is higher than 70×104, (700,000 g/mol), see p. 24, [0230-0231], the amount of hydroxy-containing monomer is preferably from 1-20 wt. % (see p. 7, [0069]), and the identity of the hydroxy-containing monomer may be 4-hydroxybutyl methacrylate having a molecular weight of 158.2 g/mol (see p. 6, [0061]). This material has a hydroxyl value of about 0.354 g KOH/g.1 Thus the value of X using the equation as shown, using the minimum molecular weight of the acrylic copolymer and minimum preferred amount of hydroxy-containing monomer, is about 700,000 × (1/100) × (0.354 / 158.2) = 15.7. This is within the claimed range of the value of X in claims 6 and 7.
Regarding claim 8, Jozuka further teaches that isobornyl (meth)acrylate may be included as a commoner, see p. 7, [0070]. The amount of such a comonomer is less than 10 wt. %, see p. 7, [0071].
Regarding claim 9, Jozuka teaches that the weight average molecular weight of the acrylic copolymer is higher than 70×104, (700,000 g/mol), see p. 24, [0230-0231].
Regarding claim 10, the adhesive composition includes a tackifier resin, see p. 1, [0007].
Regarding claim 11, suitable tackifiers include terpene-based tackifier resins or rosin-based tackifier resins, see p. 13, [0127].
Regarding claim 12, Jozuka does not require the use of a surfactant in the adhesive composition.
Regarding claim 17, Jozuka teaches using the adhesive sheets in mobile electronics, see p. 3, [0020].
Regarding claim 18, Jozuka teaches a method of using the adhesive sheet by applying it to an adherend in a mobile device, see p. 3, [0020].
Regarding claims 20-21, Jozuka teaches that in the adhesive composition, a comonomer with a functional group may be included, and suitable functional group containing monomers include amide group containing monomers such as N,N-dimethyl(meth)acrylamide, see p. 6, [0060-0062]. The amount of such a functional group containing comonomer is preferably 5 wt. % of the acrylic copolymer or lower, see p. 7, [0069].
RESPONSE TO APPLICANT’S ARGUMENTS
Applicant’s arguments in the response filed 18 February 2026 regarding the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims of record over Oji have been considered but are moot due to the new grounds of rejection.
Prior Art of Record
Prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Adachi (U.S. Pub. 2021/0395575) teaches an example which uses about 97 wt. % of n-heptyl acrylate along with acrylic acid and hydroxyethyl acrylate monomers. However, the reference is not available as prior art as it has the same inventive entity as the present application.
Conclusion
All claims are rejected.
Final due to amendment:
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/Scott R. Walshon/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
1 Hydroxyl value in g KOH/g is (number of -OH groups in the molecule × molecular weight of KOH) / (molecular weight of the compound). For 4-hydroxybutyl methacrylate, this is (1 × 56.1 g/mol) / (158.2 g/mol) = 0.354 g KOH/g.
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