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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/28/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendments
In response to the amendment received on 04/28/2026:
• Claims 1-11 and 13-17 are currently pending. Claim 12 is canceled.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
• In claim 1, pg. 3, line 9, the phrase “Y1 and Y2 each independent represent” should be amended to read “Y1 and Y2 each independently represent.”
• In claim 1, pg. 3, line 6, the phrase “…and -C(=O)-, a divalent linking group…” should be amended to read ““…and -C(=O)-, or a divalent linking group…”
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-10, 13, 14, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yagi et al. (JP-2014118553-A), with reference to the included machine translation (hereinafter referred to as “Yagi”), with evidence from Takagishi (JP-H1112523-A), with reference to the included machine translation (hereinafter referred to as “Takagishi”), as to the rejection of claims 1-10, 13, 14, and 17 only, with evidence from ChemicalBook (“N-Methylolacrylamide: 924-42-5.” ChemicalBook, www.chemicalbook.com/ChemicalProductProperty_EN_CB3182194.htm) (hereinafter referred to as “ChemicalBook”) as to the rejection of claims 1-10, 13, 14, and 17 only, with evidence from Harada et al. (US-20210315209-A1) (hereinafter referred to as “Harada”) as to the rejection of claims 1-10, 13, 14, and 17 only, and with evidence from Matsuno et al. (US-20200115535-A1) (hereinafter referred to as “Matsuno”) as to the rejection of claim 9 only.
Regarding claim 1, Yagi teaches an ink composition (see Yagi at pg. 2, para. 6, teaching a pigment ink) comprising:
• water; a pigment; a pigment dispersion polymer A (see Yagi at pg. 8, para. 5-6, teaching the ink as containing a pigment, such as carbon black or phthalocyanine pigments like C.I. Pigment Blue 15:3; also see Yagi at pg. 9, para. 11, teaching the ink as containing an aqueous medium, i.e., water; also see Yagi at pg. 8, para. 3, teaching the ink may contain a natural resin, such as shellac; shellac functions as a pigment dispersant, including for carbon black and phthalocyanine pigments, as evidenced by Takagishi at para. 0004 on pg. 2 and para. 0010 on pg. 3; thus, the shellac natural resin in Yagi necessarily corresponds to the claimed “pigment dispersion polymer A”); and
• a water-soluble polymer B different from the pigment dispersion polymer A, wherein the water-soluble polymer B contains at least one acid group selected from the group consisting of a phosphoric acid group, a sulfonic acid group, and a carboxylic acid group, and a constitutional unit represented by General Formula (1) (see Yagi at Abstract and pg. 2, para. 7, teaching the ink as containing an amphoteric resin dispersant (C); also see Yagi at pg. 9, para. 10, teaching the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) may be dissolved in the aqueous medium, i.e., may be water-soluble; also see Yagi at pg. 3, para. 3-4, teaching the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to contain an ethylenically unsaturated compound having a carboxyl group (c2), such as acrylic acid; thus, Yagi necessarily teaches their amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to contain a carboxylic acid group; also see Yagi at pg. 3, para. 11-12, teaching the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) may contain other monomers (c5), such as nitrogen-containing (meth)acrylate monomers; also see Yagi at pg. 4, para. 6, teaching N-methylol acrylamide as a suitable nitrogen-containing (meth)acrylate monomer; N-methylol acrylamide has the following structure, as evidenced by ChemicalBook at pg. 1:
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The N-methylol acrylamide monomer corresponds to the claimed constitutional unit represented by the General Formula (1), where R11 is a hydrogen, R1 is a hydrogen, L1 is a single bond, Y1 is a hydrogen atom, L2 is an alkylene group (-CH2-), and Y2 is -OH; thus, Yagi reasonably teaches their amphoteric resin (C) to contain both a carboxylic acid group (via the acrylic acid monomer) and a constitutional unit represented by the claimed General Formula (1) (via the N-methylol acrylamide monomer) following polymerization; further, the amphoteric resin (C) of Yagi is different from the shellac resin taught by Yagi);
• wherein the ink composition further contains a water-soluble organic solvent (see Yagi at pg. 9, para. 11-12, teaching the ink to include an organic solvent, such as a monoether of alkylene glycol).
While Yagi teaches the ink outlined above, Yagi fails to explicitly teach the water-soluble organic solvent to contain a first organic solvent having a boiling point of 110 °C to 240 °C, and a second organic solvent having a boiling point of 245 °C to 300 °C, wherein a mass ratio of a content of the second organic solvent to a content of the first organic solvent is more than 0 and less than or equal to 0.3.
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However, Yagi does teach an example ink composition, example 6, which contains 27 wt% of “BDG,” or butyl digclycol, and 3 wt% of “HeDG,” or diethylene glycol monohexyl ether (see Yagi at pg. 14; also see untranslated Yagi at Table 3 at pg. 22), see below:
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use 27 wt% of butyl diglycol and 3 wt% of diethylene glycol monohexyl ether as the organic solvents in the ink of Yagi, because Yagi teaches an example where these solvents are used in such amounts (see example 6 of untranslated Yagi at Table 3 at pg. 22).
Following the above modification, the ink of modified Yagi contains 27 wt% of butyl diglycol and 3 wt% of diethylene glycol monohexyl ether. Butyl diglycol and diethylene glycol monohexyl ether have boiling points of 231 °C and 259 °C, respectively, as evidenced by Harada at para. 0026; thus, butyl diglcyol corresponds to the claimed “first solvent” and diethylene glycol monohexyl ether corresponds to the claimed “second solvent;” further, the ratio of the second solvent to the first solvent is 0.11 (3/27 = 0.11), which falls within the claimed range.
Regarding claims 2-3, see Yagi at pg. 3, para. 1, teaching the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to contain an ethylenically unsaturated monomer (c1) having an aromatic ring, such as benzyl methacrylate; thus, the resin dispersant of Yagi necessarily contains a constitutional unit that reads on the claimed monomer (b-1) via the benzyl methacrylate monomer, where R5 is a methyl group, L4 is a combination of “-O-“ and an alkylene group having 1 carbon atom, and m represents an integer of 0.
Regarding claim 4, see Yagi at pg. 5, para. 7, teaching the content of the ethylenically unsaturated monomer having an aromatic ring (c1) to range from 10 to 60 wt% in the dispersant; also see example dispersant C-1 of Yagi at Table 1 of untranslated Yagi at pg. 18; example dispersant C-1 of Yagi contains 30 wt% of BzMA, or benzyl methacrylate, which falls within the claimed range; thus Yagi reasonably teaches via their example embodiments a content of 30 wt% of benzyl methacrylate in their amphoteric dispersant resin (C).
Regarding claim 5, see Yagi at pg. 8, para. 2, teaching the content of the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to range from 0.1 to 8% by mass in the ink; this range overlaps the claimed range, establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, see MPEP § 2144.05.
Regarding claim 6, see Yagi at pg. 5, last paragraph, teaching the weight average molecular weight of the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to range from 2,000 to 30,000; this range overlaps the claimed range, establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, see MPEP § 2144.05.
Regarding claim 7, see Yagi at pg. 6, para. 1, teaching the acid value of the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to range from 30 to 450 mgKOH/g, which overlaps the claimed range, establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, see MPEP § 2144.05.
Regarding claims 8-9, see Yagi at pg. 3, para. 3-4, teaching the amphoteric resin dispersant (C) to contain an ethylenically unsaturated compound having a carboxyl group (c2), such as acrylic acid; also see Yagi at pg. 12, para. 7, teaching an example amphoteric resin dispersant (C) neutralized with dimethylaminoethanol, where the amount added neutralizes 100% of acrylic acid; accordingly, Yagi reasonably teaches via their example embodiments the neutralization of 100 mol% of the carboxylic acid groups (e.g., from acrylic acid) in their resin dispersant; dimethylaminoethanol is an organic amine having a boiling point of 134 °C, as evidenced by Matsuno at para. 0096.
Regarding claim 10, see Matsuno at pg. 5, para. 11, teaching the content of other monomers (c5) (i.e., N-methylol acrylamide) in the dispersant to range from 0 to 10% by weight; this range overlaps the claimed range, establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, see MPEP § 2144.05.
Regarding claim 13, see the claim 1 modification above, setting forth the organic solvent component of Yagi as containing 27 wt% of butyl diglycol and 3 wt% of diethylene glycol monohexyl ether, for a total solvent content of 30 wt%, which falls within the claimed range.
Regarding claim 14, see the claim 1 modification above, setting forth the organic solvent component of Yagi as containing butyl diglycol and diethylene glycol monohexyl ether; both are alkyl ethers of diethylene glycol; further, given the solvent component contains only these solvents, the ratio of the alcohol-based solvent is 100% by mass, which falls within the claimed range.
Regarding claim 17, see Yagi at pg. 1, para. 1 and pg. 14, teaching the ink as being printed on the substrate.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yagi, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Waki et al. (US-20040242726-A1) (hereinafter referred to as “Waki”).
Regarding claim 11, while Yagi teaches the composition according to claim 1 outlined above, Yagi fails to explicitly teach the water-soluble polymer B as having a glass transition temperature of 80°C or higher.
However, Waki teaches a pigment dispersion for ink jet containing a water-soluble resin (see Waki at para. 0012-0013). Waki further teaches the water-soluble resin to be usable as a dispersant for the pigment (see Waki at para. 0035). Moreover, Waki teaches the glass transition temperature of the water-soluble resin to preferably range from at least 50 °C or greater, and that by doing so, a pigment dispersion having poor stability over time is prevented (see Waki at para. 0049).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to set the glass transition temperature of the water-soluble resin of Yagi to range from at least 50 °C. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so in order to prevent poor stability of the pigment dispersion over time (see Waki at para. 0049).
This range of at least 50 °C overlaps the claimed range, establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, see MPEP § 2144.05.
Claims 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yagi, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Matsuzaki (US-20180086112-A1) (hereinafter referred to as “Matsuzaki”).
Regarding claims 15-16, while Yagi teaches the ink composition according to claim 1 outlined above, Yagi fails to explicitly teach an ink set comprising: the ink composition according to claim 1; and a treatment liquid that contains water and at least one selected from the group consisting of a polyvalent metal salt, an acidic compound, and a cationic polymer, wherein the acidic compound contains a monovalent, divalent, or trivalent acid.
However, Matsuzaki teaches a reaction solution which may function as a pretreatment liquid for an ink composition, which allows for the formation of an image with high image quality and also reduces bleeding (see Matsuzaki at para. 0035 and 0038). Matsuzaki further teaches the reaction solution to contain an aggregating agent such as an organic acid, like malonic acid (i.e., a divalent acid), and that the reaction solution may be aqueous (see Matsuzaki at para. 0011, 0039, and 0049). Moreover, Matsuzaki teaches the substrate may include polyvinyl chloride (see Matsuzaki at para. 0149).
Yagi teaches their recording medium may include a vinyl chloride sheet (see Yagi at pg. 10, para. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the aqueous reaction solution of Matsuzaki, which contains a divalent organic acid like malonic acid, as a pretreatment liquid together with the ink of Yagi in an “ink set”. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so in order to improve image quality and reduce bleeding (see Matsuzaki at para. 0035 and 0038).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 04/28/2026 have been fully considered. The Examiner agrees with Applicant that the amended claims overcome the previous prior art grounds of rejection (see Applicant’s Remarks at pg. 9). However, a new grounds of rejection is presented, setting forth the claims as unpatentable, see rejections above.
Examiner’s Suggestions
In the interest of expedited prosecution, the Examiner proposes a few potential amendments to overcome the current grounds of rejection. It is noted that these amendments are suggested following a brief, cursory glance of the specification and the prior art, and there is no guarantee such amendments won’t read on the current references upon a more detailed review. Moreover, further search and consideration would be required if any such amendments are added (i.e., allowability is NOT guaranteed following the incorporation of such amendments). Lastly, Applicants may use all or none of such suggestions – they are merely intended as a helpful starting point for potential future amendments, if desired. If Applicants wish to clarify or discuss the below suggested amendments further, the Examiner invites Applicants to telephone for an interview.
Amendment Suggestion 1:
“…wherein the water-soluble polymer B contains at least one acid group selected from the group consisting of a phosphoric acid group[[,]] and a sulfonic acid group
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeffrey E Barzach whose telephone number is (571)272-8735. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday; 8 am - 5 pm.
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/JEFFREY EUGENE BARZACH/Examiner, Art Unit 1731
Prosecution Insights