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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Beach et al. “Development of a new class of brominated polymeric flame retardants based on copolymers of styrene and polybutadiene” Polymer Degradation and Stability 135 (2017) 99-100 (herein Beach).
As to claims 1-11 and 14, Beach discloses a process for producing a brominated copolymer flame retardant (see abstract and examples) and copolymers thereof. A block copolymer comprising styrene blocks and butadiene (conjugated diene) blocks is brominated with a brominating agent such as a quaternary ammonium tribromide in a solvent such as DCM (see examples on page 101 under results 3.1). See tables 1 and 2, wherein the polybutadiene polystyrene block triblock copolymers have about 33 to 41 wt% (styrenic monomer) and thus 69 to 77 wt% butadiene monomer. The weight average molecular weight is reported as about 22,000 to 179,000 g/mol. See tables 1-2. The bromination amount is reported with examples at 56% up to 65 wt%. The calculation for the double bond bromination rate is found on the right column of page 101. Therein, the unreacted double bonds at 5 to 6 ppm are the double bonds of the butadiene (note that the styrene double bonds are found at 6.4-7.3, see figure 1). Thus, it is clear that the bromination rate is of non-aromatic double bonds of the copolymer.
As to claim 12, see tables 1-2, wherein the 1,2-butadiene units are 83 to 92 mol%.
As to claim 13, the bromination agent is tetraethylammonium tribromide reading on the claimed tetraalkylammonium tribromide. See page 101 under results.
As to claim 15, see figure 9, wherein the domains (dark) are much smaller than 5 microns. Note that the domains would be roughly the same even in the event that more polymerized styrenic monomer is added. Also note that while the images are TEM, SEM would show roughly the same domains. Moreover, note that given that the material is identical, it would naturally/inherently have the same domains.
Conclusion
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/MARK S KAUCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764