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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 8, 14, and 15 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 1/7/2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 2/6/2023 and 1/24/2024 have been fully considered. Initial copies of said IDSs are enclosed herein.
Drawings
The drawings filed 11/4/2022 are accepted.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7 and 9-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2005-36081A (herein referred to as Mitsubishi) in view of JP2020015801A (herein referred to as Watanabe).
Mitsubishi teaches a pressure sensitive adhesive composition (See “Solution”) section of translation) comprising a (meth)acrylic ester polymer (A) (see solution section) containing, as a monomer unit constituting the polymer, an ethylene carbonate-containing monomer having an ethylene carbonate structure represented by Formula (1) (0001; formula 3).
Mitsubishi does not teach that the composition should further comprise an ionic compound (b). However, Watanabe discloses an adhesive sheet having an adhesive layer wherein the adhesive layer contains an antistatic agent (abstract). Said antistatic agent is included in the adhesive is 0.1 mass% or more and 10 mass% or less (abstract). The antistatic agent is an ionic compound and may comprise a nitrogen-containing onium salt or an alkali metal salt (see all; page 4; claims 1-4). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to include an ionic antistatic agent, such as an alkali metal salt, to the adhesive layer disclosed in Mitsubishi. The motivation for doing so would have been because teaches such antistatic agent are useful in adhesive compositions in amounts of 0.1-10wt%.
With regards to claim 2, Mitsubishi teaches the pressure sensitive adhesive composition contains 0.5 mass% or more and 40 mass% or less of the ethylene carbonate-containing monomer as the monomer unit constituting the polymer (0006), preferably 2 to 30 mol% (0014) when used as a PSA.
With regards to claim 5, Mitsubishi teaches the pressure sensitive adhesive composition may comprise content of a crosslinker in the pressure sensitive adhesive composition is 0.1 mass parts or less with respect to 100 mass parts of the (meth)acrylic ester polymer (0029). Alternatively, said reference describes that "in adjusting the curable resin composition, the concentrations of the copolymer (A) and the cross-linking agent (B) are not limited, and can be selected from a wide range in consideration of the use, the coating method, the coating thickness, etc." (0029). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to appropriately adjusted the contents of the copolymer and the cross-linking agent in the composition described for the purpose of obtaining desired characteristics.
With regards to claim 6, Mitsubishi teaches a pressure sensitive adhesive obtained by crosslinking the pressure sensitive adhesive composition taught therein (see all; 0030).
With regards to claim 7, Mitsubishi teaches a pressure sensitive adhesive sheet comprising at least a pressure sensitive adhesive layer, wherein the pressure sensitive adhesive layer is composed of the pressure sensitive adhesive taught therein (see all; 0030).
With regards to claims 9-11, Mitsubishi does not explicitly teach the claimed gel fraction or the claimed elastic modulus. However, it is known in the art that the gel fraction and elastic modulus of an acrylic adhesive is a result effective variable controlled by the crosslinking degree of the composition (see e.g. KR 20220136059; 2022209830 A1). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to control the crosslinking degree in the adhesive disclosed in Mitsubishi in order to control the gel fraction and elastic modulus of the composition.
With regards to claim 12, Mitsubishi does not teach the pressure sensitive adhesive sheet should have an adhesive strength to soda-lime glass of 1 N/25 mm or more and 100 N/25 mm or less. However, Watanabe teaches an adhesive laminate wherein the adhesive force of the laminate to the soda-lime glass is 19N/25mm or when the surface on the adhesive layer side of the laminate obtained by laminating the adhesive layer m is attached to the soda-lime glass see all). Such adhesives strength provide better blister resistance. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to optimize the adhesive strength relative to soda glass to above 19N/25mm in order to improve the blister resistance of the composition.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2005-36081A (herein referred to as Mitsubishi) in view of JP2020015801A (herein referred to as Watanabe), as applied to claims above, and further in view of WO2015/132888 (herein referred to as WO).
With regards to claim 13, Mitsubishi teaches a PSA composition, but does not teach applying two release sheets, wherein the pressure sensitive adhesive layer is interposed between the two release sheets so as to be in contact with release surfaces of the two release sheets. However, WO describes an adhesive sheet which includes two release sheets and an adhesive layer sandwiched between the release sheets so as to be in contact with the release surfaces of the two release sheets (Claims 1-6 and Figs. 1-2). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply release sheets to either side of the adhesive taught in Mitsubishi as WO teaches the application of such sheets to either side of and adhesive layer is a known industrial practice.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN R KRUER whose telephone number is (571)272-1510. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/KEVIN R KRUER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787