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 .
This office action is in response to applicant’s claims filed on November 17, 2022. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: the last line contains “10 ounces (mass)/yard2 (or less than or equal 339.08 g/m3)” which is redundant. Only 1 unit of measurement is needed. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. The terms “intimate” in claims 1 and 16 and “low” in claims 1,15 and 16 are relative terms which render the claim indefinite. The terms “intimate” and “low” are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For examination purposes, the examiner interpreted “intimate” to be any physical contact and “low” to be any ambient lighting. Claims 2-14 and 17-20 are also rejected for being dependent upon claims 1,15 or 16 and inheriting the same deficiency.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, Claim 4 recites the limitation "comprises one or more tinting colorants" in lines 2-3. Claim 1 already requires at least one foaming surfactant and at least one foam stabilizer. Applicant should amend claim 4 to recite “further comprises” to clarify the claimed additives are in addition to the at least one foaming surfactant and at least one foam stabilizer of claim 1.
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.
Claims 1-14,16,17,19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nair (US 2021/0190289) in view of Nair (US 10,920,032).
Nair ‘289 teaches a method of making patterned light-blocking element comprising providing a decorative fabric having a face side and a back side (paragraph 0021) wherein the decorative fabric has a face side which may or may not comprise any desired image, raised texture, quilting, embossed design or printing (optional prefabricated visible relief pattern having raised and recessed regions on at least a portion of the face side of the fabric, applicant’s step A, paragraph 0063). Nair ‘289 teaches applying an aqueous foamed opacifying composition to the back side of the fabric (applicant’s step B, paragraph 0022) and drying the disposed foam aqueous opacifying composition to provide a dried foam opacifying layer (applicant’s step C, paragraph 0023). Nair ‘289 teaches densifying the dried foamed opacifying layer to reduce its thickness by at least 20% compared to its original thickness (paragraph 0026) by applying pressure through compression calendaring, pressing or embossing and passing the embossing fabric through nip rollers under pressure (intimate contact between a pair of pressure rollers (applicant’s step D, paragraph 0146). Nair .289 teaches a foam density of 0.1-0.5 g/cm3 for the foamed aqueous opacifying composition (abstract).
Nair ‘289 teaches the aqueous foamed opacifying composition 0.1-35 weight % porous particles based on the dry foamed weight of the opacifying layer (paragraph 0089), and porous particles comprising a continuous polymeric phase and discrete pores dispersed within the continuous polymeric phase, the porous particles having a mode particle size of at least 2µm and up to and including 50 µm and a porosity of at least 20 volume % and up to an including 70 volume % based on the weight of the aqueous foamed opacifying composition (applicant’s a, paragraph 0163). Nair ‘289 teaches the binder matrix in an amount of 15 weight % and up to and including 70 weight % (applicant’s b, paragraph 0164), two or more additives in an amount of 0.0001 weight % and up to and including 30 weight % comprising at least one foaming surfactant and at least one foam stabilizer (applicant’s c, paragraph 0165), and an opacifying colorant in an amount of at least 0.001% the opacifying colorant being different from all of the other porous particles, binder matrix, and two or more additives wherein the opacifying colorant absorbs electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength of at least 380 nm and up to 800 nm (applicant’s e, paragraph 0167). Nair ‘289 teaches the opacifying colorants comprise 0.001 up to an including 0.5% based on the weight of the aqueous foamed opacifying composition (paragraph 0129). Nair ‘289 teaches two or more additives comprising, biocide and thickener (paragraph 0102). Nair ‘289 teaches the prepared articles are printable on the decorative surface, indicating printing after full fabrication including after curing (paragraph 0052).
Nair ‘289 teaches the foamed aqueous composition is disposed directly on the back side of the fabric and dried to a dry coverage of 1000 g/m3, particularly at least 100 g/m3 up to and including 500 g/m3 (paragraph 0139). Nair ‘289 teaches embossing and densifying at a temperature of 20°C up to an including 120°C and at a pressure of 34.5-1376 kPa (34.5-1379 kN/m, paragraph 0147). Nair ‘2898 teaches embroidered or Jacquard (paragraphs 0063-0064, 0179, claim 9).
Nair ‘289 does not specify the fabric has coverage such that in low ambient light, backlighting impacting the embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer is blocked everywhere except in at least some of the recessed regions of the visible relief pattern so that an outline of the visible relief pattern is visible when viewed from the face side of the fabric. Nair ‘289 does not teach disposing, drying and curing a non-foamed functional composition on the embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer (applicant’s steps E and F). Nair ‘298 does not teach the amounts of the porous particles, binder, two or more additives and opacifying colorant including carbon black in amounts based on the total weight of the cured, embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer or the optical density of the patterned light blocking element.
Nair ‘032 teaches that when preparing light-blocking articles opacifying layers are covered with a functional composition comprising glass particles such as hollow glass particles for providing release function, anti-blocking function and enhances the feel (abstract, column 22, line 60 to column 23, line 10).). Nair ‘032 teaches the opacifying layer has 0.1-40 weight % porous particles based on the dry foamed weight of the opacifying layer (paragraph 0089), and porous particles comprising a continuous polymeric phase and discrete pores dispersed within the continuous polymeric phase, the porous particles having a mode particle size of at least 2µm and up to and including 50 µm based on the weight of the foamed densified and cured opacifying composition (applicant’s a, paragraph column 19, lines 35-45; column 20, lines 25-35). Nair ‘032 teaches the binder matrix in an amount of 10 weight % and up to and including 80 weight % (applicant’s b, column 19, lines 47-55), one or more additives in an amount of 0.0001 weight % and up to and including 50 weight % comprising at least one of foaming surfactants, foam stabilizers, tinting colorants and biocides (applicant’s c, column 19, line 57-column 20, line 15), and an opacifying colorant in an amount of at least 0.002% and up to 2% the opacifying colorant being different from all of the other materials in the opacifying layer wherein the opacifying colorant absorbs electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength of at least 380 nm and up to 800 nm (applicant’s e, column 20, lines 35-44; column 4, lines 36-41). Nair ‘032 teaches carbon black opacifying colorant in an amount of at least 0.002 weight % and up to an including 1 weight % to exhibit an optical density of 4 or greater (column 20, lines 52). Nair ‘032 teaches the non-foamed (stable aqueous dispersion, foaming optional) functional layer on the opacifying layer at a coverage of at least 0.5 g/m2 and up to and including 10 g/m2 (column 22, lines 27-59) to provide an anti-blocking function when applied (column 22, line 60 to column 23, line 10).
Nair ‘032 teaches the hollow glass particles of the non-foamed functional layer have an average particle size of at least 20 µm up to and including 60µm (column 23, lines 12-34) that are present in an amount of 10 weight % up to an d including 80 weight % based on the weight of the functional composition(column 23, lines 42-46) and a water soluble or water dispersible organic polymeric binder (column 25, lines 26-45).. Nair ‘032 teaches the functional composition is sprayed directly onto the opacifying layer (column 26, lines 43-45).Nair ‘032 teaches drying and curing the functional composition (column 29, lines 10-35). Nair ‘032 teaches porous particles in the opacifying layer comprising one or more cellulosic polymers having a Tg of at least 100°C up to and including 170°C and a mode particle size of at least 3µm up to and including 40µm (column 9, lines 4-46). Nair ‘032 teaches carbon black incorporated in porous particles is an improvement in the art (column 2, lines 62-67).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Nair ‘298 by incorporating claimed porous particles, binder, foaming surfactant, foam stabilizer, opacifying colorant and carbon black based on the total weight of cured, embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer as Nair ‘032 teach each of these components at the claimed ranges based on the total weight of cured, embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer are effective at producing similar light-blocking fabrics for the same benefit of controlling light passage through a coated fabric substrate and producing a decorated fabric with a desired image or pattern.
It would have been obvious to modify the methods of Nair ‘298 by spraying a non-foamed functional composition at the claimed coating coverage onto a foamed embossed and densified opacifying layer followed by drying and curing wherein the functional coating includes the claimed (aa) glass particles and (ad) water-soluble or water-dispersible binder to produce a pattern of the claimed optical density as Nair ‘032 teaches it is effective to add the non-foamed functional layer containing the claimed hollow glass particles adhered with the claimed binder for the benefit of providing release function, anti-blocking function and enhancing the feel of the fabric and Nair ‘032 teaches the opacifying composition exhibits an optical density of at least 4 or at least 5.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Nair ‘298 by using cellulosic porous particles with the claimed Tg and particle size as Nair ‘032 teaches cellulosic porous particles with a Tg of at least 100°C up to and including 170°C and a mode particle size of at least 3µm up to and including 40µm are conventionally used as porous particles containing discrete pores and voids in opacifying layers. It would have been further obvious to use porous particles with carbon black incorporated in them as Nair ‘032 teaches these particles are an improvement in the art of light-blocking. Using known particles demonstrated for the same purpose in a method also for that same purpose would be obvious to try through routine experimentation.
It would have been obvious to have a visible relief pattern of Nair’289 on only a selected portion of the embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer or on the entire surface of the of the embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer as the choice of coverage would simply be a design choice the desired pattern on the final product.
Regarding the claimed limitation that the fabric has coverage such that in low ambient light, backlighting impacting the embossed and densified foamed opacifying layer is blocked everywhere except in at least some of the recessed regions of the visible relief pattern so that an outline of the visible relief pattern is visible when viewed from the face side of the fabric, this would be a design choice and an expected property of the same decorative fabrics treated with the same opacifying and non-foamed functional compositions by identical methods. Application of the opacifying layer and the non-foamed functional layer are recognized to impact the light blocking and light transmission and based on the pattern of application of these chemicals to the fabric, the claimed outlining effect would be achieved. The outline is determined by the design of coatings applied which could be varied as a design choice based on the desired aesthetic look of the final fabric.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nair (US 2021/0190289) in view of Nair (US 10,920,032) and further in view of Zafiroglu (CN 1717320A).
Nair ‘289 and Nair ‘032 are relied upon as set forth above. .
Nair ‘289 and Nair ‘032 do not teach s continuous patterned embossing belt situated between the pair of nip rollers.
Zafiroglu teaches that when embossing fabric, it is effective to create raised and recessed areas (abstract) by using a textured embossed fabric or a embossing belt with nip rollers to produce the embossing pattern (page 13 last paragraph to page 14, paragraph 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Nair ‘289 and Nair ‘032 by using a textured embossed fabric or a embossing belt with nip rollers to produce the embossing pattern as Zafiroglu teaches this is an effective way of embossing fabric wo produce raised and recessed areas. Substituting a known effective method of embossing for another known effective method is obvious to produce the same recessed and raised regions. Further using a continuous patterned embossing belt is a design choice to produce a continuous pattern on the opacifying layer.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMINA S KHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm EST.
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/AMINA S KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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