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 .
Response to Amendment
Claims 1-4 and 6-14 are pending, claim 5 having been cancelled, claims 6-10 and 12 having been withdrawn and claim 14 having been newly added. Applicant's response dated November 6, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-4, 11, 13 and 14 will be examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The rejection of claims 3-5 and 13 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, are withdrawn based on Applicant’s amendments to the claims.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 13 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2015/0298360 to Fullana Font et al. (“Fullana”) in view of JP2013-028880A to Nagatani et al. (see machine translation).
As to claims 1-4, Fullana discloses an ink recovery method comprising detaching and removing, from a plastic substrate having an ink film, the ink film by using an ink cleaning agent containing water and a mixture of surfactants (see Fullana paragraphs [0021], [0033] and claims 1, 4 and 5 disclosing removing ink from a plastic film using a cleaning solution comprising a mixture of water and surfactants like hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide or dodecyl sulfate), and then recovering the detached ink film (see Fullana paragraphs [0024]-[0025], [0035]-[0036]).
Fullana does not explicitly recite that the surfactant can be an amphoteric surfactant containing at least one compound represented by the recited formula (1a) or (1a-1). Nagatani discloses that surfactants represented by the recited formula (1a) and (1a-1) are known surfactants for removing ink from a substrate (see Nagatani Formula A-1 and machine translation paragraphs [0008], [0021] where R1 can be an alkyl group having 8-24 carbon atoms or an alkenyl group having 8-24 carbon atoms, R2 and R3 can be a methyl group – where said recitations appear to meet the recited formula (1a) and (1a-1)). Nagatani further discloses that a nonionic surfactant can be further contained (see Nagatani paragraph [0014] where both the amphoteric surfactant and a nonionic surfactant can be used). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to use the surfactants, including the amphoteric surfactant and nonionic surfactant disclosed by Nagatani as the deinking surfactants since Nagatani discloses that said surfactants are known surfactants for removing ink (see Nagatani machine translation paragraph [0008]). Further, with respect to claims 3 and 4, the combination of Fullana and Nagatani discloses that the alkylcarboxybetaine skeleton amphoteric surfactant can have n representing 10 or more (see Nagatani paragraph [0021] where n can be more than 10 carbon atoms).
As to claim 13, the combination of Fullana and Nagatani discloses an ink film detaching method comprising detaching and removing, from a plastic substrate having and ink film by using an ink cleaning agent used in the ink film recovery method according to claim 1 (see Fullana paragraphs [0021], [0033], claims 1, 4 and 5; see also rejection to claim 1 above).
As to claim 14, the combination of Fullana and Nagatani discloses that the ink film can be used on various types of printing materials including reels and rolls of plastic film (read as multiple ink films) (see Fullana paragraphs [0017], [0021]).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2015/0298360 to Fullana Font et al. (“Fullana”) in view of JP2013-028880A to Nagatani et al. (see machine translation) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of DE102012208219A1 to Schwarz et al. (see machine translation).
Fullana and Nagatani are relied upon as discussed above with respect to the rejection of claim 1.
As to claim 11, the combination of Fullana and Nagatani does not explicitly disclose that the ink film is detached by using the ink cleaning agent having a temperature of 50C or higher. Schwarz discloses that it is known in the art to heat the cleaning solution (see Schwarz machine translation paragraphs [0030] and [0037]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to heat the cleaning agent to 50C or higher as disclosed by Schwarz for advantageous cleaning (see Schwarz machine translation paragraphs [0030] and [0037]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed November 6, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
As discussed in the rejection above, the cited prior art discloses that a mixture of surfactants are known in the art to remove ink from plastic films (see Fullana). Further, Nagatani discloses that it is known in the art to use amphoteric and nonionic surfactants for removing ink. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to use the surfactants, including the amphoteric surfactant and nonionic surfactant disclosed by Nagatani as the deinking surfactants since Nagatani discloses that said surfactants are known surfactants for removing ink (see Nagatani machine translation paragraph [0008]). While Applicant’s arguments that amphoteric surfactants removing ink better than nonionic surfactants, Applicant’s results do not appear to compare with the closest prior art of the surfactant mixture disclosed by Fullana. It is further noted that the claims do not preclude the use of cationic or other surfactants since the claims are open-ended.
Conclusion
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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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/DOUGLAS LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1714
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