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
Applicant’s election without traverse of a method for producing a polymer composition including modified polymers having a boron-containing functional group in the reply filed on October 6, 2025 is acknowledged.
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 and 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tai (US 2003/0018114) and further in view of Kang (US 5,080,835).
Tai is directed to a method for producing a polymer composition including a compatibilizer C, wherein said compatibilizer is a hydrocarbon polymer containing a polar group (Paragraphs 8 and 109). More particularly, (a) said hydrocarbon polymer can be styrene (aromatic vinyl compound) or butadiene (conjugated diene compound) (Paragraph 110) and (b) said polar group can be a boron-containing polar group (Paragraph 112). Tai also states that the polar group can be a boronic acid ester group, including boronic acid diisopropyl ester group and boronic acid dicyclohexyl ester group (Paragraphs 127 and 130). In terms of the claimed Taft’s steric parameter, an isopropyl group and a cyclohexyl group constitute inventive groups having Taft parameters of -0.47 and -0.79, respectively (see Paragraph 101 in Applicant’s published specification).
With specific respect to the method of forming said compatibilizer, Tai teaches a method of subjecting a monomer that can form a polyhydrocarbon moiety to living polymerization and utilizing a monomer having the polar group or a group than can form the polar group as a terminator or end treatment agent (Paragraph 113+- method (3)). While Tai fails to provide specific details of this method, the claimed steps are consistent with those associated with forming modified polymers via living polymerization. Kang , for example, recognizes the use of a metal compound (as a catalyst) to carry out anionic polymerization of styrene or butadiene, for example, to form living polymers and the subsequent introduction of functional groups to form a modified polymer (Column 8, Lines 15+). One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to carry out the first and second steps of the claimed invention as they are consistent with method (3) disclosed by Tai, as evidenced by Kang.
Regarding claim 2, Tai recognizes the use of several complexes that constitute a mixture of a polar compound and a boric acid compound, including a borane-tetrahydrofuran complex and a borane-triethylamine complex (Paragraph 136). These mixtures are consistent with those detailed by Applicant (Paragraph 112 in published specification).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN R FISCHER whose telephone number is (571)272-1215. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00.
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Justin Fischer
/JUSTIN R FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749 January 8, 2026