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 .
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because of its undue length. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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, 2, 4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yokoo (JP2019116087A) in view of Kadota et al. (JP2020059126A) [hereinafter Kadota].
Yokoo discloses wood containing a fireproofing chemical which comprises wood injected with a fireproofing chemical inside (abstract), wherein the wood is structural LVL in which multiple layers of raw material veneers constituted by a section of only sapwood section, a section of only heartwood section or a mixed section of the sapwood section and the heartwood section are laminated in a front and back thickness direction via an adhesive layer (claims 1-4; paragraph [0040]), wherein the raw material veneer is a rotary veneer provided with lathe checks, wherein the longitudinal direction of the wood is substantially coincided with a fiber direction and a lengthwise direction of the lathe checks (paragraphs [0012] and [0027-0029]).
Yokoo fails to teach the wood having injection holes with circular cross section extending in the thickness direction from each of the front and back surfaces of the LVL, wherein the injection holes penetrate a plurality of the raw material veneers and an adhesive layer between the raw material veneers, wherein each of the injection holes on the front and back surfaces is arranged in plural numbers at intervals in a width direction and a lengthwise direction of the LVL, wherein among the injection holes, injection holes from the front surface and injection holes from the back surface are arranged at different positions in the width direction and the lengthwise direction, and wherein all the raw material veneers are provided with the injection holes from at least one of the injection holes from the front surface and the injection holes from the back surface.
Kadota teaches a fire-resistant wood composite material having a LVL structure including injection holes for fire retardant material provided within the LVL structure, wherein the injection holes have a circular cross section extending in the thickness direction from each of the front and back surfaces of the LVL, the injection holes penetrate a plurality of raw material veneers and an adhesive layer between the raw material veneers, wherein each of the injection holes on the front and back surfaces is arranged in plural numbers at intervals in a width direction and a lengthwise direction of the LVL, wherein among the injection holes, injection holes from the front surface and injection holes from the back surface are arranged at different positions in the width direction and the lengthwise direction, and wherein all the raw material veneers are provided with the injection holes from at least one of the holes from the front surface and the holes from the back surface (Figs. 1-4; holes 21 and veneers 20) for the purpose of inserting a fire retardant material into the wood composite material and provide stable fire resistance performance and prevent large cracks from being formed within the wood composite material.
Yokoo and Kadota both teach wood having LVL structure and containing fireproof material. Thus, Yokoo and Kadota are analogous art.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wood structure in Yokoo to include injection holes for the fireproof material wherein the injection holes have a circular cross section extending in the thickness direction from each of the front and back surfaces of the LVL, the injection holes penetrate a plurality of raw material veneers and an adhesive layer between the raw material veneers, wherein each of the injection holes on the front and back surfaces is arranged in plural numbers at intervals in a width direction and a lengthwise direction of the LVL, wherein among the injection holes, injection holes from the front surface and injection holes from the back surface are arranged at different positions in the width direction and the lengthwise direction, and wherein all the raw material veneers are provided with the injection holes from at least one of the holes from the front surface and the holes from the back surface as suggested by Kadota in order to provide stable fire resistance performance and prevent any large cracks from being formed.
Regarding claim 2, Kadota teaches wherein each of the injection holes from the front surface and the injection holes from the back surface are arranged at equal intervals in both the lengthwise direction and the width direction of the LVL, wherein each row of injection holes adjacent to each other in the lengthwise direction of the LVL are arranged at different positions in the width direction, wherein each row of the injection holes adjacent to each other in the width direction of the LVL are arranged at different positions in the lengthwise direction, and wherein the tips of the injection holes from the front surface and the injection holes from the back surface overlap in the thickness direction (Figs. 3-4, holes 21).
Regarding claims 4 and 7, Yokoo discloses the wood can have a length between 1,800 mm to 9,000 mm (1800mm-2450mm; paragraph [0029]) and a thickness of 30 mm (paragraph [0038]). Yokoo further teaches the wood can have a width of 40 mm (paragraph [0038]) which is close to 45 mm. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the width of the wood in Yokoo to be 45mm to 900 mm, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art in absence of showing unexpected results. MPEP 2144.05 (II).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 6 and 8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The cited prior art, Yokoo and Kadota, fail to teach or reasonably suggest the distinct features of “an interval L1 between the injection holes in the fiber direction is 100 mm to 300mm, an interval W1 between the injection holes in the orthogonal direction to fiber is 25 mm to 60 mm, and a ratio of the interval L1 between the injection holes in the fiber direction to the interval W1 between injection holes in the orthogonal direction to fiber is 4:1 to 12:1”, as recited in claims 5 and 8; and the distinct features of “wherein the raw material veneer around the injection holes from the surface has areas on surface-side infiltration where the fireproofing chemical has infiltrated from each of the injection holes in the width direction and lengthwise direction, wherein the infiltration areas on the surface side are arranged on the surface side of the wood in the width direction and lengthwise direction and overlap each other so that no areas remains where the fireproofing chemical is not infiltrated between adjacent infiltration areas, wherein the raw material veneer around the injection holes from the back side has infiltration areas on the back side where the fireproofing chemical has infiltrated from each of the injection holes in the width and lengthwise directions, wherein the infiltration areas on the back side are arranged on the back side of the wood in the width direction and lengthwise direction and overlap each other so that no areas remains where the fireproofing chemical is not infiltrated between adjacent infiltration areas, and wherein the infiltration areas on the front surface side and the infiltration areas on the back side are configured so as to overlap each other so that no areas remains where the fireproofing chemical is not infiltrated between the infiltration areas in the thickness direction”, as recited in claims 3 and 6.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CATHERINE A SIMONE whose telephone number is (571)272-1501. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-4pm.
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CATHERINE A. SIMONE
Examiner
Art Unit 1781
/Catherine A. Simone/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1781