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 .
Status of Application
Claims 1-13 are pending and presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
1. Claim(s) 1-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ishii et al. (JP2020030355, of which reference is made to the translation provided by Applicant).
Initially, it is noted that the NI point change value is dictated by the presence of impurities that can leach from the film to contaminate the liquid crystal, such as leaching plasticizer as evidenced in Applicant’s specification at 0010, and it is expected that a film of a polymer, such as a polyvinyl acetal or an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, without plasticizer will exhibit a NI value of approximately 0 as evidenced by Applicant’s Examples 1-7 in Table 1. Therefore, prior art disclosing a film of a polyvinyl acetal polymer or an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer without the presence of impurities, such as leachable plasticizer, will be expected to inherently possess a NI point change of -1 ºC to 1 ºC.
I. Regarding claims 1-5 and 8-13, Ishii teaches a film comprising a polyvinyl butyral thermoplastic resin or an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (0039, and note that an ethylene-vinyl acetate film will have a glass transition temperature less than 55 ºC as ethylene-vinyl acetate polymer has a glass transition temperature between -40 ºC to -20 ºC) and no plasticizer (abstract and 0039), which will inherently exhibit a NI point change of -1 ºC to 1 ºC (see above). Ishii teaches the film for a liquid crystal light adjusting cell (a type of electronic device) and a liquid crystal light adjusting cell apparatus comprising the film (abstract). Ishii teaches all the critical limitations of claims 1-5 and 8-13; therefore, Ishii anticipates the claims.
II. Regarding claims 6 and 7, the Examiner notes that the claims do not require the inclusion of a polyvinyl acetal resin as claims 6 and 7 depend from claim 4 wherein the polyvinyl acetal resin is optional. Thus, claims 6 and 7 only recite further limitations wherein the prior art is being relied on as teaching a polyvinyl acetal-based resin. In this case, Ishii teaches a film comprising no plasticizer and an ethylene-vinyl acetate resin (see above). Therefore, Ishii is teaching an alternative resin and the recitation to further limitations of the polyvinyl acetal-based resin are moot. Therefore, Ishii also anticipates claims 6 and 7.
Conclusion
Claims 1-13 are pending.
Claims 1-13 are rejected.
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/ROBERT S WALTERS JR/
October 29, 2025Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1717