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 Arguments
In their response dated 12/23/2025 the applicants amended independent claims 1 and 5 to overcome prior art rejection. However, updated search resulted in references which will be applied in new grounds of rejection.
In their amendment applicants also argued the combination of references as applied in the obviousness rejection. Examiner agrees with applicants and as a result new grounds of rejection will be restated rendering this office action as non-final.
The examiner would like to note that the applicants while addressing the obviousness rejection referred to the amendments made to independent claims 1 and 5. Claims rejected under obviousness rejection were independent claims 7 and 10. While examiner acknowledges the amendments to claims 1 and 5, the same amendments were not made to claims 7 and 10.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kang (US 2015/0005410).
With respect to claims 1 and 5, Kang discloses flame retardant thermoplastic copolymer comprising ethylenically unsaturated monomers. The phosphorus containing monomer of Kang has following formula I:
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Wherein m is an integer from 1 to 10, integer n can be 0, and R2 is methyl. For m being 8, Kang meets the required monomer of instant claim 5. In the preferred embodiment the phosphorus part of the formula 1 is 9,10-dihydro, 9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene [0027]. A block made from the monomer of formula 1 above will meet the polymer having structural formula of instant claim 1.
With respect to claims 3 and 4, the composition comprises additional flame retardants and other additives as described in [0018], composition is utilized to make a molded article [0009]. The method of making an article includes casting, which in turn will form film or a sheet [0046].
Claims 1, 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jang (us 2014/0187688).
With respect to claims 1 and 5, Jang discloses composition comprising monomer having formula 1 as follows:
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Wherein m is an integer from 1 to 10, integer n can be 0, and R2 is methyl. For m being 8, Kang meets the required monomer of instant claim 5. In the preferred embodiment the phosphorus part of the formula 1 is 9,10-dihydro, 9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene ([0039] see also examples). A block made from the monomer of formula 1 above will meet the polymer having structural formula of instant claim 1. Monomer of formula 1 of Jang can be polymerized with other acrylate based monomers. These monomers include allyl methacrylates [0082].
With respect to claim 3, the composition of Jang is flame retardant (Abstract).
With respect to claim 4, composition of Jang is used in casting, which in turn indicates formation of film or a sheet [0109]. The article has high transparency and refractive index [0009].
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.
Claims 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Nakano (JP 2015-074740) in view of Komura (JP 63-211253 translation attached).
With respect to claim 7, Nakano discloses copolymer where mixture of acrylate monomers is polymerized in situ with phosphoric acid ester (claims 1 and 2 of Nakano).
The acrylate monomers of Nakano are selected from acrylates comprising one vinyl group with methyl methacrylate as main component and small amount of acrylates having two vinyl groups. As such methyl methacrylate and acrylates having two vinyl group are viewed as copolymerizable monomers.
Acrylate bearing one vinyl group include acrylates based on propyl (meth)acrylates, butyl (meth)acrylates, and higher alkyl (meth)acrylates. The monomers can be utilized in combination of two or more [0014]. The compounds listed in the office action meet the limitation of integer p of the instant claim 7. Acrylates of Nakano meet the limitation of the instant formula (III) because it is well established that acrylate esters bearing vinyl group the location of the vinyl group on the hydrocarbon forming ester functionality. Consequently the vinyl group will be located on, for example, butyl chain of the acrylate monomer.
In any event, these monomers are polymerized in situ with phosphonic acid ester group. Since chemical structure of phosphonic acid ester has not been disclosed in instant claim 7, any phosphorous or phosphonic acid ester group will meet the claims. The vinyl ester of the acrylate has 1-9 carbon atoms.
While Nakano discloses various vinyl bearing monomer which encompass C1-C9, however C8 is not explicitly recited.
With respect to claim 8, Komura discloses newly synthesized acrylate monomer also bearing a vinyl group wherein the compound has following formula:
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The compound of Komura can be utilized as a raw material for copolymerization of synthetic monomers.
As such, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time instant invention was filed to utilize acrylate of Komura bearing vinyl group along with the monomers of Nakano. The monomer of Komura also bears vinyl group which indicates that it would be subject to the same reaction scheme as the vinyl groups bearing acrylates of Nakano. The reactivity of the vinyl group will be the same in the compound of Komura will be the same or better as the reactivity of the vinyl groups in Nakano based on the distance from the polymer backbone. Additionally, the length of the monomer in Komura is within the bounds of C1-C9 of Nakano. Additionally as Komura indicated in addition to good reactivity, the polymers utilized 7-octyl (meth)acrylate the final polymer will have better flexibility between vinyl and methacryloyl groups (see Means of solving the problem section of Komura).
With respect to claim 9, component a of the copolymer of Nakano comprises monomers a-1 and a-2, wherein component a-1 (the component of interest) is 99.6-99.9% of the copolymer [0009].
Within component a-1, MMA constitutes at least 50% of the monomers, which means that the content of the vinyl monomer can be at most 50% [0020].
Component b which is phosphonic acid ester and is utilized in an amount of 0.1-0.4 parts. By way of examples for approximately 77 parts of total monomer (Table 1), the content of phosphoric acid ester is utilized in amount of approximately at 11 parts. Having said that MMA is at least 50% of the monomer a, preferably at least 85% of monomer a, as such the content of vinyl monomer at most 50% which equates to 38 parts at 50% of MMA and 11.55 parts at 85% of MMA. This would emcompass 1:1 ratio of vinyl acrylate to phosphonic acid acrylate.
With respect to claim 13, Nakano teaches polymerization of MMA and vinyl monomer in presence of phosphonic acid ester is conducted in presence of radical initiator [0033].
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Nakano (JP 2015-074740) in view of Komura (JP 63-211253 translation attached).
With respect to claim 10, Nakano discloses flame retardant composition comprising a copolymer where mixture of acrylate monomers is polymerized in situ with phosphoric acid ester and antioxidant (claims 1 and 2 of Nakano). The composition is utilized to make molded articles (claim 13).
The acrylate monomers of Nakano are selected from acrylates comprising one vinyl group with methyl methacrylate as main component and small amount of acrylates having two vinyl groups. As such methyl methacrylate and acrylates having two vinyl group are viewed as copolymerizable monomers.
Acrylate bearing one vinyl group include acrylates based on propyl (meth)acrylates, butyl (meth)acrylates, and higher alkyl (meth)acrylates. The monomers can be utilized in combination of two or more [0014]. The compounds listed in the office action meet the limitation of integer p of the instant claim 7. Acrylates of Nakano meet the limitation of the instant formula (III) because it is well established that acrylate esters bearing vinyl group the location of the vinyl group on the hydrocarbon forming ester functionality. Consequently the vinyl group will be located on, for example, butyl chain of the acrylate monomer.
In any event, these monomers are polymerized in situ with phosphonic acid ester group. Since chemical structure of phosphonic acid ester has not been disclosed in instant claim 7, any phosphorous or phosphonic acid ester group will meet the claims. The vinyl ester of the acrylate has 1-9 carbon atoms.
Nakano discloses various vinyl bearing monomer which encompass C1-C9, however C8 is not explicitly recited.
With respect to claim 11, Komura discloses newly synthesized acrylate monomer also bearing a vinyl group wherein the compound has following formula:
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The compound of Komura can be utilized as a raw material for copolymerization of synthetic monomers.
As such, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time instant invention was filed to utilize acrylate of Komura bearing vinyl group along with the monomers of Nakano. The monomer of Komura also bears vinyl group which indicates that it would be subject to the same reaction scheme as the vinyl groups bearing acrylates of Nakano. The reactivity of the vinyl group will be the same in the compound of Komura will be the same or better as the reactivity of the vinyl groups in Nakano based on the distance from the polymer backbone. Additionally, the length of the monomer in Komura is within the bounds of C1-C9 of Nakano. Additionally as Komura indicated in addition to good reactivity, the polymers utilized 7-octyl (meth)acrylate the final polymer will have better flexibility between vinyl and methacryloyl groups (see Means of solving the problem section of Komura).
With respect to claim 12, component a of the copolymer of Nakano comprises monomers a-1 and a-2, wherein component a-1 (the component of interest) is 99.6-99.9% of the copolymer [0009].
Within component a-1, MMA constitutes at least 50% of the monomers, which means that the content of the vinyl monomer can be at most 50% [0020].
Component b which is phosphonic acid ester and is utilized in an amount of 0.1-0.4 parts. By way of examples for approximately 77 parts of total monomer (Table 1), the content of phosphoric acid ester is utilized in amount of approximately at 11 parts. Having said that MMA is at least 50% of the monomer a, preferably at least 85% of monomer a, as such the content of vinyl monomer at most 50% which equates to 38 parts at 50% of MMA and 11.55 parts at 85% of MMA. This would encompass 1:1 ratio of vinyl acrylate to phosphonic acid acrylate.
Conclusion
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/KATARZYNA I KOLB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1767 January 23, 2026