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 .
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 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sim (WO 2019/078464) in view of Weber (US 2007/0161746) taken in view of the evidence given by Sanyo (Pelectron web article).
It is noted that when utilizing WO 2019/078464 in the above paragraph, the disclosures of the reference are based on US 2020/0354561 which is an English language equivalent of the reference. Therefore, the column and line numbers cited with respect to WO 2019/078464 are found in US 2020/0354561.
Re claims 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, Sim discloses a thermoplastic resin composition comprising 100 parts by weight of a base resin comprising about 60 wt.% to about 90 wt.% rubber-modified aromatic vinyl copolymer (A) and about 10 wt.% to about 40 wt.% polyamide resin (B), about 1 to about 15 parts by weight of poly(ether ester amide) block copolymer, and about 1 to about 20 parts heat resistant vinyl copolymer [11, 25]. The rubber-modified aromatic vinyl copolymer (A) comprises about 20 wt.% to about 50 wt.% rubber-modified aromatic vinyl graft copolymer (A1) that is a core-shell polymer comprising a butadiene rubber core and a styrene-acrylonitrile shell [28-30 and 32-34] and about 50 wt.% to about 80 wt.% aromatic vinyl copolymer (A2) comprising styrene acrylonitrile copolymer [38-42]. It is calculated that there is present 18 to 30 wt.% (0.2*90 – 0.5*60) rubber-modified aromatic vinyl graft copolymer (A1) and 30 to 72 wt% (0.5*30 - 0.8*90) aromatic vinyl copolymer (A2). Although there is no disclosure of the crystallization temperature of the poly(ether ester amide) block copolymer, Sim uses poly(ether ester amide) block copolymer known under the tradename Pelectron AS [96] which as evidenced by Sanyo (see page 11) has a crystallization temperature of 123 C.
Sim discloses the use of a maleimide-aromatic vinyl (styrene)-vinyl cyanide (acrylonitrile) copolymer but does not disclose a maleic anhydride-aromatic vinyl (styrene)-vinyl cyanide (acrylonitrile).
Weber discloses thermoplastic resin composition comprising polyamide, rubber-based graft copolymer, and rubber-free copolymer (Abstract) which is maleimide-styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer as well as a maleic anhydride-styrene-acrylonitrile [95, 97, 102-107].
In light of the disclosure of the equivalence and interchangeability of using maleimide-styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer with using maleic anhydride-styrene-acrylonitrile disclosed by Weber as set forth above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use maleic anhydride-styrene-acrylonitrile as the heat resistant vinyl copolymer of Sim and thereby arrive at the claimed invention.
Re claim 3, Sim discloses the core-shell polymer has average particle diameter of 0.05 to 6 microns [31].
Re claim 5, Sim discloses that the aromatic vinyl copolymer comprises 20-90 wt% styrene and 10-80 wt.% acrylonitrile [41, 43, 46].
Re claim 6, Sim discloses that the aromatic vinyl copolymer has weight average molecular weight of 10,000-300,000 [47].
Re claim 8, Sim discloses the polyamide includes polyamide 6, polyamide 11, etc. [51].
Re claim 9, Sim discloses the poly(ether ester amide) block copolymer is made by reacting components including aminocarboxylic acid, lactam or diamine-dicarboxylic acid salt having 6 or more carbon atoms and C4-C20 dicarboxylic acid [56].
Re claim 11, Sim discloses the use of additives including flame retardant, antioxidant, etc. [78].
Response to Arguments
Applicant acknowledges the teachings of PMI-SAN of Sim but argues there is no motivation to replace the PMI-SAN of Sims with an MAH based copolymer to improve heat resistance and antistatic properties. However, that is the reason the motivation is to improve heat resistance and antistatic properties.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 2023/0133698) discloses thermoplastic resin composition comprising butadiene-based rubber-modified aromatic vinyl cyanide graft copolymer, aromatic vinyl-vinyl cyanide copolymer, polyamide resin and poly(ether ester amide) block copolymer.
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TAMRA L. DICUS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1787
/TAMRA L. DICUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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