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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 10/6/25 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant persuasively argues that the cited art fails to teach the newly added limitation. A new rejection is presented below in response to this amendment.
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 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang et al. (US 2006/0074172) in light of David et al. (US 2016/0370506).
Claim 17: Yang teaches an antireflective hardcoat for a display (Abst.; ¶ 0014) comprising: a glass substrate (¶ 0061) coated with a layer of cured resin which has silica nanoparticles concentrated at an upper surface of the resin (¶¶ 0028-0029; Figs. 1, 5). Yang further teaches that the silica nanoparticles form a continuous self-assembled monolayer (Fig. 1; ¶¶ 0044-0045).
Yang, however, fails to teach that the nanoparticles are one of the claimed materials. David, like Yang, teaches an antireflective hardcoat comprising oxide nanoparticles (Abst.; ¶ 0012) and explains that zirconia can be selected as the nanoparticle in place of silica (¶ 0045). The simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results is prima facie obvious. MPEP § 2143. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of filing to have selected zirconia in place of silica in Yang with the predictable expectation of success.
Claim 18: Yang teaches the same materials (i.e. (meth)acrylate resin and silica nanoparticles (¶¶ 0028-0029, 0041) in the same configuration as those which applicant claims to possess the claimed delta haze properties. Therefore, this property is considered inherent in the hardcoat of Yang.
Alternatively, Yang teaches that the haze of the coating can be adjusted by adjusting the recipe and process conditions (¶0067). Where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. MPEP § 2144.05(II)(A). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of filing to have selected a delta haze of less than 5 with the predictable expectation of success.
Conclusion
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/ROBERT A VETERE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712