DETAILED ACTION
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 Amendment
Any rejections and/or objections made in the previous Office action and not repeated below are hereby withdrawn.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
No new grounds of rejection are set forth below. Thus, the following action is properly made final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1-4, 6-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al (US 2020/0148881) in view of Yao et al (CN104086593).
Claims 1-2, 4, 6, 9-11: Yu teaches a composition comprising 30 parts by weight of an epoxy resin, 50-125 parts by weight of a maleimide resin such as 3,3′-dimethyl-5,5′-diethyl-4,4′-diphenyl methane bismaleimide, and 1-200 parts of a flame retardant such as di-DOPO [0006-0009, 0054-0056, 0091, table 1]. The ratio of maleimide and flame retardant overlaps the claimed range. The composition further comprises cyanate ester resin or benzoxazine resin, and a curing accelerator imidazole compound and silica.
Yu does not teach the structure of di-DOPO.
However, Yao teaches di-DOPO compounds of formula (2)-(7) provides not only good flame retardant effect, but also high thermal stability and chemical stability to epoxy resin [0011, 0030-0037, 0059-0070, 0108]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to utilize di-DOPO compound of Yao in the composition of Yu because it has better chemical resistance and less plasticizing effect than di-DOPO having vinyl bridge chain without aromatic substituent.
Claim 3: the epoxy resin can be bisphenol A epoxy resin etc. [0028].
Claims 7-8: in view of the examples in table 1, when di-DOPO is included in the composition, the amount of each component would overlap the claimed range.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/31/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant's argument regarding unexpected results, the data have been fully considered, however, they are insufficient to establish unexpected results given that the data is not reasonably commensurate in scope with the scope of claims. The inventive data only contains a specific amount and a specific species of each component as compared to the claimed broad range and genus. Case law holds that evidence is insufficient to rebut a prima facie case if not commensurate in scope with the claimed invention. In re Grasselli, 713 F.2d 731, 741, 218 USPQ 769, 777 (Fed. Cir. 1983).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/WENWEN CAI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763