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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4/14/2026 has been entered.
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 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lawrence (WO 02/11965 and US 2006/0269738) in view of D’Souza for "Innovative High Strength Glass Microspheres for Extruded and Injection Molded Plastics”.
Lawrence discloses a process for manufacturing a building panel, such as a floor panel, comprising a core, comprising:
providing a core material comprising a thermoplastic material, a filler and hollow microparticles (paragraphs 0001, 0002, and 0013);
applying heat and pressure to the core material to form the core (paragraph 0131); and
laminating a top layer to the core (paragraph 0129),
wherein the filler comprises an inorganic filler,
wherein a degree of microparticles in the core is 3-50 vol%.
However, Lawrence does not explicitly teach how much filler is in the core. However, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to optimize the amount of filler in the composite (paragraph 0037). “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.” In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235
Lawrence does not teach that the strength of the hollow microparticles exceeds 14 MPa. A person of ordinary skill in the art to choose a quality of hollow microparticles to be present in the floor panel; when doing so, it is considered that the skilled person would select a crushing strength of at least 14 MPa for glass microparticles (Table 1).
With respect to claim 21, Lawrence teaches extruding a composite material to form a sheet (paragraph 0131).
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 1-11 and 13-19 are allowed.
5. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art does not teach nor suggest calendaring the claimed sheet after extruding the core material.
6. Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SONYA M SENGUPTA whose telephone number is (571)272-6019. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9:30am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Philip Tucker can be reached at 571-272-1095. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SONYA M SENGUPTA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1745
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