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 .
Applicant’s amendment dated 17 December 2025 is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 as amended are pending, with claim 4 withdrawn. All outstanding objections and rejections made in the previous Office Action, and not repeated below, are hereby withdrawn.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.
New grounds of rejection set forth below are necessitated by applicant’s amendment filed on 17 December 2025. For this reason, the present action is properly made final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1, 6, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP H09-110925 A (“Ito”).
As to claims 1, 6, and 7, Ito teaches acetoacetyl group modified PVA particles (translation, p. 1). Ito teaches measuring the acetoacetyl group over a range of particle sizes, including 4-74 and 74-105 micrometers (essentially less than 105 micrometers), 105-177 micrometers, 177-297, 297-500, and 500 to 1680 micrometers, approximately corresponding to 177 to 600 micrometers, and greater than 1600 micrometers. Ito further teaches that the saponification degreeis preferably 75 to 99 mol percent (para. 0014), which encompasses the recited range. As such, Ito teaches the desirability of both the saponification degree.
While Ito does not exemplify the recited ratio of highest to lowest acetoacetyl group of less than 1.2 in conjunction with the recited saponification degree, examples of Ito such as example 5, para. 0045, suggest a ratio of highest to lowest concentration over similar ranges of 1.2. Moreover, Ito suggests a range of highest to lowest concentration of 1.0 to 3.0, which includes below 1.2, 1.15 and 1.13 (para. 0010). Ito suggests numerous ways of obtaining the recited distribution, including removal of particles having high degree and low particle size (para. 0012). As such, obtaining a particulate acetoacetyl modified PVA resin of the recited acetoacetyl distribution and saponification degree is an obvious modification suggested by Ito for providing a resin of good clarity.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP H09-110925 A (“Ito”) as applied to claim 1, further in view of JP 2010-168500 A (“Nishikawa”).
As to claim 3, Ito does not specifically discuss the wt % of particle sunder 105 micrometers. However, Ito suggests numerous ways of obtaining the recited acetoacetyl group distribution, including removal of particles having high degree and low particle size (para. 0012). The examples of Ito, further show that the particles below 105 micrometers have the highest acetoacetyl group concentration, and as such, an obvious way of reducing the distribution width would be to reduce the particles under 105 micrometers. Furthermore, Nishikawa teaches that using PVA particles with low amounts of small particle size (under 150 micrometers) for acetoacetylation provides improved transparency (para. 0041), including using PVA resins of 5 wt % of particles under 150 micrometers, thus less than 5 wt % of particles under 105 micrometers (Nishikawa, Table 1).
Thus, given the similarity of the teaching of Ito and Nishikawa as to the desirability of providing uniform acetoacetylation, it would be an obvious modification to the composition of Ito, including using PVA with very low amounts of particles below 105 micrometers, including in the recited range, to achieve uniform acetoacetylation and thus good clarity/transparency.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 17 December 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant points to the examples of Ito, suggesting that obtaining the recited saponification degree could not be carried out using the acetoacetylation technique of Ito. However, Ito clearly teaches the desirability of an even distribution of acetoacetyl groups among particle sizes. While the examples do not simultaneously show the recited distribution ratio and saponification degree, it is noted that example 3 of Ito has a very close distribution ratio of 1.3 even at 96 mol percent saponification. Moreover, Ito clearly discusses means, other than by the acetoacetylation itself, to change the distribution ratio by simply removing particles of low particle size and higher degree of acetoacetylation. As such, even though not exemplified, the teachings of Ito are believed to give sufficient guidance to obtain the distribution ratio within the recited saponficiation degree.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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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/KREGG T BROOKS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764