DETAILED ACTION
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of group III in the reply filed on 1/02/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 2-6 and 13-16 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected groups/inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse as noted above
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “pattern has an angle with respect to a transvers direction of the web, the angle being in the range of 0.5 to 5 degrees” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
Claim(s) 7-9 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Li et al. (US 2008/0295854).
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Regarding claims 7 and 8, Li et al. disclose a cigarette wrapper having bands or shapes (i.e. patch elements) printed on it (i.e. applied) composed of single or multiple layers (abstract) of an add-on material comprising starch, an anti-wrinkle compound (1,2 propylene glycol or glycerin) and calcium carbonate that is aqueously applied (see Abstract). The material may be added in a variety of shapes (including rectangles) such as the arrangement illustrated in figure 16 (see below). Figure 1 of the instant application is included for comparison.
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Li et al. do not expressly disclose that the patch elements have a diffusivity of 0.0 to 0.2 cm/sec. However, Li et al. disclose that the permeability of the treated regions is between 0 and 10 CORESTA (0102). Li et al. define permeability as volumetric flow rate (cm3/sec) per unit area (cm2) per unit pressure drop (cm of water). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention that in order for the permeability of Li et al. to be 0, the volumetric flow would necessarily be 0 cm3/sec, and therefore any other measure of passage of gas through the membrane would also be zero. In other words, Li et al. disclose an impermeable area, which would also inherently have 0 diffusivity.
Alternatively, the permeation of a gas through a solid is considered to be the diffusion of molecules (the permeant) through the membrane. If Li et al. disclose the permeation with a range starting from 0-10, it would also be obvious to one of ordinary skill that the diffusion of gas molecules would be between 0 and some non-zero amount. The range would necessarily have significant overlap and therefore anticipates the claim.
Regarding claim 9, Li et al. disclose slitting the printed base web and forming bobbins [0096].
Regarding claims 10 and 11, Li et al. disclose a plurality of patch elements in a chevron pattern with an apex of a lagging chevron is transverse of an outer edge portion of a leading chevron (figures 54-56, see figure 56 below).
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2008/0295854) as applied to claim 7 above.
Regarding claims 12, Li et al. do not expressly disclose that the process applies patch elements in a chevron pattern with an angle to the transvers direction of the web of 0.5 – 5 degrees.
However, Li et al. disclose that:
[I]t is seen that the spirally rotated spirally rotated positions of opposed zones of add on material position of the opposed zones of add-on material creates a situation where, regardless of which side portion of the wrapper is placed against the substrate 260, there will always be at least one longitudinal location having film-forming compound at side portions not in contact with the substrate 98 yet having a sufficient add-on amount and geometry that the zones can cooperate with the substrate 260 to self-extinguish the smoking article when the burn line reaches that longitudinal location. This fact results in improved IP performance of the smoking article and permits a smoking article to be designed with an IP value no greater than 25%. Nevertheless, in the absence of a substrate 260, the smoking article does not self-extinguish yet maintains a free-burn, such as when the smoking article is held by a smoker. [0231]
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention would spirally rotate (i.e. offset in the transverse direction of the web) the shapes, including the chevron shape of Li et al., to provide improved reductions in ignition propensity without interfering with smoking as taught by Li et al. The offset illustrated by Li et al. figure 16 above is indicative of slight offsets in the 0.5-5% range because, while the shapes are not illustrated to scale, one of ordinary skill would see that the shapes are not offset by large angles or there would be no overlap in the longitudinal direction. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to make different shapes in the patterns disclosed by Li et al. in a variety of offset angles as long as they provide the result effective variable of reduced IP as described [0231].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL J FELTON whose telephone number is (571)272-4805. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday, Thursday-Friday 7:00-4:30, Wednesday 7:00-1:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael H Wilson can be reached on 571-270-3882. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL J FELTON/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1747