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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 is rejected as being vague and indefinite when the claim recites “viscosity ratio (viscosity at 0.1 s-1/viscosity at 100 s-1) of greater than 7”, because the viscosity as recited is not clearly defined in the present claim and specification as originally filed. Claims 2-14 are also rejected for depending from claim 1 thus inclusion of its indefinite features.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome 112 rejections as set forth above. The claims are allowable over closest prior art Nakano et al (WO 2004/069920, of record, ‘920 hereafter). ‘920 discloses a composition comprising (a) an ionomer that is an acid copolymer comprising ethylene and at least one of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid in a content range of 3 to 25% by weight, wherein a portion of the acid groups in the acid copolymer are neutralized by metal ions such as zinc, sodium and/or the like in a preferred neutralization range of 30 to 85 mol%, and in a preferred content range of 73 to 95.5% by weight with respect to total composition (pages 5-10); (b) an ethylene/unsaturated ester copolymer comprising a combination of vinyl ester (reading upon vinyl acetate) and acrylates, wherein the acrylate content can be 1 to 18% by weigh (pages 7-8, glycidyl (meth)acrylate is an acrylate), and the vinyl easter content range can be 0 to 40% by weight (page 7-8), in a preferred content range of 0.5 to 7 by weight with respect to the total composition (page 10); and (c) a propylene-based polymer comprising a random copolymer of propylene and a comonomer comprising ethylene, butene, hexene, or octene, wherein the propylene-based polymer has a content of comonomer in a range of 0.5 to 10 % by weight, in a preferred content of 4 to 20 % by weight with respect to the total composition (page 9-10). However, ‘920 does not disclose or fairly suggest that the propylene-based polymer is a polymer having a molecular weight distribution (MWD) of less than 3.0, and a viscosity ratio (viscosity at 0.1 s-1 /viscosity at 100 s-1) of greater than 7.0.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUIYUN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-7934. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00-5:00 PM.
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/RUIYUN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1782