DETAILED ACTION
Status of Application
This Office action follows a reply filed on 02/12/2026. Per the reply, claims 1 and 13 have been amended and claim 5 has been cancelled. No new claims have been added. Accordingly, claims 1-4 and 6-17 remain pending and under examination herein.
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 .
Withdrawn Rejections
The outstanding provisional rejection on nonstatutory double patenting grounds has been obviated by the proper terminal disclaimer filed on 02/12/2026 disclaiming the terminal part of the statutory term of any patent granted on the instant application which would extend beyond the expiration date of the full statutory term of any patent granted on pending reference Application No. 18/715,547.
The outstanding rejection of claims 1, 4, 7-9, 14 and 15 under 35 U.S.C. 103 over Kim is withdrawn in view of the amendment to base claim 1 and Applicant’s related arguments, see pages 7-8, filed 02/12/2026.
The outstanding rejection of claims 10-12 under 35 U.S.C. 103 over Kim as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Takarada also is withdrawn in view of the amendment to base claim 1.
Claim Rejections – 35 U.S.C. 102/103
Claims 2 and 16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Kim (KR10-1955755 B1; citing to machine translation, of record).
The basis of the rejection and the Examiner’s position regarding the applied art are adequately set forth in the previous Office action (see pp. 7-8), and that explanation is incorporated herein by reference.
Claims 3 and 17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Takarada (US 2013/0123417 A1).
The basis of the rejection and the Examiner’s position regarding the applied art are adequately set forth in the previous Office action (see pp. 8-9), and that explanation is incorporated herein by reference.
Claim 6 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takarada (US 2013/0123417 A1).
The basis of the rejection and the Examiner’s position regarding the applied art are adequately set forth in the previous Office action (see p. 9), and that explanation is incorporated herein by reference.
Response to Argument
Applicant’s arguments filed 02/12/2026 have been fully considered but they are deemed unpersuasive with respect to the repeated rejections supra.
Applicant generally argues that the rejections under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103 should be withdrawn in view of the amendment to independent claim 1, which now expressly recites
that the pressure-sensitive adhesive comprises a cross-linked crystalline acrylic copolymer (Reply, p. 7).
Examiner disagrees because, firstly, the amendment to independent claim 1 in no way affects the scope of either claim 2 or 3, each of which is also drafted in independent form. Thus, the limitation added to base claim 1 cannot serve as a basis for distinguishing the other two independent claims herein over the applied art, nor those dependent claims depending from either claim 2 or claim 3 (i.e., claims 6 and 16-17). Further as to claim 3, the limitation to “crystalline acrylic copolymer” is taught by Takarada as detailed on page 8 of the previous Office action. Finally, it is noted that the Reply presents no specific traversal argument(s) directed to the substantive disclosure of either Kim or Takarada.
Accordingly, for the above reasons, the continued rejections of claims 2-3, 6 and 16-17 are still deemed tenable and therefore must be maintained.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4 and 7-15 are allowed.
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 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.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner F. M. Teskin whose telephone number is (571) 272-1116. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Robert Jones, can be reached at (571) 270-7733. The appropriate fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/uspto-automated- interview-request-air-form.
/FRED M TESKIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
/FMTeskin/03-05-26
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