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 .
This is the initial office action for US Patent Application No. 18/260345 by Ozawa et al.
Claims 1-12 are currently pending and have been fully considered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-3 and 6-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagate (US 2009/0291247 A1) in view of Kiyoyanagi et al. (WO 2010137501 A1), herein referred to as Kiyoyanagi. A machine translation of Kiyoyanagi is referenced below.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Nagate teaches [0009, 0022, Figure 3, Claims 1-5] the formation of an optical recording medium and a holographic pattern for an optical lens (hologram diffraction grating, Figure 3, feature 3). The optical recording medium comprises [0023] a transparent resin layer (base material) and a recording layer (photosensitive layer) [0038]. The transparent resin layer taught by Nagate [0027] has an oxygen transmission rate (oxygen permeability) of more than 0.1 cm3/m2*d*atm and less than 1000 cm3/m2*d*atm.
Nagate does not appear to explicitly teach the limitations of claims 1 and 12 directed to the claimed polymerizable compound used in the photosensitive layer as represented by general formula (1).
However, from the same field of technology, Kiyoyanagi discloses a photosensitive resin composition that is used for making optical elements. In view of claims 1 and 12, Kiyoyanagi (Abstract) teaches an energy ray-curable (photosensitive) resin composition containing a compound having a carbazolyl group and a photopolymerization initiator. As seen in Formula (1) of Kiyoyanagi, the photosensitive resin composition may include compounds having a carbazole chemical structure as shown below:
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Kiyoyanagi further teaches (Chemical structures A-1, A-2 and A-5 below) the photosensitive resin composition may include carbazole derivatives that satisfy the chemical structure limitations recited in claims 1 and 12:
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At the time of the filing date of the instant application, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the formation of an optical recording medium and holographic pattern taught by Nagate to include the photosensitive resin compositions taught by Kiyoyanagi in order to form an improved optical recording medium and holographic pattern for an optical lens that reduces unwanted light scattering defects. By combining the transparent resin layer of Nagate with the photosensitive resin compositions taught by Kiyoyanagi, one of ordinary skill in the art would achieve predictable results and reduce possible occurrences of chemicals eluting from the optical recording medium during long duration exposure to light.
In view of claims 2 and 3, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teach photoinitiator compounds that satisfy claims 2 and 3.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teaches (Nagate [0121]) a binder can be included in the photosensitive layer.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teaches (Chemical Structures in Kiyoyanagi) wherein Y1 and Y2 in the general formula (1) are not simultaneously a benzene ring.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teaches (Nagate [0027]) the oxygen transmission rate (oxygen permeability) can be configured to be in the claimed range.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teaches (Kiyoyanagi) the polymerizable compound is polymerized.
Regarding claims 10 and 11, the combination of Nagate and Kiyoyanagi teaches the formation of optical device and optical component (Nagate optical recording media can be formed).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 5 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior art does not teach or suggest the limitations of claims 4 and 5 wherein the optical recording medium comprises a photosensitive layer comprising the formula:
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEWART A FRASER whose telephone number is (571)270-5126. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 7am-4pm, EST.
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/STEWART A FRASER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1724