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. 18/260441 by Hara et al.
Claims 1-14 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 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hara et al. (US 2019/0202946 A1), herein referred to as Hara.
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Hara teaches [0028] a hologram recording medium and a hologram (hologram optical element) comprising a photosensitive layer and at least one transparent base material in which the photosensitive layer is formed on the at least one transparent base material. As explained by Hara, the transparent base material [0245-0247] serves as a protective film (protective layer) for the hologram recording medium.
Hara further teaches [0030] the photosensitive layer includes a photopolymerizable monomer (polymerizable compound) and a photopolymerizable initiator (polymerization initiator). Hara indicates [0209-0212] the photopolymerizable initiator includes a radical polymerization initiator (electron-donating initiator) and a cationic polymerization initiator (electron-accepting initiator).
Hara does not explicitly teach the limitation of claims 1 and 10 directed to an initial maximum load on the protective layer measured in a tensile test is 3 N or more and 1000 N or less.
However, Hara does teach a transparent base material that serves as a protective film as discussed above. As discussed by Hara [0245-0247], the transparent base material may have a transparent resin substrate material having a thickness of 0.1 to 100 µm that provides rigidity (high tensile strength). Based on the disclosure of Hara, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to devise a hologram recording medium and hologram optical element having a protective layer with high tensile strength in order to improve peeling of the protective film from the photosensitive layer during formation of the hologram. Therefore, at the time of the filing date of the instant application, claims 1 and 10 would have been obvious in view of Hara.
Regarding claim 2, Hara teaches [0206 and 0228] a binder resin and sensitizing dye are included in the photosensitive composition used in the photosensitive layer.
Regarding claim 3, Hara teaches [0209] a diaryliodonium organic boron complex initiator (electron donating organic boron-salt based initiator) and an aromatic diazonium salt initiator (electron accepting onium salt-based initiator) may be used.
Regarding claim 4, Hara teaches [0245-0247] a polyester film may be used as a material for the transparent resin substrate that is used as a protective film.
Regarding claims 5 and 6, Hara teaches [0177-0178] the photosensitive layer may include a monofunctional carbazole monomer represented by Formula 16 below:
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Regarding claims 7 and 8, Hara teaches [0184-0185] the photosensitive layer may include a photosensitive composition having aromatic hydrocarbon rings that are different from benzene rings. Hara further teaches the aromatic hydrocarbon rings may include at least one naphthalene ring and that a photosensitive compound having two naphthalene rings may be selected.
Regarding claim 9, Hara teaches [0241] the hologram recording medium may include a polyvinyl alcohol film (release layer) provided on one surface of the photosensitive layer and the protective film (protective layer) formed on a second surface of the photosensitive layer.
Regarding claim 11, Hara teaches [0178] the photosensitive composition for the hologram layer may include an acrylate or methacrylate polymer such as 2-(9H-carbazole-9-yl) ethyl acrylate or 9H-carbazole-9-ethylmethacrylate respectively.
Regarding claims 12 and 13, Hara teaches [0002] the holograms discussed above can be used in conventional optical devices in a variety of fields known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hara et al. (US 2019/0202946 A1), herein referred to as Hara, in view of Hiraoka et al. (US 2018/0217311 A1), herein referred to as Hiraoka.
Regarding claim 14, Hara teaches [0028] forming a hologram recording medium and a hologram (hologram optical element) comprising a photosensitive layer and at least one transparent base material in which the photosensitive layer is formed on the at least one transparent base material. As explained by Hara, the transparent base material [0245-0247] serves as a protective film (protective layer) for the hologram recording medium.
Hara further teaches [0030] the photosensitive layer includes a photopolymerizable monomer (polymerizable compound) and a photopolymerizable initiator (polymerization initiator). Hara indicates [0209-0212] the photopolymerizable initiator includes a radical polymerization initiator (electron-donating initiator) and a cationic polymerization initiator (electron-accepting initiator).
Hara does not explicitly teach the limitation of claims 1 and 10 directed to an initial maximum load on the protective layer measured in a tensile test is 3 N or more and 1000 N or less.
However, Hara does teach a transparent base material that serves as a protective film as discussed above. As discussed by Hara [0245-0247], the transparent base material may have a transparent resin substrate material having a thickness of 0.1 to 100 µm that provides rigidity (high tensile strength). Based on the disclosure of Hara, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to devise a hologram recording medium and hologram optical element having a protective layer with high tensile strength in order to improve peeling of the protective film from the photosensitive layer during formation of the hologram.
Hara further does not appear to explicitly teach the limitation of claim 14 directed to selectively reacting the hologram recording medium by using an electromagnetic ray having an amplitude modulated spatially. However, from the same field of technology, Hiraoka discloses [0135-0137] a holographic exposure process for forming a diffraction grating.
In view of claim 14, Hiraoka teaches [0135-0137] performing a holographic exposure process wherein an exposure device comprising spatial filters [0144-0146] is employed to provide recording light (amplitude modulated light) to the hologram recording medium to form the diffraction grating.
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 hologram recording medium taught by Hara to include the method of forming a diffraction grating taught by Hiraoka in order to improve hologram pattern formation and to reduce the occurrence of unwanted light diffractive effects that lead to ghosting.
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Miriam Stagg can be reached at 571-270-5256. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEWART A FRASER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1724
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