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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawahara (US 6,686,405), optionally in view of Uchiumi (US 8,163,212).
Kawahara teaches feeding EVOH into an extruder, where the EVOH before feeding into the extruder can be in the shape of a pellet (col. 11, ll. 4-9), keeping the temperature of the resin in the extruder at 70-170°C, adjusting an amount of water by supplying/removing water into/from the extruder, and discharging the copolymer having a water content right after being discharged of 5-40 wt% col. 10, l. 65 to col. 11, l. 4), where the water content of the EVOH before being fed into the extruder is 0.5-70, preferably 5-60 wt% (col. 11, ll. 11-24). Kawahara teaches adding at least one additive selected from a carboxylic acid, a boron compound, a phosphoric acid compound, an alkali metal salt, and an alkaline earth metal salt in the form of an aqueous solution (col. 11, ll. 57-60).
The ranges of water content before and after contact with the extruder overlap with the claimed ranges of 20-60 wt% and 10-35 wt%, respectively, and it has been held that overlapping ranges are sufficient to establish prima facie obviousness. See MPEP 2144.05.
The resin temperature in the extruder overlaps with the claimed range of 70-180°C, and it has been held that overlapping ranges are sufficient to establish prima facie obviousness. See MPEP 2144.05.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have selected from the overlapping portion of the range taught by the reference because overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness.
Kawahara exemplifies the cylinder of the extruder as having a temperature of 95°C (applicants’ T1) and a rotation degree of 450 rpm; however, does not teach or suggest the temperature of the resin inside of the extruder (applicants’ T0) for this particular example, or a temperature such that applicants’ expression (1) is met.
In the instant specification, applicants disclose that the temperature may be adjusted by changing the screw configuration, the cylinder configuration, the temperature of the EVOH pellets to be fed, the cylinder temperature, the number of screw rotations and the like (see instant specification, [0066]), and exemplifies the following:
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From the examples, it can be seen that increasing the number of screw rotations to greater than 300 rpm results in a difference in the temperature of the T0 and T1. With a cylinder temperature of 95°C, and a screw rotation of 450 rpm, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect the claimed expression, or a difference in T0-T1 to be at least 5, which meets the claimed expression.
Kawahara does not specifically teach the temperature of the EVOH pellets when fed into the extruder; however, Kawahara does not teach heating or cooling the pellets. Therefore, adding the pellets at room temperature (about 20-25°C) is prima facie obvious.
Alternatively, Kawahara teaches that the EVOH can be supplied to the extruder in the form of pellets, where pellets are formed by extruding a composition, cooling in a water batch, and cutting, where cooling is known to take place around 30°C, as evidenced by Uchiumi (col. 29, ll. 5-8). Therefore, supplying the pellets at a temperature of 30°C is prima facie obvious.
Note drying before adding to the extruder is not required.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIEANN R JOHNSTON whose telephone number is (571)270-7344. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached at (571)272-1302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Brieann R Johnston/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766