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 .
Response to Amendment
All outstanding rejections, except for those maintained below, are withdrawn in light of applicant’s amendment filed on 4/22/2026.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior office action.
No new grounds of rejection are set forth below. Thus, the following action is properly made final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brandstetter (US 9,115,276) in view of Seitl (EP 1 477 525).
The rejection is adequately set for in paragraph 4 of Office action mailed on 1/27/20206 and is incorporated here by reference.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/22/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Specifically, applicant argues that Brandstetter is not combinable with Seitl because Seitl uses less inorganic filler than Brandstetter.
To be clear, the amount of inorganic filler in Brandstetter is not reduced in the 103 rejection. Case law holds that the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981). In this rejection, Brandstetter teaches that the xylene soluble part of the heterophasic propylene copolymer has intrinsic viscosity of 1.5-3.5 dl/g (col. 15, lines 51-54) which overlaps with the claimed range 1.53-1.89 dl/g at the lower end. Seitl is relied upon to motivate one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize that lower end of the range already taught by Brandstetter. Seitl teaches that lower intrinsic viscosity values such as 1.8 dl/g or less reduce CLTE because they have lower molecular weight. Because lower intrinsic viscosity values provide reduced CLTE as taught by Seitl and because Brandstetter also wants low CLTE, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the lower intrinsic viscosity range of Brandstetter, i.e., 1.5-1.89 dl/g.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VICKEY NERANGIS whose telephone number is (571)272-2701. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 am - 5:00 pm EST, Monday - Friday.
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/VICKEY NERANGIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763
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