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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claim 8 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected method, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on January 8th, 2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-7) in the reply filed on January 8th, 2026, is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3 and 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Akaishi et al (JP2019218460A). Akaishi is read from an English machine translation which has been placed in the Application file.
With regards to claim 1, Akaishi discloses a thermoplastic polyester elastomer foamed product comprising a foamed layer (i.e., a molded body comprising a foamed portion including a foamed layer) surrounded on both sides by non-foamed skin layers (i.e., a skin layer A, a foamed layer, and a skin layer B are disposed in this order in a thickness direction) (Akaishi: abstract; page 6, “The foam molded article of the present invention usually has a sandwich structure having a non-foamed skin layer on both sides of a foamed layer…; Fig. 2). According to Sample 11 (i.e., Comparative Example 2), the foamed product has a thickness of 4.3 mm, and each non-foamed skin layer has a thickness of 320 microns (i.e., 0.32 mm), which gives a ratio of thickness of the foamed layer, with respect to a total thickness of the foamed layer and the skin layers, of 85% (i.e., (4.3 mm – 0.32 mm – 0.32 mm) / 4.3 mm = 0.85, or 85%), which is within the claimed range of 73% to 88% (i.e., thereby anticipating the claimed range) (Akaishi: see Table 1 of the original, untranslated reference).
With regards to claim 2, Sample 11 of Akaishi exhibits an average diameter of cells of 192 microns (i.e., 0.192 mm), which is within the claimed range of 0.18 mm to 0.34 mm (i.e., thereby anticipating the claimed range) (Akaishi: see Table 1 of the original, untranslated reference).
With regards to claim 3, as can be estimated from Figure 2B of Akaishi (provided below, with an additionally drawn box scaled to 1 mm2), the foamed layer of Akaishi includes approximately 38 cells per mm2 (Akaishi: Fig. 2B).
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With regards to claim 5, it is noted that the language “wherein cells included in the foamed layer are in a state of being oriented in a thickness direction” is rather broad, in that only “a thickness direction” need be used as a reference for measurement (i.e., technically, the foamed layer of Akaishi extends in three separate directions which are all thickness directions), and paragraph [0064] of the present specification defines the orientation as an aspect ratio of 1.01 or more (i.e., which is met by a subset of cells according to visual inspection of Figure 2B of Akaishi) (Akaishi: Fig. 2B).
With regards to claim 6, each of the thicknesses of the skin layer A and skin layer B are 0.32 mm (see above discussion).
With regards to claim 7, Akaishi discloses its molded body as used in an automobile part (Akaishi: page 2, “BACKGROUND ART: Thermoplastic polyester elastomers….”).
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.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akaishi et al as applied to claim 1 above.
With regards to claim 4, Akaishi does not appear explicit as to a maximum cell diameter of 0.84 mm or less. However, Akaishi more broadly cautions against average cell diameters of above 500 microns (i.e., 0.5 mm), as load resistance becomes low and rebound resilience tends to be low (i.e., as best understood, this property appears to be a property of individual cell diameters) (Akaishi: page 6, “The foam layer is composed of an elastomer continuous phase…”). Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have avoided cell diameters above 500 microns (i.e., implying a range of 10 microns to 500 microns, or 0.01 mm to 500 mm as disclosed in Akaishi), in order to improve load resistance and rebound resistance (see above discussion). Alternatively, Akaishi teaches cell diameter as a result-effective variable having motivation to optimize or adjust (i.e., a person of ordinary skill would have desired low cell diameters in order to improve load resistance and rebound resistance), and therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have optimized cell diameter (see above discussion).
Conclusion
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/E.W./
Examiner, Art Unit 1783
/MARIA V EWALD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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