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
The preliminary amendment filed on July 13, 2023 has been entered. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 8 and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 8, line 1, the term “Protective” should be changed to -- The protective --.
In claim 10, line 3, the term “4-(Phenylthio)” should be change to -- 4-(phenylthiol) --.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
In claim 1, line 1, the terms “A protective colloid, raw materials constituting the protective colloid” is indefinite in that it is unclear if a colloid is being claimed or the raw materials that form the colloid is being claimed. For purposes of this Office Action, claims 1-10 are being interpreted as being a protective colloid formed from the raw materials set forth in claims 1. That is, claim 1 is being interpreted as though it readds as “A protective colloid formed from raw materials
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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, 5-6, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 110669465 in view of CN 105219339. Machine translations of CN ‘465 (claims) and CN ‘339 (disclosure) are attached to this Office action.
Regarding claim 1, CN ‘465 discloses a viscous adhesive glue, i.e., colloid, that comprises 1-30 wt% of an epoxy-modified acrylate (claims 1 and 4); 2-10 wt% of heat expansion microspheres (claim 1), 20-50 wt% of an active acrylic monomer (claim 1), and 0.5-2 wt% of a photoinitator (claim 1). CN ‘465 does not disclose the use of (a) a plasticizer, (b) a cationic photoinitator, or (c) the specifically claimed amounts of the epoxy-modified acrylate. With respect to (a), CN ‘339 discloses a UV curing liquid glue that includes a plasticizer in an amount within the claimed range (line 43). With respect to (b), CN ‘339 discloses the use of a cationic photoinitator (line 89). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have prepared the colloid of CN ‘465, wherein a plasticizer is included within the presently claimed amount and a cationic photoinitator is used, as taught in CN ‘339, motivated by the desire to obtain a colloid having desire viscosity and curing properties. With respect to (c), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have used an epoxy-modified acrylate within the presently claimed amount, since, as set forth in MPEP 2144.05, when the general conditions of a claim are disclosed, discovering workable ranges by routine experimentation is not inventive.
Regarding claim 2, CN ‘465 discloses that the heat-expandable microspheres will expand at 110ᵒC [0007] and viscous glue is mixed well which infers homogenous distribution of the particles and microspheres in the viscous adhesive glue [0026].
Regarding claim 5, CN ‘465 discloses magnetic particles present in an amount of 2-4 wt% (claim 1).
Regarding claim 6, CN ‘465 discloses that the magnetic particles are iron carbide (claim 1).
Regarding claim 10, CN ‘339 discloses that the cationic photoinitator can be diphenyliodonium hexafluorophosphate (lines 94-95).
Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 110669465 in view of CN 105219339 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Niwa et al. (US Pub 2013/0199732).
CN ‘465 as modified by CN ‘339 does not disclose the use of heat-expandable particles comprising an outer shell and a physical foaming agent inside the outer shell. Niwa discloses an adhesive composition that comprises heat-expandable particles comprising an outer shell [0116] having a physical foaming agent inside the outer shell [0119]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have prepared the colloid of CN ‘465 as modified by CN ‘339, wherein the heat-expandable particles comprises an outer shell having a physical blowing agent contained therein motivated by the desire to effectively control the volume expansion of the heat-expandable particles, as taught by Niwa.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-20 are allowed.
Claims 7-9 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: With respect to claims 7 and 8, none of the prior art of record disclose or suggests the claimed protective colloid that further comprises a fluorescent agent present in an amount between 0.1-0.5wt%. With respect to claim 9, none of the prior art of record disclose or suggests, the claimed protective colloid wherein the plasticizer and active monomer are selected for the materials set forth in claim 9. With respect to claims 11-20, none of the prior art of record disclose or suggests the claimed method of using the claimed protective colloid comprising the claimed steps S1, S2, S3, and S4.
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/BLAINE COPENHEAVER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1781