DETAILED ACTION
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 1-4 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sakurai et al. (EP 1468785).
Sakurai et al. teaches a polishing pad produced by dispersing B-cyclodextrin, which meets the (A) cyclic molecule that contains three or more side chains each having at a terminal thereof an active hydrogen-containing group of instant claims 1-4, into a crosslinking agent to obtain a dispersion; mixing the dispersion with a polyisocyanate or an isocyanate terminated urethane prepolymer, and reacting the mixture to obtain a polishing pad. Express examples of crosslinking agent are diols, including diols having a molecular weight which falls within the range of instant claim 5, such as, for example, 1,6-hexanediol. See ¶33. It is noted that 1,6-hexanediol is used in Example 5 (see ¶110) and has a molecular weight which meets instant claim 5. Sakurai expressly teaches that the crosslinking agent has a molecular weight not higher than 1,000 (¶41).
Sakurai teaches that the dispersion further includes an amine catalyst (¶52), which meets (D) of instant claim 1. The dispersion is reacted to form a cured product, which is a polishing pad. See ¶54 and ¶61.
In Example 5, the diol is used in an amount of 11.065 based on the components corresponding to the (A) instantly claimed cyclic molecule that contains three or more side chains each having at a terminal thereof an active hydrogen-containing group (i.e. 2.5 parts by weight cyclodextrin in Example 5 of Sakurai), (B) the urethane prepolymer (86.7 parts by weight of urethane prepolymer in Example 5 of Sakurai), (C) diol (11.1 parts by weight 1,6-hexanediol in Example 5 of Sakurai), and (D) the amine containing monomer (which is 0.015 parts by weight accelerator in Example 5 of Sakurai; see ¶52 of Sakurai). The total of these components in Example 5 is 100.315. Normalizing this to 100 requires dividing each component by 1.00315, meaning the amount of diol in Example 5 is 11.065 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the components corresponding to (A), (B), (C) and (D) of instant claim 1, which falls in the range of instant claim 7.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shimizu et al. (WO 2019/198675). It is noted that WO 2019/198675 has a publication date of 10/17/2019. Because WO 2019/198675 is not in English, the US English equivalent, US 2021/0155736, is cited below and is attached.
Shimizu et al. ‘736 teach a polishing pad (see claim 14) made from a urethane composition (¶27) that is a curable composition (¶62). The urethane composition comprises a urethane prepolymer (B2) having an iso(thio)cyanate group at an end of a molecular thereof and a polyrotaxane (A) having a plurality of cyclic molecules clathrating an axial molecule, in which side chains having an active hydrogen are introduced and a polyfunctionali active hydrogen containing compound (C2) (abstract).
Shimizu teaches an example where PEG-COOH is clathrated with cyclodextrin followed by reaction with propylene oxide to give a hydroxylated polyrotaxane with a modification degree of 0.5 (¶248-257). Reaction with propylene oxide gives a side chain with an active hydrogen group (-OH). As a cyclodextrin is a macrocycle of glucose (typically 6-8 glucose units) and glucose has three OH groups, a modification degree of 0.5 (or 50%) means half of the OH groups have been modified, which, when the cyclodextrin has 6 glucose units, is about 9 OH groups per cyclodextrin. This compound (A) of Shimizu meets component (A) of instant claims 1 and 3-4.
Shimizu teaches an example where urethane prepolymers are formed by reacting diisocyanates with polyoxyteteramethylene glycol (Table 1) which gives an isocyanate group at both terminals. The urethane prepolymer (B2) of Shimizu meets component (B) of instant claim 1.
Shimizu teaches examples in which the urethane composition comprises (CA) amino group containing compounds (¶287-289) and (CH) diols (¶290-294) corresponding to components (D) and (C) of the instant claims, respectively. It is noted that both the instant specification (pg. 36, ¶ 126) and Shimizu (¶287) teach using MOCA 4,4’-methylene bis(o-chloroaniline) as an embodiment of the amine component.
Shimizu teaches examples where components (A), (B2), (CA), (CH) and hollow particles are used together (Table 5, examples 12-13, 17-18) to form the urethane composition. This meets the limitations of instant claims 1 and 8.
The hydroxypropylated polyrotoxane of Shimizu has an Mw of 50,000 (¶257). While the Mw does not correspond to the claimed Mn of claim 2, one of ordinary skill in the art would instantly envisage that a molecule with a Mw of 50,000 has a Mn of greater than 300 due to the size of the Mw. Alternatively, cyclodextrin has a molecular weight greater than 300 prior to modification, and thus a hydroxypropylated polyrotoxane derived from cyclodextrin also has a Mn greater than 300. This meets instant claim 2.
Shimizu teaches the examples use PTMG650 (Table 5, ¶290) which is a diol having a molecular weight of 650 (¶290). This meets instant claim 5.
Shimizu teaches the prepopolymer used in Table 5 is Pre-2 (Table 5) which has an isocyanate equivalent of 905 (Table 1) which meets instant claim 6.
Example 13 uses 100 parts (A), 1447 parts (B2), 62.1 parts (CA), and 108.6 parts (CH) (Table 5) which is a total of 1717.7 parts. This gives 108.6 parts of the diol component per of 1717.7 of the components corresponding to and meeting components (A), (B, (C), and (D) of instant claim 1. Normalizing these amounts so that the total of components corresponding to and meeting components (A), (B, (C), and (D) of instant claim 1 is 100 parts part by weight, makes the normalized amount of diol about 6.3 parts by mass. This meets instant claim 7.
Shimizu teaches the hollow particles included in the urethane composition are preferably composed of a urethane-based resin (¶224) which meets claims 8-9. The composition containing these particles is polymerized and cured (¶223). The hollow particles have a size which meets “fine” hollow particles. See ¶226.
Shimizu teaches obtaining a cured product (¶62, 168, 222) and a polishing pad (abstract) from the cured product which meets claims 10-11.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to K. B BOYLE whose telephone number is (571)270-7338. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 am to 5pm, Monday - Friday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/K. BOYLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766