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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
EXAMINATION NOTE:
Independent claim 1, which is drawn to a thermoplastic resin composition, has set forth the following method of use limitation: “and wherein a sheet having a thickness of 100 µm and formed from the thermoplastic resin composition has a sheet surface maximum height Sz of 5 µm or less, which is measured according to ISO 25178;”. As such, said method of use limitation is deemed to be a moot limitation in regards to both the claimed invention and the following prior-art rejection(s).
Claim(s) 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by WO 2016/032296 A1.
WO 2016/032296 A1 discloses a conductive thermoplastic resin composition for molded articles, the composition comprising a conductive filler and a polycarbonate resin, wherein the conductive filler contains carbon nanotube-modified glass fiber or carbon nanotube-modified glass fiber component (claim 1). WO 2016/032296 A1 further discloses that polycarbonate resin compositions can be used in electromagnetic wave shielding applications (paragraph [3]).
In particular, Applicant’s claims 1-6 are deemed to be anticipated over WO 2016/032296 A1’s Comparative Examples 1 to 3, which describe polycarbonate compositions comprising: 100 parts by weight polycarbonate resin (a thermoplastic resin), HDPE wax, Doverphos antioxidant, and 1 to 5 parts carbon nanotubes (CNT). The CNT are of the type CM-130, which is one of Applicant’s most preferred (CNT) as set forth in (Table 1) of Applicant’s Specification.
Thus, Applicant’s carbon nanotubes requirements (1) and (2) of Applicant’s independent claim 1, are fully met because WO 2016/032296 A1 employs the exact same preferred CM-130 type carbon nanotubes that Applicant uses in their invention. In any case, it is well known in the art that a compound and its properties are in separatable. Furthermore, the same reasoning applies to the CNT’s BET specific surface area according to Applicant’s dependent claim 2, as well as to the CNT volume resistivity according to Applicant’s dependent claim 3.
Furthermore, WO 2016/032296 A1’s HDPE wax component fully meets the limitation of Applicant’s dependent claim 4. Likewise, WO 2016/032296 A1’s polycarbonate resin (a thermoplastic resin) component fully meets the limitation of Applicant’s dependent claim 5. Finally Comparative Examples 1 to 3 teach that after forming the compositions into pellets, the pellets are then subjected to an injection-process to make molded articles, which fully meets the limitation of Applicant’s dependent claim 6. Also see paragraph 1 of WO 2016/032296 A1’s specification wherein forming the compositions into molded articles is directly disclosed.
As an aside only, (see EXAMINATION NOTE), in Table 2 of Applicant’s specification, carbon nanotubes sold under CM-130 have a surface roughness (Ra) that falls within (0.3 to 2.8 nm). As such, if the compositions set forth in WO 2016/032296 A1’s Comparative Examples 1 to 3, where actually subsequently used to be make 100 micron thick sheets containing said CM-130 carbon nanotubes, said sheets would almost certainly have a surface maximum height Sz of 5 um or less, as measured according to ISO 25178 because it is well known in the art that a compound/composition and its properties are in separatable.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH DAVID ANTHONY whose telephone number is (571)272-1117. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 10:00AM-6:30PM.
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/JOSEPH D ANTHONY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764