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 .
Priority
The foreign priority is not in English, the claims have an effective date of the filing of the PCT: 1/7/22
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/14/25, 9/14/23 has been considered by the examiner. The 9/14/23 IDS that was crossed out contained duplicate references that were on the other 9/14/23 IDS.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 11-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oki (JP 2020203987, English translation provided) in view of Esumi (JP2009184252, English translation provided).
Oki discloses polypropylene resin heat compositions (title, abstract). The film composition may comprise 100% of a propylene/ethylene block copolymer A (para 3 page 2 of translation), wherein this copolymer A meets requirement (a) of: 5-8 wt% elution at temperature range from -20 to 80C, 10-20 wt% elution at temperature range 90-120C, 65-85% elution at temperature range 110-120C and 3-6wt% elution at temperature range from 140-150C (last paragraph page 2 through first paragraph page 3). These are measured using a temperature gradient interaction chromatography method (last paragraph page 2). Though the packing material of the TGIC isn’t disclosed, this chromatography method eludes different parts of a polymer at different temperatures, and, since Oki embraces the mass% ratio of 15-28 wt% over a very wide temperature range (-20 to 120C), which includes the claimed 70-95C range, it is the examiners position that this embraces the same polymer fractions as eluded by the TGIC of claim 1 [meeting requirement 1]. Additionally, the Tm of the polymer is exemplified to be 119.7C (last paragraph page 4) [meeting requirement 3].
Oki includes elements set forth above. Oki does not disclose the cold xylene soluble fraction of the polypropylene film. Esumi discloses polypropylene film compositions (title, technical field), thus akin to Oki. Esumi discloses that the cold xylene soluble fraction is preferably 1-10% by mass (page 4 para 2). Esumi discloses that when the cold xylene soluble part is less than 1% by mass, the propylene layer is inferior in toughness and cleavage occurs, and, when the cold xylene soluble part exceeds 10% by mass the film surface may become sticky and blocking may occur.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include in Oki the use of 1-10 mass% cold soluble xylene portion, as taught by Esumi, in order to improve toughness, decrease cleavage and minimize sticking and blocking in the film [meeting requirement 2].
Elements above meet claim 1 wherein the propylene/ethylene copolymer A may be 100% of the film composition. Elements above meet claims 3-4 and 11. Since the composition and use as a film are met by the above, it is the Examiner’s position the Youngs modulus is embraced by the prior art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 5-10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including 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: Oki stands as the closest prior art to the TGIC elution amount measured at 70-95C in a range of 10-28 mass%. Oki only embraces the use of 100% of propylene/ethylene copolymer (e.g. a single polymer), meeting claim 1, because it is unclear if the TGIC requirements would be met in Oki when using a blend comprising other polymers. Oki does not disclose blends having the above properties, only the single propylene/ethylene block copolymer, thus a composition comprising 2 olefin polymers (claims 2, 5, 6-10) is not suggested or disclosed.
Other close prior art includes: US 2012/0227469 that discloses TGIC using graphitic carbon to determine the mol% octene in a copolymer and WO2017040127 that discloses chromatography of polymers using TGIC wherein.
Conclusion
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/ALICIA BLAND/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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