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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Fagrell, WO 2009/056407.
Fagrell discloses a crosslinkable polyolefin composition. The composition can comprise a first component comprising a polyolefin copolymer including hydrolysable silane groups and polar groups and further comprising a second components which can be a polyolefin copolymer of ethylene and an alpha olefin comonomer. The polymer can be an LDPE copolymer. The polar comonomers can be vinyl carboxylate ester such as vinyl acetate and vinyl pivalate, methacrylates, methacrylic acid, vinyl ethers. See page 19, lines 1-26 and page 33, lines 6-20. The silane compounds can be vinyl trimethoxysilane, vinyl bismethoxyethoxysilane, vinyl triethoxysilane, gamma(meth)acryloxypropylene triethyoxysilane, vinyl triacetoxysilane. See page 21, lines 14-18. The second component can be a polyolefin including C3-C20 alpha olefin. See page 23, lines 24-30 and page 24, lines 1-25. The crosslinking process of the silane crosslinkable polyolefin includes crosslinking in the presence of a silane crosslinking catalysts including tin or sulphonic acid catalysts. See page 36, lines 6-20. The catalyst can be present in amounts of 0.0001-6 wt%. page 37, lines 9-12. The composition can be used as a sheath for a cable conductor. See page 39, lines 17-30. The polyolefin including the polar and silane groups can be present in amounts of 20-98 wt% and the second polyolefin can be present in amounts of 2-50 wt%. see claim 5, page 58. 1-70 wt% of the silane crosslinkable polyolefin can be made up of the monomers including the polar groups. See page 13, lines 12-15. The second component can include a comonomer of ethylene and octene. See page 24, lines 1-9.
Fagrell does not clearly teach the density and MFR of component (b) and , the claimed tensile strength, flexural modulus, or thermal deformation and while it teaches broad ranges it does not teach the exactly claimed ranges.
However, since Fagrell teaches ranges which encompass the claimed ranges, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have selected the optimum or workable ranges within the broad ranges taught by Fagrell for each component in order to provide a composition having the desired properties such as density, tensile strength, flexural modulus and thermal deformation.
Applicant's arguments filed 11/7/25 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the term “ethylene copolymer” would be recognized by one of ordinary skill as requiring that the copolymer must container predominantly ethylene monomers. However “copolymer” is defined as a polymer made from two or more different monomers. The phrase “ethylene copolymer” means that ethylene is a comonomer, but does not define the relative percentage of ethylene. Therefore, the claims as written do not require that ethylene be the primary or predominant monomer in the copolymer.
The Declaration under 37 CFR 1.132 filed 11/7/25 is insufficient to overcome the rejection of claims 1-14 based upon Fagrell as set forth in the last Office action because: as set forth above, by definition a copolymer is a polymer made from two or more different monomers. The phrase “ethylene copolymer” means that ethylene is a comonomer, but does not define the relative percentage of ethylene. Therefore, the claims as written do not require that ethylene be the primary or predominant monomer in the copolymer.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/ELIZABETH M IMANI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1789