DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
Claim(s) 1-12 is/are pending.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected.
Claim(s) 7-12 is/are withdrawn from consideration.
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 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.
Response to Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-10) in the reply filed on 06/18/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species (a)(i) and (b)(i) in the reply filed on 06/18/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the election of species requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claim(s) 7-10 is/are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention or species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 03/09/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 (AIA )
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over:
• MARUICHI ET AL (US 2009/0202851),
in view of JP 6849141-B (MUTA-JP ‘141-B) or JP 6904495-B (MUTA-JP ‘495-B).
MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 disclose a method of making a heat-shrinkable multilayer film, wherein the heat-shrinkable film comprises:
• an outer surface layer comprising a polyester-type resin;
• an adhesive layer comprising a polyester-based elastomer;
• an intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) comprising a polystyrene-type resin, wherein the intermediate layer further comprises film trimmings from the manufacture of said heat-shrinkable film and/or recycled films as a recycle material.
(entire document, e.g., Figure 3, etc. ; paragraph 0001, 0004, 0012, 0068, etc.) However, the reference does not specifically discuss the method of producing recycled material.
MUTA-JP ‘141-B and MUTA-JP ‘495-B disclose that it is well known in art to produce recycled material (Pf) or (Pr) from printed packaging material (P) (e.g., printed heat-shrinkable labels, etc.) (corresponding to the recited “resin layer including thermoplastic resin as a main component and a print layer”), wherein the process of producing recycled material comprises:
(a) removing the printing ink from printed packaging material (P) (e.g., comprising polystyrene resins, polyester resins, etc.) (corresponding to the recited “separating the print layer from at least either the packaging materials or the pieces of the packaging materials, thereby obtaining at least either the resin layer from which the print layer has been removed or the pieces of the resin layer from which the print layer has been removed”);
(b)-(c) cutting and crushing the de-inked packaging material (corresponding to the recited “cutting at least either the packaging materials or the resin layer from which the print layer has been removed into pieces”);
wherein the resulting recycled material (Pf) or (Pr) is suitable for being incorporated back into at least one layer (I) in heat-shrinkable films. The recycled material (Pr) optionally also contains virgin resin. The heat-shrinkable films can have a layer (II) / layer (I) / layer (II) structure, wherein layer (II) (corresponding to the recited “surface layer”) does not contain recycled material (Pf) or (Pr), thereby allowing the multilayer heat-shrinkable film which has surface properties (e.g., gloss, slipperiness, printing properties, etc.) comparable to conventional heat-shrinkable films which do not contain recycled material. (MUTA-JP ‘141-B, paragraph 0011-0012, 0014, 0021-0030, 0041, 0047, 0051-0052, 0090-0095, etc.) (see also corresponding portions of MUTA-JP ‘495-B)
Regarding claims 1-2, 6, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a known method of recovering recycled material (as disclosed in MUTA-JP ‘141-B or MUTA-JP ‘495-B) from conventional sources -- for example: (i) previously used film labels (e.g., printed and applied to containers, etc.) made from the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851; and/or (ii) production scrap (e.g., waste from the manufacturing process of the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851); as recycled material for the intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to minimize waste generation and reduce usage of non-renewable feedstocks.
Further regarding claim 1, 6, since:
(i) the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 contains both polystyrene-type resin and polyester-type resin, recycled material made from the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 contains recycled polystyrene-type resin (corresponding to the recited “first recycled raw material”) and recycled polyester-type resin (corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”);
an intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 containing recycled material and/or scrap produced from the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 would contain both recycled polystyrene-type resin (corresponding to the recited “first recycled raw material of a first thermoplastic resin”) and recycled polyester-type resin (corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material of a second thermoplastic resin which is different from the first thermoplastic resin”) (corresponding to the recited “a core layer including at least the recycled raw material”).
Further regarding claim 1-3, since: MUTA-JP ‘141-B and MUTA-JP ‘495-B discloses that the recycled material can be blended with virgin resin; one of ordinary skill in the art would have incorporated effective amounts of one or more non-recycled versions of the thermoplastic components of the intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 (e.g., polystyrene resin) (corresponding to the recited “first virgin raw material”) in the intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to dilute the concentration of the recycled material and thereby: (1) maintain the desired performance properties (e.g., mechanical strength; optical properties, shrinkage properties; etc.), especially for particularly demanding applications; and/or (2) prevent excessive accumulation of contaminants from the recycled material.
Further regarding claim 1-2, one of ordinary skill in the art would have utilized non-recycled polyester resin (corresponding to the recited “virgin raw material of thermoplastic resin”) to form the surface layer in the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to: (i) provide surface properties (e.g., appearance, print quality, etc.) comparable to heat-shrinkable films made entirely from non-recycled resins.
Regarding claim 4, one of ordinary skill in the art would have selected the relative amounts of recycled material and virgin material in the recycled raw material to reduce or minimize the amount of recycled polyester resin (corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”) in the intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to obtain the required performance properties (e.g., mechanical strength; optical properties, shrinkage properties; etc.) for particularly demanding applications.
Regarding claim 5, one of ordinary skill in the art would have selected the relative amounts of recycled raw material and virgin materials in the intermediate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to obtain the required performance properties (e.g., mechanical strength; optical properties, shrinkage properties; etc.) for particularly demanding applications.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over:
• MARUICHI ET AL (US 2009/0202851), in view of JP 6849141-B (MUTA-JP ‘141-B) or JP 6904495-B (MUTA-JP ‘495-B),
as applied to claims 1-2 above,
and further in view of FUJII ET AL (US 2009/0042024).
FUJII ET AL ‘024 discloses that it is well known in the art to utilize non-recycled polyester resin as printable surface layer(s) on one or both sides of a substrate layer (corresponding to the recited “core layer”) containing recycled material in order to avoid the presence of recycle contaminants which adversely affect printability and/or surface appearance of printed heat-shrinkable labels. (paragraph 0002, 0005, 0008-0009, 0012-0013, 0019-0020, etc.)
Regarding claims 1-2, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use non-recycled thermoplastic resin (corresponding to the recited “first virgin raw material”) to form the surface layer(s) in the heat-shrinkable film of MARUICHI ET AL ‘851 in order to produce heat-shrinkable labels capable of supporting high quality printing with reduced defects (as suggested in FUJII ET AL ‘024).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
ONISHI (US 2021/0308994) and WO 2020/080026 and YAMADA ET AL (US 2008/0057236) and YAMADA ET AL (US 2008/0026170) disclose multilayer heat-shrinkable films containing core layers comprising polyester and polystyrene resins.
SHELBY ET AL (US 2013/0292305) and TABOTA ET AL (US 6,663,929) disclose methods of recycling bottles with heat-shrinkable labels.
FROST ET AL (US 2014/0107307) and SUKA (US 5,824,709) disclose recycled polystyrene resins.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Vivian Chen (Vivian.chen@uspto.gov) whose telephone number is (571) 272-1506. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 6 PM. The examiner can also be reached on alternate Fridays.
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August 8, 2026
/VIVIAN CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
Prosecution Insights