DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are pending.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected.
Claim(s) 5 is/are withdrawn from consideration.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 1-4) in the reply filed on 03/09/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim(s) 5 is/are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim(s) 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 3-4 is vague and indefinite because the limitation “further comprising recovering the polystyrene-based resin from a manufacturing intermediate material other than the packaging materials” appears to be inconsistent with the requirement in parent claim 1 that both the first recycled raw material and the second recycled raw material are recovered from the resin layer, which is part of the film labels which are part of the packaging materials. Therefore, the parent claims appear to require that the polystyrene-based resin (as either the first recycled raw material or the second recycled raw material) is recovered from the packaging material (which includes the resin layer) while claims 3-4 appear to require that the polystyrene-based resin (as either the first recycled raw material or the second recycled raw material) is NOT recovered from the packaging material (which includes the resin layer).
Claims 3-4 may be subject to rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 after the outstanding rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, are adequately resolved.
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) 1-2 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).
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 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, 0047, 0051-0052, 0090-0095, etc.) (see also corresponding portions of MUTA-JP ‘495-B)
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 a known method of recovering recycled material (as disclosed in MUTA-JP ‘141-B or MUTA-JP ‘495-B) from: (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, 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”; alternatively corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”) and recycled polyester-type resin (corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”; alternatively corresponding to the recited “first 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”; alternatively corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”) and recycled polyester-type resin (corresponding to the recited “second recycled raw material”; alternatively corresponding to the recited “first recycled raw material”) (corresponding to the recited “a resin-based film having at least a core layer including at least the first recycled raw material and the second recycled raw material”).
Regarding claim 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.
Claim(s) 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 claim 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 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 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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Callie Shosho, can be reached on (571) 272-1123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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April 18, 2026
/VIVIAN CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
Prosecution Insights