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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see the Response, filed 6/23/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made below.
The amendment to claim 1 distinguishes the claim from the claims of copending Application No. 18/309,291, and as such the double patenting rejection of claims 1-2, 9-10, 17-18 and 20 is withdrawn.
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.
Claims 1-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anno (US PGP 2021-0088924) in view of Zenitani (JP 2021-151994).
Anno teaches a carrier comprising a core material, and a coating resin layer that contains inorganic particles (Abstract). The inorganic particles are preferably silica ([0074] line 13). The content of the inorganic particles is 10% to 60% by mass based on the total mass of the coating resin layer ([0013]). The coating resin layer contains an alicyclic (meth)acrylic resin, and a preferable compound for this is 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl (meth)acrylate ([0070]), which contains nitrogen. Anno teaches that the surface coverage of the carrier with inorganic particles is represented by S1, but is silent regarding the preferred value of this measurement for the carrier ([0040]). The average particle diameter for the ferrite core particles is 32 µm (Table 1), the same as the instant application ([0277] line 10-11). Comparing the amount of coating resin and inorganic particles in the exemplary carriers of Anno and those of the instant application, the surface coverage would be expected to be between 10% and 60% by area (Table 2). In particular, Example 4 of Anno includes 0.9 parts of a 7 nm silica particle in 2.1 parts of the coating resin, the same as carrier (1) of the instant application (Table 3), which has a surface coverage, Cb, of the carrier of 30% (Table 4).
Anno teaches an image forming apparatus and image forming method ([0120-126]) comprising charging an image holding member, exposing the image holding member with an exposure device to form a latent image, developing the latent image via a developing device with the toner, transferring the toner image to a recording medium with a transfer device, and fixing the image with a fixing device. The image forming apparatus has a process cartridge comprising the developing device that houses the toner and is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus ([0125]).
Anno is silent regarding silica particles externally added to the toner that contain an elemental nitrogen-containing compound containing molybdenum. Zenitani teaches a silica particle that includes a quaternary ammonium salt (Abstract) that may be used as an external additive for a toner ([0002]). The quaternary ammonium salt is represented by general formula (AM), having a nitrogen atom surrounded by four R groups, and an anion represented by X- ([0009]). Examples of the anion X- include MoO42- ([0063]), and TP-415 which contains molybdenum is a preferable compound ([0041]). The silica particle contains both micropores, having a pore diameter of 2 nm or less, and mesopores, having a pore diameter between 2 nm and 50 nm ([0039]). The quaternary ammonium salt is likely to penetrate into the pores of the silica particles ([0040-41]). The silica particle is also surface treated with an organosilicon compound, which forms a reaction product on the surface of the silica particles, which the quaternary ammonium salt would adsorb to at least part of the pores ([0095]). Examples of the organosilicon compound include multiple trifunctional silane coupling agents ([0099]).
Zenitani is silent regarding a measurement of the ratio NMo/NSi of the net intensities of elemental molybdenum and silicon by X-ray fluorescence. Applicant teaches that when the silica has a pore size distribution having a first peak in the range of 0.01 nm to 2 nm and a second peak from 2 nm to 50 nm, the molybdenum/nitrogen containing compound penetrates deep into the pores in the coating structure ([0142]). As Zenitani shares this feature ([0039-41]), the quaternary ammonium salt in each silica particle is more easily retained, and the loading of the exemplary TP-415 would be similar when added in similar amounts. The exemplary silica particles (A2) of the instant application (Table 1) and Example 3 of Zenitani (Table 1) each contain 4 parts TP-415 to 100 parts silica particles. Therefore, as the structure of the silica particles are similar, and the amount of TP-415 added is the same, the silica particle of Zenitani would be expected to retain a similar amount of the compound and the ratio NMo/NSi would be close to the 0.10 value of the instant silica particles (A2).
The silica particles containing quaternary ammonium salt prevents an increase in electrostatic capacitance, thereby preventing accumulation of static electricity ([0022-23]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the external additives of Anno to have included the surface treated silica particles of Zenitani in order to produce an external additive that prevents an increase in electrostatic capacitance.
Anno teaches the amount of the external additives is preferably 0.01% to 2.0% by mass based on the mass of the toner particles ([0118]). Toner particles (1) have an average particle diameter of 5.7 µm and are mixed with 0.7 parts of the external additive ([0166-167]). These values are similar to Toner D of the instant application, which has an average particle diameter of 6.0 µm ([0265] line 9-10) and 0.6 parts of the external additive (Table 2). Therefore, they would be expected to have a similar surface coverage, Ca, of the silica particles, approximately 15%.
The relationship Ca/Cb for the modified developer of Anno and Zenitani would be expected to fall within the range of 0.25 to 2.0. For example, using the values estimated above with Ca = 15% and Cb = 30%, Ca/Cb = 0.5.
Conclusion
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/J.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1734
/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 08/27/2026
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