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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see the Response, filed 8/4/2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-9 and 11-20 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) and 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 of rejection is made below.
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 1-9 and 11-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arai (US PGP 2022-0206403) in view of Zenitani (JP 2021-151944).
Arai teaches a toner comprising toner base particle and an external additive containing the perovskite compound strontium titanate, containing lanthanum (Abstract). In addition to the strontium titanate particles, the external additive may contain other particle such as silica particles ([0106]). Exemplary toners 1-25 contain 1.0 part by mass of a silica particle ([0194] line 1-3, [0195]). The amount of the strontium titanate particles varies from 0.1 to 2.5 parts by mass (Table 1). The total content of the perovskite compound particles and the silica particles is therefore between 1.1 and 3.5 parts based on 700 parts by mass of the toner particles. The mass percentage of the silica particle with respect to the total mass of the perovskite compound particles and the silica particles for Example 2 is 1.0/2.0 = 50% and for Example 7 is 1.0/1.8 = 56% ([0194], Table 1). The average primary particle size of the strontium titanate particles is 8 to 40 nm ([0093]), and exemplary particles have sizes of 20 nm, 25 nm, and 40 nm (Table 1). Arai further teaches that the toner may be used as part of a two-component developer ([0128]).
Arai is silent regarding an elemental nitrogen-containing compound containing molybdenum included in the silica particle. However, Zenitani teaches a silica particle that includes a quaternary ammonium salt, a nitrogen containing compound (Abstract). The quaternary ammonium salt contains an anion ([0059]), which may be MoO42- ([0063]). The compound TP-415 is used in Example 3 (Table 1), which is the same compound used in the instant application for the nitrogen-containing compound containing molybdenum (Table 2). Zenitani teaches that the silica particles include both micropores, having a pore size of 2 nm or less, and mesopores, having a pore size of 2nm to 50nm ([0044]). The silica particle also has a surface treatment step with an organosilicon compound ([0095]), which would react on the surface of the silica particle to form a coating structure. Since the quaternary ammonium salt is also added to the surface of the silica particles, it would be expected to adhere to the coating structure. Examples of the organosilicon compound include silane coupling agents, such as the alkyltrialkoxysilane methyltrimethoxysilane ([0099]). Zenitani is silent regarding an X-ray fluorescence analysis to determine a ratio NMo/NSi of the net intensity of elemental molybdenum to net intensity of elemental silica, however, the addition amount of the TP-415 in Example 3 of Zenitani is 4 parts to 100 parts of silica, and the addition amount of the TP-415 in (S2) of the instant application is 3 parts to 100 parts of the silica, so it can be assumed that the ratio NMo/NSi would be slightly higher than the 0.11 value of (S2), and within the claimed range of 0.035 to 0.45 (Zenitani Table 1, Applicant Table 2). The average particle diameter of the silica is preferably 5 nm or more and 100 nm or less and the average circularity of the silica particle is 0.65 or more and 0.90 or less ([0053]). The silica particle containing the 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 Arai to have included the surface treated silica particles of Zenitani in order to produce an external additive that prevents an increase in electrostatic capacitance.
The diameter of the strontium titanate particles is 8 to 40 nm and the diameter of the silica particles is 5 to 100 nm, therefore, with the significant overlap in the ranges, a ratio D2/D1, of the diameter D2 of the silica particles to the diameter D1 of the titanate particles of 0.50 to 1.70 would easily be produced by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Claims 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arai and Zenitani as applied to claims 1-9 and 11-16 above, and further in view of Yamagishi (US PGP 2019-0033739).
The entire discussion of Arai and Zenitani above is included herein. Arai and Zenitani are silent regarding an image forming apparatus and image forming method for use with the toner. Yamagishi teaches an image forming apparatus and image forming method comprising an image holding member, a charging device that charges the surface of the image holding member, an electrostatic image forming device the forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the image holding member, a developing device that develops the electrostatic charge image using the toner, a transferring device that transfers the toner image to the recording medium, and a fixing device that fixes the toner image to the recording medium ([0186-188]). The image forming apparatus includes a process cartridge that is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus and includes the developing device and houses the developer ([0213-214]). The image forming apparatus also includes a toner cartridge that is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus and contains the toner ([0220]).
Conclusion
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/J.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1734
/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 08/26/2026
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