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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sasaki et al. (US PGP 2014/0072907) in view of JP 2013-054132 (henceforth JP ‘132).
Sasaki teaches a photoreceptor comprising a conductive substrate, a photosensitive layer and an outermost surface layer disposed in this order (Abstract). The surface layer (protective layer) is taught to comprise a cured film composed of a composition containing inorganic particles having polymerizable groups and at charge transport compound having polymerizable groups (Abstract). The charge transport compound is taught to have the structure of formula (I) wherein F represents a charge transport moiety and L represents a linking group (see [0100-102]). The linking group L is further taught to have the same formula recited by the Applicant in pending claim 1 and designated by the Applicant therein as D ([0115-152]). The charge tranposrt compound is taught to have the following structures:
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As seen above, the charge transport moieties of Sasaki read on the charge transport moieties recited by the Applicant in pending claims 3-5.
Sasaki further teaches that the inorganic particles be metal oxide particles such as silica that are surface treated to comprise polymerizable groups (see [0324-330]). The surface treatment agents are taught to have a silicone chain in a side chain thereof as well as the polymerizable group (see [0331-345]). Additionally, Sasaki teaches an image forming apparatus image forming method that read on all of the limitations recited by the Applicant in pending claims 7-8 ([0432-486]). The invention of Sasaki differs from that of the instant claims in that Sasaki teaches a phenyl group attached to the polymerizable group.
JP ‘132 teaches a photoreceptor that has excellent durability and gas resistances and which suppresses the occurrence of density unevenness by virtue of a protective layer comprising a polymerizable charge transport compound (Abstract). As an example of the polymerizable charge transport compound JP ‘132 teaches the following formula (1-1), which reads on the Applicant’s formula recited in pending claim 3.
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Therefore, in order to improve the durability, gas resistance and suppress the occurrence of density unevenness, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the instant application to have utilized the polymerizable charge transport compounds of JP ‘132 in the surface layer of Saski as the polymerizable charge transport compound.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 01/10/2026