DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This application is a continuation of application No. PCT/JP21/47832, filed on Dec. 23, 2021.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)-(d) by Application No. JP 2020-217565 and JP 2021-033814 filed 12/25/2020 and 3/3/2021 respectively, which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claims 1-11 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Okamoto et al. (US 2019/0040290).
Regarding claim 1: Okamoto is directed to a resin composition comprising:
Polymer particles (A) of a core/shell polymer; and
A matrix resin (B) of an epoxy resin
The polymer particles including Core-Shell Polymer Latex L-1 comprises a graft part comprising (i) (i-a) no structural unit containing an aromatic group and (ii) contains at least one alkyl acrylate of butylacrylate and contains no structural units of (iii).
The shell graft part comprises 3 parts methylmethacrylate (MMA, Tg 105 ˚C) and 10 parts by mass butylacrylate (BA Tg -55 ˚C) and therefore the glass transition temperature can be calculated as about -1 ˚C (1/Tg=23/105+77/-55) by the well-known Flory-Fox equation.
Regarding claim 2: The polymer fine particles are used in an amount of preferably 4-70 parts by mass per 100 parts by mass of the epoxy resin ([0065]). It follows the polymer particles are contained in an amount of 4-41% by weight and the matrix resin (B) is present in an amount of 6-59% by weight, wherein 100% by weight represents a total amount of polymer particles (A) and matrix resin (B).
Regarding claim 3: Okamoto is directed to a resin composition comprising:
Polymer particles (A) of a core/shell polymer; and
A matrix resin (B) of an epoxy resin
The polymer particles have a graft part
Core-Shell Polymer Latex L-1 comprises a graft part comprising (i) (i-a) no structural unit containing an aromatic group and (ii) contains at least one alkyl acrylate of butylacrylate and contains no structural units of (iii).
The shell graft part comprises 3 parts methylmethacrylate (MMA, Tg 105 C) and 10 parts by mass butylacrylate (BA Tg -55 C) and therefore the glass transition temperature can be calculated as about -1 ˚C (1/Tg=23/105+77/-55) by the well-known Flory-Fox equation.
The polymer fine particles in Examples 1-21 comprise polymer particles in an amount of 33-50% by weight based on 100 wt% of polymer particles (A) and matrix resin (B) (Table 2).
Regarding claim 4: The graft part of Core-Shell Polymer Latex L-1 contains no structural unit containing an aromatic group.
Regarding claim 5: The volume average particle diameter of the polymer particles Is preferably 50 to 400 nm (0.05-0.4 μm). Examples 2-24 to 2-26 have volume average particle size of 0.21 μm (Table 1).
Regarding claim 6: Examples 2-2 to 2-15 comprise more than 0 and less than 50 wt% glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) (a structural unit having an epoxy group) based on 100% by weight of the graft part. (Table 1).
Regarding claim 7: The shell graft part comprises 3 parts methylmethacrylate (MMA, Tg 105 C) and 10 parts by mass butylacrylate (BA Tg -55 C) wherein the glass transition temperature can be calculated as about -1 ˚C (1/Tg=23/105+77/-55) by the well-known Flory-Fox equation, and therefore contains not less than 20% by weight of a structural unit derived from a monomer that provides a homopolymer having a glass transition temperature of not higher than 0 ˚C.
Regarding claim 8: The compositions of the working examples have a viscosity of not more than 20,000 mPa.s at 50 ˚C (Table 1).
Regarding claim 9: The polymer fine particles in Examples 5-21 comprise polymer particles in an amount of 40-50% by weight based on 100 wt% of polymer particles (A) and matrix resin (B) (Table 2).
Regarding claim 10: An inorganic filler is disclosed ([0136]).
Regarding claim 11: The matrix resin is an epoxy resin.
Related Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The teachings of Miyatake et al. (WO 2019/123934) are relevant art but not discussed above. Miyatake is directed to the claimed resin composition as discussed in the Chinese Office Action listed on the IDS filed 5/20/2025.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT T BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-3514. The examiner can normally be reached Telework M-F 9-5 Pacific Time Zone.
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/ROBERT T BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764