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 .
Claims 1-12 are pending. Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-9 in the reply filed on March 30, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 10-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on 07/04/2022 It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the CHINA 202210779884 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao (CN 104264505) in view of Mor (WO 2019/106679) and Maeda (JPH 02264070A).
Yao teaches treating nylon fabric (molecular structure not comprising a benzene ring and presenting amino groups) with a modifier to improve coloring property and then performing thermal pressure treatment by attaching an ink coated transfer paper having a pattern to the fabric and performing thermal pressure treatment on the fabric with the attached paper (paragraphs 0009-0013, abstract). Yao teaches thermal pressure treatment temperatures of 200°C (paragraph 0013).
Yao does not teach benzoic acid pretreatment.
Mor teaches that pretreatment of nylon with swelling agents such as benzoic acid in water solutions at 30-120°C provide enhanced penetration of treatment molecules including dyes (paragraph 0010, 0021,0032,0034,0035).
Maeda teaches that the swelling nylon before dyeing with benzoic acid in alcohol and water solution at 80°C for a period of time followed by washing (abstract, page 5, examples) at a pH of 4 to 5 (page 4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Yao by pretreating a nylon fabric with benzoic acid at the claimed temperatures and pH followed by washing the fabric as Mor teaches nylons pretreated with benzoic acid swelling agents enhance penetration of the dyes applied to the nylon afterward and Maeda teaches that applying benzoic acid in water solution at pH 4 to 5 at 80°C is conventionally preformed prior to dyeing to swell the fabric. Regarding the modifier amount o.m.f., bath ratio and time of the modifying treatment, these quantities could be adjusted through routine experimentation to achieve a desired degree of swelling of the fabric based on the subsequent desired penetration of the dye in the thermal pressure treatment. The amount of the swelling agent and treatment time, temperature, amount of swelling agent and bath ratio would all directly impact the interaction of the benzoic acid with the nylon fabric and influence the degree of swelling. The degree of swelling directly impacts how the dyes of Yao penetrate into the nylon fabric and the quality of the coloration produced.
Yao does not specify the thermal pressure treatment is 10-30s, but one of ordinary skill in the art could arrive at this treatment time through routine experimentation to allow sufficient time for the dye to penetrate and become affixed to the nylon fabric.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao (CN 104264505) in view of Mor (WO 2019/106679) and Maeda (JPH 02264070A) and further in view of Cui (CN 106758326).
Yao, Mor and Maeda are relied upon as set forth above.
Yao, Mor and Maeda do not specify 10-30s thermal treatment.
Cui teaches that thermal transfer of inks from transfer papers to nylon can be effectively achieved at 180-220°C in 25-60s (page 3, middle of the page).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Yao, Mor and Maeda by performing thermal treatment for 25-30s as Cui teaches this is an effective amount of time at similar temperatures of 200°C to thermally transfer inks from a transfer paper to a nylon fabric to produce a printed nylon with high color fastness.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2743231, US 3025127 which teach pretreating polyamides with benzoic acid prior to dyeing and US 4515849 which teaches including a benzoic acid dissolving layer on a thermal transfer sheet.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMINA S KHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm EST.
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/AMINA S KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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