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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamasaki et al (US PGP 2012/0052430) in view of Maehata (US PGP 2008/0261132) and further in view of Tominaga (US PGP 2021/0116831).
Yamasaki teaches a toner comprising a core particle containing a binder resin and a coating layer on the core particle (Abstract). The coating layer is taught to contain a resin having a crosslinked structure formed by using a boric acid derivative (Abstract). Specifically, Yamasaki teaches that the coating layer comprise an amount of the boric acid derivative in the range of 5 to 500 parts by mass of the amount of the monomer ([0082]) wherein the total amount of monomers in the coating layer is 0.1 to 50 parts by mass based on 100 parts of the core particles ([0084]). In embodiments 0.7 parts of trimethyl borate is added to 3.4 parts of total monomers and therefore 17 parts per 100 parts total monomers (0.7 parts boric acid + 3.4 parts acrylate monomers = 4.1 total monomers and 0.7 parts boric acid/4.1 total monomers = 0.17 x 24.4 parts = 17 parts per hundred of the shell layer; see [0209]). The total content of boric acid in the toner would be 7060 ppm (95 parts solid materials of the core particles, obtained by multiplying the parts of core dispersions listed in [0203-207] by either 30.0 mass % or 20.0 mass% based on the solid contents of each dispersion as taught in [0175-202], added to 4.1 parts solid materials of the shell for 99.1 total solids then dividing 0.7 parts boric acid by 99.1 parts total solids and converting to ppm). The boron content of the toner is therefore 1233 ppm (molecular weight (mw) of boron is 10.8 and mw of boric acid is 61.8 and therefore 10.8/61.8 = 0.17 x 7060 ppm boric acid = 1233 ppm boron). The Applicant uses a 1%-aqueous solution of sodium tetraborate (borax) such that the boron content in the toner is 1.0 ppm ([0137] of the instant specification). Yamasaki teaches a suitable amount of the boric acid derivative may be as low as 5 parts by mass (which is less than 1/3 the amount used in the above example; 5/17 x 100 = 29%) based on the total amount of monomers in the coating layer ([0082]) and therefore the amount of boron in the toner may be as low as 358 ppm (1233 ppm boron x 0.29 = 358 ppm). As such, the coating layer of the toner particles of Yamasaki would be expected to have a fragment peak in a TOF-SIMS measurement in of the toner derived from a boron-oxygen structure but would not read on the limitation of pending claim 2.
Yamasaki further teaches that the toner comprises external additives that are hydrophobically coated ([0109-113]). The amount of the external additives added to the toner is taught to be 0.01 parts by mass to 20 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of the toner particles ([0115]). As such the relationship between the abundance B (ppm) of the boron atom and the content H (parts by mass) of the external additive will read on Formula (1) of pending claim 5 (20 parts by mass external additive / 358 parts boron = 0.06). However, Yamasaki is silent regarding the external additive comprising hydrotalcite or the use of dodecylbenzensulfonic acid.
Yamasaki teaches that the core particles may comprise polyester binder resins ([0040]) and in embodiments teaches the use of ionic surfactants ([0178-194]). Maehata likewise teaches a toner comprising a polyester resin as a binder resin and further teaches the use of sulfur acids as surface activating agents that may be used for the dual function of a polycondensation catalyst as well as an emulsifier ([0044-50]). The use of sulfur acids is taught to allow polycondensation to proceed at a lower temperature while producing resins with a good electrostatic charging property ([0045]). As specific examples of organic sulfur acids Maehata teaches the use of dodecylbenzensulfonic acid ([0050]). In embodiments Maehata teaches that the dodecylbenzensulfonic acid (DBSA) be used in an amount of approximately 2000 ppm (3.3 parts DBSA / 1105 parts polyester = 0.00298 parts DBSA; 0.00298 x 200 parts polyester = 0.58 parts DBSA in polyester component of Resin Grain Dispersion ([0152]) and 0.58 parts DBSA / 269 total parts = 0.002 % parts DBSA in total Resin Grain dispersion (RGD) ; 0.002 * 275 parts RGD in Toner Grains 1 ([0156]) = 0.61 parts DBSA in Toner Grains 1; 0.61 parts DBSA / 293 total parts solid of Toner 1 (including colloidal silica, (0156], [0160]) = 0.002 parts DBSA or 2000 ppm).
Tominaga teaches at oner comprising toner mother particles and fine particles of a hydrotalcite compound as external additives (Abstract). The hydrotalcite fine particles are taught to comprise from 0.01 to 3.00 mass parts of the toner particles ([0260]). Tominaga further teaches that the use of the hydrotalcite particles as external additives imparts the toner with improvements to charging performance while inhibiting image smearing ([0261]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant application to have utilized the dodecylbenzensulfonic acid surface active agent taught by Maehata and the hydrotalcite fine particles taught by Tominaga in the toner particles of Yamasaki in order to impart said toner particles with the known improvements cited above. Furthermore, as the abundance (mass basis) of the boron atom is sufficiently close to the 100 ppm threshold recited by the Applicant in pending claim 2 and since the boron crosslinking agent is taught to impart a suppression in fogging to the toner particles ([0011]) it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant application to have sought to have optimized the amount of the boron crosslinking agent in order to perfect the result effective variable of fog suppression in the toner particles of Yamasaki and it would have further been obvious to have optimized the amount of DBSA in order to perfect the polycondenasation temperature and charging property of the toner particles as taught by Maehata.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 07/02/2026
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