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 .
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.
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smet (US 2014/0354740) in view of Kuriyama (US 2009/0025603).
Smet teaches a white inkjet inks and exemplifies an ink comprising an acrylic binder prepared from the copolymerization of TMPTA (trimethylolpropane triacrylate) and VEEA (2-(vinylethoxy)ethyl acrylate), 11.50 wt% of a first inorganic pigment and 2.50 wt% or 4.00 wt% of a second inorganic pigment in Samples I-2 and I-3. Smet discloses that the first inorganic pigment as titanium dioxide having an average particle size of 222 nm (p. 12, [0205]) and the second inorganic pigment as titanium dioxide having an average particle size of 55 nm, suggesting an ink comprising about 19 wt% or 26 wt% of titanium dioxide particles having an average particle size of 55 nm and about 81 wt% or about 74 wt%, respectfully, of titanium dioxide particles having an average particle size of 222 nm.
Smet teaches that the titanium dioxide can be needle shape, which tends to improve the redispersibility of white sediment by shaking the ink (p. 4, [0053]), but does not teach the aspect ratio thereof, as claimed.
Kuriyama teaches pigment ink composition comprising needle pigment particles having a needle shape with an aspect ratio of at least 3 and at most 7, and specifically listed to include titanium dioxide (p. 6, [0136]), and teaching that by using needle shaped pigment particles, the transparency of the ink can be increased, a high OD of coatings can be obtained, while allowing weatherability to be maintained and minimize degradation of quality, increase in viscosity and nozzle clogging due to degradation of dispersion ability of the pigment (p. 12, [0285]).
Note that Smet also teaches that sedimentation is a challenge, nozzle clogging and poor storage stability of ink are challenges with which there is a desire to overcome (p. 1, [0006]-[0007]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to have used a combination of titanium dioxide particles having a needle shape with an aspect ratio of 3-7, as Kuriyama teaches that needle shaped particles provide an increase in transparency, high OD, and reduced nozzle clogging, which is similarly desired by Smet.
Smet in view of Kuriyama is prima facie obvious over instant claims 1-3 and 5.
As to claim 4, Kuriyama teaches the aspect ratio of the titanium dioxide pigments as 3-7, which overlaps with the claimed range of 5-15, and it has been held that overlapping ranges are sufficient to establish prima facie obviousness. See MPEP 2144.05.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have selected from the overlapping portion of the range taught by the reference because overlapping ranges have been held to establish prima facie obviousness.
As to claim 6, Smet teaches that the white inkjet inks can be used for “surface printing” (p. 8, [0144]), which is also known in the art as front printing, as claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kayamori (US 2018/0088481) teaches a white toner comprising titanium dioxide particles as a colorant and binder resin, where the titanium oxide particles can be needle shaped and are composed of two groups Ga and Gb having different particle size distribution, where Ga can be a peak at 105 nm, Gb can be a peak at 180nm, as exemplified in Example 2 (Table 1), and teaches a mass ratio of Ga:Gb is 5:95 to 30:70 (p. 3, [0048]); however, toner cannot be used for inkjet printing, as claimed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIEANN R JOHNSTON whose telephone number is (571)270-7344. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM EST.
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/Brieann R Johnston/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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