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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remark, filed 12/5/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 12 under 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly found art Tamaki US 2019/0193425 and Shiraishi US 2022/0411999.
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, 4-8, 10, 12, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamaki (US 20190100047) in view of Yamazaki (US 2019/0194482), Tamaki (US 20190193424) and Shiraishi US (2022/0411999).
Regarding claim 1: Tamaki047 teaches an image forming method comprising:
applying a pretreatment liquid (pretreatment agent, paragraph 4), which is an aqueous solution (aqueous solution, paragraph 33), to a cloth material (cloth, paragraph 33), which is an absorbent base material (cotton, polyester, paragraph 33 note: cotton and polyester are inherently absorbent); and
after applying the pretreatment liquid (pretreatment agent paragraph 4), applying an aqueous ink (printing process, paragraph 31, color inks, paragraph 33) onto the cloth material to form an image on the cloth material by an ink jet method (before print processing by an inkjet printer, paragraph 31), wherein applying the pretreatment liquid comprises applying the pretreatment liquid such that the cloth material comprises, the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 20 mg/cm square to 150 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material (paragraph 58, 20mg/cm square, also see table 13, the range start at least at 20-100 mg/cm square which overlap portions of 20- 150 mg/cm square), and
Tamaki047 does not teach wherein the aqueous ink comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm.
Yamazaki teaches wherein the aqueous ink (aqueous paragraph 0086) comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide (titanium oxide, paragraph 87) particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm (paragraph 0085, 50nm-1000nm; note: 50-1000nm overlap 20-200nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have modified Tamaki047 to include: wherein the aqueous ink comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm.
The reason of doing so can improve stability to precipitation, storage stability is favorable and dischargeability is favorable, (paragraph 078).
Tamaki 047 does not teach when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 20 mg/cm square to 150 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material.
Tamaki 424 teaches the pretreatment can be done by controlling the pretreatment liquid amount (fig. 5, application amount per unit area and to control the time to apply the heat treatment (can be set to zero, the heat treatment is not performed) (paragraph 0061).
Shiraishi further teaches at the time when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid on fabric is 90% or greater (paragraph 0194). Note: 90% of 20mg is 18 mg and 90% of 100mg is 90mg).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art to have further modify Tamaki 047 to include: when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid in at least in the amount of 18 mg/cm square to 90 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material (which overlap the range of 20 mg/cm square to 100 mg/cm square.
The reason of doing so would have prevented the waste of valuable resource material which will save money for the company as well as conserve limited resource for human/world.
Regarding claim 4: Tamaki 047 teaches the image forming method according to claim 1,
wherein when applying the aqueous ink and prior to any heat treatment (see fig. 17, start heat press application $25 is after $17, application is complete), the cloth material comprises the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 40 mg/cm (see fig. 13 includes 40g/cm square) square or more per unit area of the cloth material.
Regarding claim 5: Tamaki047 teaches the image forming method according to claim 1,
wherein when applying the aqueous ink and prior to any heat treatment (see fig. 17, start heat press application $25 is after $17, application is complete), the cloth material comprises the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 40 mg/cm square to 130 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material. (see table 13, the range start at least at 20-100 mg/cm square which overlap portions of 40- 130 mg/cm square),
Regarding claim 6: Yamazaki teaches the image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the titanium oxide particles have an average particle diameter of 150 nm or less (5Onm of paragraph 85 is less than 150nm).
Regarding claim 7: Yamazaki teaches the image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the titanium oxide particles have an average particle diameter of 120 nm or less. (5Onm of paragraph 85 is less than 120nm).
Regarding claim 8: Yamazaki teaches the image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the titanium oxide particles have an average particle diameter of 50 nm to 120 nm. (50-5000nm of paragraph 85 covers 50-120nm).
Regarding claim 10: Tamaki 047 teaches: the image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the cloth material comprises a polyester. (polyester, paragraph 0033)
Regarding claim 12: Tamaki 047 teaches: an image forming system (paragraph 31, pretreatment device 10 and an inkjet printer of paragraph 31) comprising:
a pretreatment liquid application unit (pretreatment device 10, paragraph 31) configured to apply a pretreatment liquid (pretreatment agent, paragraph 33), which is an aqueous solution (aqueous solution, paragraph 33), toa cloth material (cloth paragraph 33); and
an image forming unit (inkjet printer paragraph 31) configured to apply an aqueous ink (color ink, paragraph 33) onto the cloth material (cloth, paragraph 33) to form an image on the cloth material by an ink jet method,
wherein the pretreatment liquid application unit is configured to apply the pretreatment liquid to the cloth material such that the cloth material comprises the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 20 mg/cm square to 150 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material when the image forming unit applies the aqueous ink. (paragraph 58, 20mg/cm square, also see table 13, the range start at least at 20-100 mg/cm square which overlap portions of 20-150 mg/cm square).
Tamaki 047 does not teach wherein the aqueous ink comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm.
Yamazaki teaches wherein the aqueous ink (aqueous paragraph 0086) comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide (titanium oxide, paragraph 87) particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm (paragraph 0085, 50nm-1000nm; note: 50-1000nm overlap 20-200nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have modified Tamaki 047 to include: wherein the aqueous ink comprises a white ink comprising titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 200 nm.
The reason of doing so can improve stability to precipitation, storage stability is favorable and dischargeability is favorable, paragraph 078).
Tamaki 047 does not teach when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid in an amount of 20 mg/cm square to 150 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material.
Tamaki 424 teaches the pretreatment can be done by controlling the pretreatment liquid amount (fig. 5, application amount per unit area and to control the time to apply the heat treatment (can be set to zero, the heat treatment is not performed) (paragraph 0061).
Shiraishi further teaches at the time when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid on fabric is 90% or greater (paragraph 0194). Note: 90% of 20mg is 18 mg and 90% of 100mg is 90mg).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art to have further modify Tamaki 047 to include: when applying the aqueous ink, the pretreatment liquid in at least in the amount of 18 mg/cm square to 90 mg/cm square per unit area of the cloth material (which overlap the range of 20 mg/cm square to 100 mg/cm square.
The reason of doing so would have prevented the waste of valuable resource material which will save money for the company as well as conserve limited resource for human/world.
Regarding claim 14: Tamaki 047 teaches cloth material (cloth, paragraph 33) having an image thereon formed by the image forming method according to claim 1.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamaki (US 20190100047) in view of Yamazaki (US 2019/0194482), Tamaki (US 20190193424) and Shiraishi US (2022/0411999) and further in view of Sugiyama (US 2019/0284420 and Nakazawa (US 2008/0238998).
Regarding claim 2: Tamaki 047 as modified still does not teach: before applying the aqueous ink, applying an aqueous clear ink which does not containa color material but comprises a resin component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square.
Sugiyama teaches before applying the aqueous ink (paragraph 83, simultaneously is not required to be exactly the same time as long as being within a time span in which a layer can be formed on the cloth by mixing the clear ink composition and the color ink composition note: these implies that some of the clear ink are applied before the color ink), applying an aqueous clear ink (clear ink, paragraph 83) which does not contain a color material (clear, paragraph 83) but comprises a resin (resin, paragraph 72) component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square (40g/m square, paragraph 85, note: 40g/m square is equal to 4 mg/cm square which is within the range of 3-20mg/cm square).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have further modified Tamaki 047 to include: before applying the aqueous ink, applying an aqueous clear ink which does not contain a color material but comprises a resin component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square.
The reason of doing so would have improve abrasion resistance (paragraph 12 Sugiyama).
Although, as discussed above, the apply of the clear ink is before the aqueous ink. Such argument is based on the examiner’s reasoning.
Nakazawa teaches to apply clear ink (122, fig. 2, clear ink layer 122, paragraph 46) before other color ink. (white ink layer 124, fig. 2, paragraph 46).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have apply the clear ink before the aqueous white ink.
The reason of doing so would have created an environmental friendly and high resolution image, paragraph 0002, Nakazawa).
Regarding claim 3: Tamaki 047 teaches The image forming method according to claim 2, wherein the clear ink is applied after the pretreatment liquid is applied. (paragraph31, to apply a pretreatment agent before printing processing).
Regarding claim 9: Sugiyama teaches the image forming method according to claim 2, wherein the resin component comprises a resin particle. (resin particles, paragraph 72).
Claim(s) 11, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamaki (US 20190100047) in view of Yamazaki (US 2019/0194482), Tamaki (US 20190193424) and Shiraishi US (2022/0411999) and further in view of Sugiyama (US 2019/0284420.
Regarding claim 11: Tamaki 047 does not teach wherein the pretreatment liquid comprises an organic acid.
Sugiyama teaches wherein the pretreatment liquid comprises an organic acid. (an organic acid paragraph 82).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have modified Tamaki 047 to include: wherein the pretreatment liquid comprises an organic acid.
The reason of doing so is to improve image quality (Sugiyama paragraph 82).
Regarding claim 13: Tamaki 047 as modified still does not teach: the image forming system according to claim 12, further comprising
a clear ink applying unit configured to apply an aqueous clear ink which does not contain a color material but comprises a resin component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the aqueous clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square.
Sugiyama teaches a clear ink applying unit configured to apply an aqueous clear ink (clear ink, paragraph 83) which does not contain a color material (clear, paragraph 83) but comprises a resin (resin, paragraph 72) component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square (40g/m square, paragraph 85, note: 40g/m square is equal to 4 mg/cm square which is within the range of 3-20mg/cm square).
Therefore, it would have been obvious toa person with ordinary skill in the art to have further modified Tamaki 047 to include: a clear ink applying unit configured to apply an aqueous clear ink which does not contain a color material but comprises a resin component, to the cloth material, such that an application amount of the aqueous clear ink per unit area of the cloth material is 3 mg/cm square to 20 mg/cm square.
The reason of doing so would have improve abrasion resistance (paragraph 12 Sugiyama).
Conclusion
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/KING Y POON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2617