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.
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.
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) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2019-20672 in view of Iwasaki (US PGP 2020/0096884).
JP ‘672 teaches an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a photosensitive layer (Abstract). Additionally, the photoreceptor comprises an intermediate layer which qualifies as an undercoat layer (see the “<Intermediate layer>” section of the provided translation). The photosensitive layer is taught to comprise a polyester binder resin having the following formula:
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310
1052
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In the above polyester, 30A corresponds to the Applicant’s Formula (B), 32B corresponds to the Applicant’s Formula A3 and 31 corresponds to the Applicant’s Formula A4. The photosensitive layer may further contain a polycarbonate binder resin (see “(Binder resin)” section of the provided translation). Formula 30A above further corresponds to the Applicant’s Formula B6 of pending claim 6. The charge generator in the photosensitive layer is further taught to be a gallium phthalocyanine compound (see “(Charge generator)” section of the provided translation).
Iwasaki teaches a photoreceptor comprising a photosensitive layer and an undercoat layer comprising a perinone compound and a polyurethane resin (Abstract). The perinone compound is taught to be selected from the following compounds:
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514
520
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As can be seen from the above formulae (1) and (2) Iwasaki teaches the same perinone compounds recited by the Applicant in pending claim 1. The undercoat layer of Iwasaki is taught to be excellent in electric characteristics and leak resistance ([0055]). The ratio of the perinone compound to the polyurethane in the undercoat layer is form 40:60 to 80:20, respectively ([0164]). The film thickness of the undercoat layer is taught to be from 3 to 30 micrometers ([0190]). 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 undercoat layer of Iwasaki as the undercoat layer of JP ‘672 in order to improve the electric characteristics and leak resistance of the photoreceptor.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 07/24/2026
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