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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1 - 17 in the reply filed on February 18, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 18 – 20 are withdrawn from consideration.
Priority
The application is filed as a continuation of US Application 16/409,130 filed on May 10, 2019, which is a continuation of Provisional Application 62/669,477 filed on May 10, 2018. Further, the application of a continuation-in-part of U.S. application serial no. 18/409,996, filed on January 11, 2024 and entitled "Article of Apparel," which is a continuation of U.S. application serial no. 17/589,305 filed on January 31, 2022, now U.S. Patent No. 11,871,806, which is a continuation of U.S. application serial no. 16/552,941 filed on August 27, 2019, now U.S. Patent No. 11,234,470 issued February 1, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. application serial no. 16/011,104 filed on June 18, 2018, now U.S. Patent No. 10,420,380 issued September 24, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. application serial no. 15/597,203 filed on May 17, 2017, now U.S. Patent No. 10,010,118 issued July 3, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. application serial no. 14/597,051 filed on January 14, 2015, now U.S. Patent No., 9,655,389 issued May 23,2017, which claims priority to provisional application no. 61/926,996, filed January 14, 2014. The entire scope of the claimed subject matter is taught by US Application 16/409,130. However, the subject matter disclosed in US Application 18/409,996 and before fails to teach warp and weft channels created by removing warp and weft yarns from the weave structure. Thus, the entire claimed scope is not taught by the US Application 18/409,966 and before, and the claims do not get benefit of the earlier filing date related to the US Application 18/409,996 applications. Thus, the earliest filing date the entire scope of the claims is taught in the prior application is May 10, 2018.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 – 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The limitation describing the warp and weft channels in claim 1 is indefinite. The disclosure defines the warp channel 330 as running in the warp direction (i.e., parallel to the adjacent warp yarns) being formed by the removal of dissolvable warp yarns (paragraphs 42 – 53). However, claim 1 describe the second portion of fabric as including only warp yarns and defining a warp channel and including warp apertures. However as is shown in Figure 3D, the warp channel is the gap between spaced apart warp yarns that only includes weft yarns that traverse the gap between the adjacent warp yarns. The warp channel cannot be formed by the removal of warp yarns and also contain only warp yarns and warp apertures. Similarly, the weft channel cannot be formed by the removal of weft yarns and also contain only weft yarns and weft apertures. The applicant’s language should coordinate to the language used in the disclosure. For purposes of examination, the second textile layer is examined based on the features shown in Figure 3D with the weft channel shown as 325 and the warp channel shown as 330. Further, the portion without weft or warp yarns is shown as 340. Claim 11 is similarly rejected. Claims 2 – 10 and 12 – 17 are rejected due to their dependency on claim 1 and 11.
Claim 2 is indefinite. The claim recites that the fabric includes yarns which are inert and yarns that are not dissolvable by a dissolving agent. However, without defining the type of dissolving agent it is unclear what materials the yarns are made from. Certain strong acid and base materials would dissolve all natural and polymer based materials. The textile art does not contain yarns which are inert to all dissolving agents. Claim 12 is similarly rejected.
Claim 9 is indefinite. The claim recites that the second textile layer includes a first aperture and a second aperture. Are these apertures the same as the warp and weft apertures or are these apertures different from the ones described in claim 1? Further, are the apertures required to be circular? The claim recites that the apertures have a diameter? The warp and weft channels would not have a diameter, but a width or length. Claim 17 is similarly rejected. The shape of the aperture is not required to be circular, but could be other shapes.
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.
Claim(s) 1 – 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Blakely ‘067 (US 2015/0196067) in view of Harber (US 2006/0179539) and Blakely ‘737 (US 2015/0218737).
Blakely ‘067 discloses an article of apparel with grasp resistant panels (abstract). The laminate includes a first fabric layer with a first elongation value and a second fabric layer with a second elongation value, wherein the second elongation is less than the first elongation value (abstract). Further, the second layer is formed from discontinuous panels spaced apart on the surface of the first fabric layer (abstract). The first fabric layer is a knit fabric with an elongation of 5 – 30% or up to 100% (paragraph 18 – 20). The second fabric layer is a woven layer with a second elongation of less than 10%, preferably 5% or 0% (paragraph 24 – 25). The layers are joined together by a bonding layer (paragraph 38). The fabric can be used as a sporting garment (paragraph 46) such as a sporting jersey, shirt, or tank top (paragraph 56). Thus, it would be worn on a torso.
While Blakely ‘067 discloses a garment for a sporting jersey with two layers, Blakely ‘067 fails to teach that the second panel includes gaps or openings in the warp and weft directions. Harber is drawn to sporting garments (abstract). Harber teaches that failure to release and move heat away from the body during exercise can cause a rise in a person’s body temperature putting them at risk for heat exhaustion or heat stroke (paragraphs 2 - 5). Athletes need fabrics which can help cool during use (paragraph 7). Further, Harber teaches that venting zones assist in effectively cooling the wearer (paragraph 10). The thermal profile characteristic of a body can be used to create a pattern of opening of different sizes and in different areas to help cool a wearer (paragraph 10). The openings or venting zones can be provided into a garment by any desired manner known in the art (paragraph 64).
Additionally, Blakely ‘737 discloses a woven fabric structure made with engineered apertures (abstract). The textile is a woven textile wherein the apertures are formed by removing warp and/or weft yarns from the textile structure (paragraph 4). The textile fabric can be incorporated into sport jerseys or other articles of apparel (paragraph 4). The article would have improved breathability and air permeability (paragraph 4). The fabric is formed by combining dissolvable and non-dissolvable yarns together in the warp and weft direction of a woven fabric and then removing the dissolvable yarns with a dissolving agent (paragraph 23 – 29). Blakely ‘737 discloses that the textile can include apertures that include small and large apertures (paragraph 32). Further, the apertures can range in size from 100 microns or less or 200 to 5000 microns.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to add vents or openings of different sizes to the fabric of Blakely ‘067 to the panels to create multiple venting zones in the composite fabric to help efficiently cool the wearer during athletic activity. Further, it would have been obvious to use known techniques such as those taught by Blakely ‘737 to create openings in the woven fabric layer of Blakely ‘067 to producing a venting zones in a desired pattern, to help sufficiently cool a wearer. Therefore, claims 1 – 17 are rejected.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jenna Johnson whose telephone number is (571)272-1472. The examiner can normally be reached Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10am - 4pm.
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jlj
March 5, 2026
/JENNA L JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1789