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 with traverse of Group II, claims 2 and 3, in the reply filed on December 24, 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that although the different Groups are patently distinct, the search required for examination of all claims would not be unduly burdensome on the Examiner. This is found persuasive and all of the claims will be examined.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: it contains the abbreviation PVC, which may have many meanings. The specific meaning should be written out, followed by the abbreviation in paratheses. Appropriate correction is required.
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 – 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeuchi (USPGPub 2018/0127619 A1) in view of JP 2006-298991 and JPH07145251.
A machine-generated translation of JPH07145251 accompanies this action. In reciting this rejection, the examiner will cite this translation.
Takeuchi discloses a tape (Abstract; Figure) comprising: a tape base material formed of a PVC resin (Figure, #2; Paragraphs 0013 – 0015); and an adhesive layer (Figure, #3), wherein a plasticizer, a stabilizer, and a coloring agent are added to the PVC resin (Paragraphs 0016 – 0018), and the coloring agent is set to a color (Paragraph 0016) as in claim 1. Takeuchi further disclose a wire harness comprising: a wire harness body; and the tape according to claim 1, which is attached to the wire harness body (Paragraphs 0040 – 0045) as in claim 2. With respect to claim 3, the tape is attached to a position where an object to be attached or detached from the wire harness body is fixed to the wire harness body (Paragraphs 0040 – 0045). Takeuchi also disclose a method for producing a wire harness comprising: pulling out, from a roll portion, the tape according to claim 1 and wound in a roll shape; attaching the tape to a wire harness body; and tearing off the tape from the roll portion (Paragraphs 0040 – 0045) as in claim 4. However, Takeuchi fails to disclose the coloring agent is set to a color that causes a color of the tape base material to be a receding color excluding black and whitened by tearing off an end portion thereof.
JP 2006-298991 teaches a tape base material formed of a PVC resin (Paragraph 0015) having a the coloring agent is set to a color that causes a color of the tape base material to be a receding color excluding black (Paragraph 0020, which includes blue, purple and green pigments) for the purpose of having the appropriate colorant for the situation (Paragraph 0020).
JPH07145251 teaches a tape base material formed of a PVC resin (Abstract); wherein a plasticizer, a stabilizer, and a coloring agent are added to the PVC resin (Abstract), and the coloring agent is set to a color (Abstract) and whitened by tearing off an end portion thereof (Paragraph 0003) for the purpose of having white show up during stretching during hand cutting (Paragraph 0003).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a color of the tape base material to be a receding color excluding black and whitened by tearing off an end portion thereof in Takeuchi in order have the appropriate colorant for the situation as taught by JP 2006-298991 and to have white show up during stretching during hand cutting as taught by JPH07145251.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Patricia L Nordmeyer whose telephone number is (571)272-1496. The examiner can normally be reached 10am - 6:30pm EST, Monday - Friday.
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/Patricia L. Nordmeyer/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1788
/pln/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788 January 15, 2026
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