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
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 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2022/0078936 to Doi et al. in view of U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2011/0076485 to Yakulis, Jr. et al. (Cited on IDS).
As to claims 1 and 9-10, Doi discloses a display device including a first surface on which an image is displayed, a second surface located oppositely to the first surface, a resin member including an inner wall surface at least partially opposed to the side of the display surface, and a transparent cover layer including a second surface in contact with the first surface of the display and the first surface of the resin member, and a first surface located oppositely to the second surface wherein the transparent layer contains a polyurea (0009-0011).
Doi does not expressly disclose the reactants in the preparation of the polyurea.
Yakulis discloses substrates coating with transparent polyurea film-forming compositions wherein the polyurea comprises the reaction product of a polyamine component including polyether functional polyamine, an aspartic ester functional amine, and an aliphatic polyamine and a second reactive package comprising an aliphatic polyisocyanate (Abstract, 0032).
At the time of filing it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to substitute the transparent polyurea of Doi with the transparent polyurea of Yakulis to provide improved mechanical and protective properties to substrates such as abrasion, chip, corrosion, wind, UV light, and blast resistance (0003).
As to claims 2-4 and 11-12, Doi in view of Yakulis disclose aliphatic diisocyanate and oligomers thereof including trimers such as the biuret or isocyanurate of hexamethylene diisocyanate (0034) including Desmodur XP2410, XP2580, N3400 that have NCO contents within the claimed ranges (0034).
As to claims 5-6 and 13-14, Doi in view Yakulis discloses cyclic aspartic ester functional polyamines such as Desmophen NH1420 (maleic acid diethyl ester with 4,4′-diaminodicyclohexylmethane) and 1520 (0024) that has amine value of 199-203 mg KOH/g (see datasheet provided herein).
As to claim 7, Doi teaches transparent layer thickness of 0.1 mm or more, resin member thickness of 0.5 mm to 20 mm (0056, 0058).
As to claim 8, regarding the dimensional limitations, although Doi in view of Yakulis fail to disclose such parameters, it would have been obvious to arrive at the claimed values based on the fact that the prior art teaches the same composition being used in identical applications, and where the only difference between the prior art and the claims was a recitation of relative dimensions of the claimed device and a device having claimed relative dimensions would not perform different than the prior art device, the claimed device was not patentably distinct from the prior art device. See MPEP 2107.03.
As to claim 14, Doi discloses additional layers including adhesive layers and layers that would have been obvious to use an anti-fingerprint layers (0042-0055).
As to claims 15-17, Doi in view of Yakulis disclose methods for manufacturing a transparent cover film comprising a polyurea wherein the polyurea is prepared by coating in a 1:1 mix ratio (0051) a solution of polyamine in methylethyl ketone or acetone (0049) with a solution of polyisocyanate onto the substrate and curing the coating solution (Abstract, 0023 and 0054).
As to claims 18-19, Doi discloses a spin coating process for the polyurea and curing at suitable temperatures and pressures (0069, 0073).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL L LEONARD whose telephone number is (571)270-7450. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 7:00-4:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Del Sole can be reached at 571-272-1130. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MICHAEL L LEONARD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1763