DETAILED ACTION
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
Claims 11-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/20/2025.
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 1-3, 5, and 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sekikawa et al. (JP 2017/198807).
Re claims 1-3, and 8, Sekikawa et al. disclose a transparent screen comprising light scattering layer, i.e. resin film, containing a transparent resin and 0.01-10 mass % light scattering material where the transparent resin is a thermoplastic resin that is polyvinyl acetal and the light scattering material includes inorganic fine particles including titanium oxide [11]. The light scattering material is identical to that used in the present invention (see paragraph 0033 of the present specification) and therefore would function as a light diffusing particle.
In light of the overlap between the claimed resin film and that disclosed by Sekikawa et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a resin film that is both disclosed by Sekikawa et al. and encompassed within the scope of the present claims and thereby arrive at the claimed invention.
Given that Sekikawa et al. disclose resin film identical to that presently claimed, when one surface of the laminated glass, that is obtained by adhesion of two sheets of standard glass having a thickness of 2.5 mm with the resin film being interposed, is irradiated with simulated solar light by a solar simulator in a perpendicular direction, the ratio between a maximum value and a minimum value with respect to brightness measured in directions at angles relative to a direction perpendicular to the other surface of a laminated glass of 30°, 45°, 60° and 75°, would inherently be 0.1 or more.
Re claims 5, 7, and 10, Sekikawa et al. disclose a laminate having a structure of transparent substrate/bonding layer/light-scattering layer (resin film)/bonding layer/transparent substrate [84] where the bonding layer comprises polyvinyl acetal [39-42]. The transparent substrate includes glass [32-33]. Therefore, the light-scattering layer (resin film) is an interlayer for laminated glass.
Re claim 9, Sekikawa et al. disclose the light-scattering layer (resin film) has a thickness of 1-200 microns with no disclosure of any variation of thickness and optional surface roughness [59]. Therefore, the difference in thickness would necessarily be zero.
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 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sekikawa et al. (JP 2017/198807) and further in view of Nakajima et al. (WO 2019011825 A1).
It is noted that when utilizing WO 2019011825 A1 in the above paragraph, the disclosures of the reference are based on US 2021/0170719 which is an English language equivalent of the reference. Therefore, the paragraph numbers cited with respect to WO 2019011825 A1 are found in US 2021/0170719.
Re claim 4, Sekikawa et al. do not disclose the light-scattering layer (resin film) comprises a plasticizer.
Nakajima et al. disclose a screen comprising a light-scattering resin layer comprising thermoplastic resin that is polyvinyl acetal and a light scattering compound [7] as well as plasticizer [33]. The plasticizer imparts flexibility and adhesiveness to the light-scattering resin layer [33].
In light of the motivation for using plasticizer disclosed by Nakajima et al. as described above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary kill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a plasticizer in the light-scattering resin layer of Sekikawa et al. in order to produce light-scattering resin layer with imparts flexibility and adhesiveness.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sekikawa et al. (JP 2017/198807), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lu (US 7,510,771).
Re claim 6, Sekikawa et al. do not disclose the light-scattering layer (resin film) comprises content of plasticizer as claimed.
Lu et al. disclose multiple layer interlayers that can be used in multiple layer glass panel type applications to reduce the amount of sound transmitted through the panel which effect is achieved by maintaining a difference in the plasticizer concentration in two or more polymer sheets that have been combined into a single multiple layer interlayer (col.1, lines 40-41, 49-55, and 58-63). The interlayers are made from polyvinyl butyral (col.1, lines 40-41). Lu et al. disclose that the plasticizer content of the two polymer sheets differ by at least 8 phr (col.2, lines 49-53) and specifically discloses a three layer construction where the middle layer (corresponding to claimed first resin layer) has higher plasticizer content than the two outer layers (corresponding to claimed second and third resin layers) (col.5, lines 12-21).
In light of the motivation for using interlayer comprising layers with different amounts of plasticizer disclosed by Lu et al. as described above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use an interlayer in Sekikawa et al. where the first resin layer has a higher content of plasticizer than the second and third resin layers in order to produce an interlayer with enhanced sound dampening or sound suppression characteristics.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure including the Written Opinion of the International Search Report.
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TAMRA L. DICUS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1787
/TAMRA L. DICUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787