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
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 16-23 and 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tani et al. (US 20200087490) in view of Matsushita et al. (US 20130324660) or Crochet et al (WO 2020074806, published on 2020-04-16 , cited herein with identical US 2021340359 ).
Tani teaches a tire (see claim 9, meeting the limitations of claim 30) formed from the rubber composition comprising 70 phr of modified conjugated diene based polymer R, 20 phr of rubber, 10 phr of crystalline polymer, 75 phr of silica (meeting the limitations of claims 28 and 29), 5 phr of Silane coupling agent (meeting the limitations of claims 25 and 26) and 1.5 hr of Vulcanization accelerator (see Table 1 at 0065), where modified conjugated diene based polymer R is a copolymer of styrene and 1,3 butadiene (see 0059) and the crystalline polymer is Polyethylene with trademarks of “ Petrothene 213 ”(LDPE) and “Nipolonhard 6530” (HDPE) (see 0069, meeting the limitations of claims 21-23 and 27).
Tani fails to teach that a modified conjugated diene copolymer contains ethylene units.
Matsushita discloses a rubber composition form tire production comprising:
(A) a conjugated diene compound/non-conjugated olefin copolymer,
(B) a conjugated diene-based polymer, and
(C) a non-conjugated diene compound/non-conjugated olefin copolymer containing an ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (see Abstract).
In particular, Matsushita teaches random Ethylene-Butadiene Copolymer (EBR2) contained 38 mol% ethylene units and 62 mol % of 1.3 butadiene units (see 0180, meeting the limitations of claims 17-18 and 20).
In reference to claim 19, Matsushita discloses that olefin component in the copolymer above is 60 mol% or less (see claim 2).
Matsushita teaches that the tires containing a rubber composition formed from a rubber and Ethylene-Butadiene Copolymer have excellent durability, weather resistance and comparatively low cost due to use of inexpensive olefin resource (see 0002 and 0009).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Ethylene-Butadiene Copolymer in Tani’s tires, since it provides excellent durability, weather resistance and comparatively low cost.
Regarding claim 28, Matsushita discloses the content of the reinforcing filler (D) is 10 parts by mass to 70 parts by mass per 100 parts by mass of rubber component (see claim 58).
Crochet teaches a rubber composition based at least a natural rubber, a copolymer of ethylene and of a 1,3 - diene , a carbon black and a crosslinking system , where the natural rubber content in the rubber composition being greater than 50 phr, the ethylene units in the copolymer representing more than 50 mol % of the monomer units of the copolymer (see claim 1).
Crochet discloses that tires , which sidewalls consist of a composition above have improved performance and are particularly suitable for being fitted to passenger vehicles or heavy goods vehicles (see 0060).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Crochet‘s Ethylene-Butadiene Copolymer in Tani’s tires, since it provides improved performance and is particularly suitable for being fitted to passenger vehicles or heavy goods vehicles.
Claim 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tani et al. in view of Matsushita et al. (US 20130324660) or Crochet et al (WO 2020074806) as applied to claims 16-23 and 25-30 above, and further in view of Sone et al. (US 20180250983).
Tani, Matsushita and Crochet do not teach polyethylene with MFR within the range of 2 to 25 g/10 min.
Sone teaches a rubber composition for tires comprising polyethylene having MFR value from 1.5 g / 10 min to 8 g / 10 min (see 0050).
Sone discloses that when MFR is within the range above, superior heat resistance is attained (see 0050).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use polyethylene with Sone’s MFR range in order to achieve superior heat resistance.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY LISTVOYB whose telephone number is (571)272-6105. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm EST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Heidi Riviere Kelley can be reached at (571) 270-1831. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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GL
/GREGORY LISTVOYB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765
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