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.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerns (US 6,372,863) in view of Tang (CN 112812331). As the CN document is not in English, citations are made to the attached translation.
Kerns teaches styrene butadiene rubber (abstract) comprising a vinyl content of less than 1% (col. 3, ln. 5-20) and gives examples having a Mw of 222,000-636,000 (Table 3).
Kerns does not explicitly recite using a diboronic ester.
However, Tang teaches rubbers derived from dienes (¶ 16) which have been crosslinked (¶ 24-27) which a crosslinking agent that provides a dynamic covalent bonds (¶ 27) and includes crosslinking through a diborate having the structure
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(Table 3) which meets general formula (1) when X is a phenylene group. Tang teaches examples where the amount of borate includes 7.1 and 13.6 kg borate per 142.9 and 136.4 kg polymer (Table 3) which meets the range of claim 2.
It would have been obvious to use the crosslinking system of Tang because it makes the recycling of the rubber easier (¶ 2-5).
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Halasa (US 7,064,171) in view of Tang (CN 112812331). As the CN document is not in English, citations are made to the attached translation.
Halasa teaches styrene butadiene rubber havinga vinyl content of 8-20 wt% and aMn of 200,000-475,000 (abstract) and a weight average molecular weight of 300,000-400,000 (col. 10, ln. 14-28).
Halasa does not explicitly recite using a diboronic ester.
However, Tang teaches rubbers derived from dienes (¶ 16) which have been crosslinked (¶ 24-27) which a crosslinking agent that provides a dynamic covalent bonds (¶ 27) and includes crosslinking through a diborate having the structure
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(Table 3) which meets general formula (1) when X is a phenylene group. Tang teaches examples where the amount of borate includes 7.1 and 13.6 kg borate per 142.9 and 136.4 kg polymer (Table 3) which meets the range of claim 2.
It would have been obvious to use the crosslinking system of Tang because it makes the recycling of the rubber easier (¶ 2-5).
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang (US 2015/0057391) in view of Tang (CN 112812331). As the CN document is not in English, citations are made to the attached translation.
Kang teaches rubber compositions comprising a raw material rubber which can include styrene-butadiene rubber (abstract) and a vulcanizing agent (¶ 20) where the styrene-butadiene rubber has a vinyl content of 15-18 wt% and a Mw of 260,000 to 320,000 (¶ 37) and the vulcanizing agent can include organic peroxides (¶46-48). The vulcanizing of Kang corresponds to the claimed crosslinking. Kang teaches mixing the components, including rubber and vulcanizing agent and heating to crosslink the composition (¶ 85).
Kang does not explicitly recite using a diboronic ester.
However, Tang teaches rubbers derived from dienes (¶ 16) which have been crosslinked (¶ 24-27) which a crosslinking agent that provides a dynamic covalent bonds (¶ 27) and includes crosslinking through a diborate having the structure
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46
210
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(Table 3) which meets general formula (1) when X is a phenylene group. Tang teaches examples where the amount of borate includes 7.1 and 13.6 kg borate per 142.9 and 136.4 kg polymer (Table 3) which meets the range of claim 2.
It would have been obvious to use the crosslinking system of Tang because it makes the recycling of the rubber easier (¶ 2-5).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT C BOYLE whose telephone number is (571)270-7347. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 10am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arrie (Lanee) Reuther can be reached at (571)270-7026. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT C BOYLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764
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