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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hashimoto et al (JP 2016/109998 A, using the machine translation for the citations below), as evidenced by Kobayashi et al (US 2022/0389212 A1), Hiratani et al (US 2023/0287151 A1), Jiang et al (CN 105968070 A, using the machine translation for the citations below), PubChem (Pentaerythritol tetra(3-mercaptopropionate), Aug 8 2005), and Nippon Shokubai (Perfectly Spherical, Fine particles of Silica: SEAHOSTAR, Archived Apr 15, 2024).
Regarding Claim 1: Hashimoto teaches a curable composition (para. 0012) comprising a polyfunctional thiol compound having 3-6 thiol groups (para. 0021), a polyfunctional allyl compound having 2-3 allyl groups (para. 0015), a urethane (meth)acrylate (para. 0036), an inorganic filler having a particle size of less than 3 µm (para. 0033), and a photopolymerization initiator (para. 0023). In a working example (Table 1, Example 1), Hashimoto teaches 1 part of pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptobutyrate), 3 parts of diallyl bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, 2 parts of a urethane (meth)acrylate, and 1.5 parts of a silica filler. The urethane (meth)acrylate is Kayarad UXT-6100, which Hiratani teaches is bifunctional (para. 0114), and the silica is KE-D-100. Nippon Shokubai teaches that the KE line of silica fillers are spherical (p.1, Basic Information).
The blending ratio of the polyfunctional urethane (meth)acrylate to the polyfunctional allyl compound in Example 1 is 0.66.
The amount of the spherical filler having a particle size of less than 3 µm in Example 1 is 25 parts per 100 parts of the polyfunctional urethane (meth)acrylate, polyfunctional allyl compound, and polyfunctional thiol compound. It should be noted that the organic filler in Example 1 has a particle size of 80 µm (Kobayashi, para. 0189) and therefore is not included in component (D) of the instant claims.
In Example 1, based on 1 part of pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptobutyrate), which has 4 thiol groups and a molecular weight of 488.7 g/mol (PubChem, p.1, Molecular Weight), 3 parts of diallyl bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, which has 2 unsaturated bonds and a molecular weight of 420 g/mol (Jiang, para. 0042-43), and 2 parts of the bifunctional urethane (meth)acrylate Kayarad UXT-6100, which has 2 unsaturated bonds and a weight-average molecular weight of 6000 g/mol (Hiratani para. 0114): the concentration of thiol functional groups in the polyfunctional thiol compound is 0.13, the concentration of unsaturated bonds in the polyfunctional allyl compound is 0.23, and the concentration of unsaturated bonds in the polyfunctional urethane (meth)acrylate compound. The ratio of the concentration of thiol functional groups in the polyfunctional thiol compound to the total concentration of unsaturated bonds in the polyfunctional allyl compound and the polyfunctional urethane (meth)acrylate compound is 0.54.
Regarding Claim 2: Hashimoto teaches a liquid crystal display cell (i.e. a liquid crystal panel) sealed with the cured product of the composition as set forth above (para. 0012).
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAITLIN N ILLING whose telephone number is (571)270-1940. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM.
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/C.N.I./Examiner, Art Unit 1767
/MARK EASHOO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1767
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