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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP 2023-165025, filed on 9/27/2023.
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Azuma (JP 2017-125878) in view of Hironaka (WO 2022-239656).
Azuma teaches an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a photosensitive layer, wherein the binder resin contains a polyarylate resin and a polycarbonate resin (Abstract). The photosensitive layer may be a multi-layer type, wherein the charge generation layer is the outermost layer ([0027]). The content ratio of the polyarylate resin to the polycarbonate resin is 7:3 to 1:9 ([0129]). Exemplary photoreceptors A-19 and A-20 have ratios of 50:50 and 70:30, respectively (Table 1).
The polycarbonate resin has the repeating units (2-1) and (2-2), comparable to (PCB) and (PCA) of instant claim 5, respectively ([0099]).
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The exemplary polycarbonate resins (PC-3), (PC-5), and (PC-6) contain the same components as the polycarbonate resin (PC1) of the instant application ([0110-114]). The proportion of the repeating unit (2-1) to the repeating unit (2-2) in these examples ranges from 40:60 to 90:10.
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Hironaka teaches a polymer for use in a coating film containing at least one of a structural unit (I-A) and (I-B), and a structural unit (II) (Abstract). The coating film is useful for the charge transport layer in an electrophotographic photoreceptor, as it provides excellent abrasion resistance ([0098], line 11-17).
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Formula (I-A) and (I-B) are representative of Formula (B) of instant claim 4. This structural unit gives the material both rigidity and flexibility to enhance the wear resistance of the coating film ([0020], line 4-5). Formula (II-2) is representative of Formula (A) of instant claim 4. The exemplary polymer (1) ([0102-104]) contains the same primary monomers as the polyester resin 2 of the instant application. This polymer showed the best results for each of the evaluations of abrasion resistance, film-forming properties, and heat resistance (Table 1). This resin would have the same elastic deformation rate as PE2 of the instant application of 53.8%.
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the photoreceptor of Azuma to have used the polymer of Hironaka as the polyarylate resin in order to improve the abrasion resistance.
The elastic deformation rate of the polycarbonate resin of Azuma would have a similar rate as PC1 of the instant application, and as such the difference between the polyester resin and the polycarbonate resin would be approximately 5.8%.
Claims 6-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Azuma and Hironaka as applied to claims 1-5 above, and further in view of Yasufumi (JP 2014-044317).
Azuma and Hironaka are silent regarding an image forming apparatus for use with the photoreceptor. As such, a person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to look to the prior art. Yasufumi teaches an electrophotographic image forming apparatus (Figure 1, printer). The printer includes an image forming units (process cartridges, Figure 2, 10), which are known to be attachable to and detachable from the printer. The image forming units include a photoreceptor (11), a charging device (12), a developer (13), and a transfer device (14) ([0027]). The printer further includes an exposure device (latent image forming device, 20 ([0022]). The charging device applies only a DC voltage to the photoreceptor ([0028]). The voltage applied to the charging member from the DC voltage application unit is -500V ([0028]).
Conclusion
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/J.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1734
/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 07/22/2026
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