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. JP2023-076051, filed on 5/2/2023.
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 and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kameyama (US PGP 2005-0003290) in view of Amano (US PGP 2020-0292956).
Kameyama teaches a toner comprising a binder resin including fumaric acid (Abstract). The amount of fumaric acid in the toner is 0.20% or less (Abstract, [0010]), and more preferably 0.01 to 0.1% ([0017]). Kameyama is silent regarding a content of fumaric acid extracted from the toner using methanol, however, it would be expected to fall in the range of 0.0003 to 0.0100%. Applicant teaches that the methanol extraction shows the fumaric acid near the surface of the toner, as the binder resin is not easily dissolved by the methanol, but the fumaric acid near the surface is dissolved ([0030]). Kameyama teaches that the toner is homogeneously mixed ([0036]), and the toner does not comprise a shell layer that would prevent the fumaric acid from being present at the surface of the toner ([0062]). Similarly, the toner particles of the instant application comprise a homogenous particle excluding a shell layer ([0139]). Therefore, a toner particle containing a similar amount of fumaric acid to that of the instant application would be expected to have a similar amount of fumaric acid extracted by methanol.
Kameyama teaches that the toner may comprise an external additive ([0035]), but is silent regarding the external additive being a hydrotalcite particle. Amano teaches a toner containing an external additive comprising hydrotalcite particles (Abstract). The hydrotalcite particles have a number average particle diameter of 0.10 µm to 1.00 µm, or 100 nm to 1,000 nm ([0056]). The content of the hydrotalcite particles in the toner is preferably 0.10 parts by mass to 0.80 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the toner, or approximately 0.10% to 0.79% ([0058]). Amano teaches that the hydrotalcite particles in this amount can prevent fogging and prevent development streaks ([0059]). The hydrotalcite particles have the structural formula
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([0061]), wherein Mg2+ is preferable as the divalent metal ion, and Al3+ is preferable as the trivalent metal ion ([0063]). The anion may be exemplified by F- ([0064]).
The ratio a/b, wherein a is the content of the hydrotalcite particle in the toner, and b is the content of the fumaric acid in the toner is 1.0 to 79.0. The lower limit of the range for the content of the hydrotalcite particles is 0.10%, and the upper limit for the preferable range of the fumaric acid is 0.1%, so the lower limit of a/b is 0.10/0.1 = 1.0. The upper limit for the content of the hydrotalcite particles is 0.79%, and the lower limit for the preferable range of the fumaric acid is 0.01%, so the upper limit of a/b is 0.79/0.01 = 79.0.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kameyama and Amano as applied to claims 1-5 and 7-8 above, and further in view of Tominaga (US PGP 2021-0116831).
The entire discussion of Kameyama and Amano above is included herein. Kameyama and Amano are silent regarding a process cartridge for use with the toner particle. Tominaga teaches an electrophotographic apparatus comprising a process cartridge, which is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus ([0321], Figure 4). The process cartridge includes a developing unit containing the toner ([0322]), a latent image bearing member 91, and a cleaning blade 95 ([0323]). 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 used the process cartridge of Tominaga with the toner of Kameyama and Amano, as it is well known in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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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