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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 8-11, 13 and 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JP 2021-033185 (henceforth JP ‘185).
JP ‘185 teaches a toner set comprising a yellow, magenta, cyan and black toner (Abstract). Additionally, JP ‘185 teaches that the exothermic peak in a DSC heating for the colored toners satisfies the following formula 1 wherein P(Bk) represents the exothermic peak of the black toner, P(Y) represents the exothermic peak of the yellow toner, P(M) represents the exothermic peak of the magenta toner and P(C) represents the exothermic peak of the cyan toner: 70 °C ≤P(Bk)≤P(Y)≤P(M)≤P(C)≤90 °C (Abstract and [0011]). According to paragraph [0027] of the Applicant’s specification the crystallization temperature recited in pending claim 1 is equivalent to the exothermic peak temperature in a DSC heating procedure. JP ‘185 further teaches that the black toner will have a crystallization temperature between 70 and 85 °C, the yellow toner will have a crystallization temperature between 72 and 86 °C and the cyan toner will have a crystallization temperature between 74 and 88 °C ([0013]). As such, the toner set of JP ‘185 will read on the Applicant’s claim 1 wherein the cyan toner possesses a crystallization (exothermic peak) temperature of T1 and the yellow or black toner possesses a crystallization temperature T2. In Table VI JP ‘185 teaches a toner set 3 comprising a cyan toner with a crystallization temperature of 81 °C and a black toner with a crystallization temperature of 75.7 °C, which is understood as to be sufficiently close to the Applicant’s recited ranges as to anticipate them. This is further corroborated by the general ranges taught by JP ‘185 wherein the black toner is taught to have a crystallization temperature as low as 70 °C.
According to the range taught above in formula (1) of JP ‘185 the difference in crystallization temperature of the individual colored toners may be as high as 20 °C (Abstract and [0011]). Additionally, the toner is taught to comprise a crystalline resin ([0071-94]) and a granular material such as a pigment with a particle size of 10 to 200 nm ([0127-134]). The granular pigment is taught to be present in the toners in an amount of from 1 to 30% by weight ([0132]). The toners in the toner set are further taught to be paired with carrier particles to form two component developers ([0236-245]). The individual color toners are further taught to be housed in separate toner cartridges in order to supply the developing unit of the image forming apparatus with toner ([0261]). The image forming apparatus is additionally taught to comprise all of the image formation units, transfer unit and fixing unit recited by the Applicant in pending claim 17 for stacking images on top of one another to produce a desired color image ([0246-276]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 4, 6-7, 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2021-033185 (henceforth JP ‘185) in view of CN 116736654 (henceforth CN ‘654).
The complete discussion of JP ‘185 above is included herein. Additionally, JP ‘185 teaches in Table VI that a difference in crystallization temperature T1 and T3 is 5 °C or less. JP ‘185 does not teach a difference between crystallization temperatures T2 and T3 is 20 °C or more.
CN ‘654 teaches a colorless toner with a crystallization temperature within the range of 40 to 70 °C. Additionally, CN ‘654 teaches that by utilizing said colorless toner the fixing property of the toner can be improved and color rendering of the color image formed by color toners can be improved and stably maintained (see the Description section of the provided translation). Additionally, CN ‘654 teaches the use of silica particles as a granular pigment in the toner (see the “Colorant” section of the provided translation). Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant application t have utilized the colorless toner of CN ‘654 in the color toner set of JP ‘185 in order to improve the color rendering and color rendering stability of the colored toner image produced in an image forming process. As can be seen in Table VI of JP ‘185 the average value of the crystallization temperatures of the toners of toner set 3 is 79.4 °C (which represents the Applicant’s T3). CN ‘654 teaches a T2 value of 40 to 70 °C. As such, 66% of the range of suitable T2 values taught by CN ‘654 would read on the Applicant’s difference range of T2 and T3 of 20 °C recited in pending claim 4. It would have been well within the purview of one of ordinary skill in the art following the guidance of CN ‘654 to have optimized the T2 value within the range taught by CN ‘654 and to have employed such a colorless toner in the toner set taught by JP ‘185.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 09/21/2026
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