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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on June 25, 2026 has been entered.
Claims 14-20 are pending. Claims 1-13 and 21-24 have been cancelled. Claims 14,15 and 19 have been amended.
All prior rejections are withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendments to the claims.
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 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Colwell (US 2022/0120033) in view of Revolaze (WO 2020/096650).
Colwell ‘033 teaches a method of ring dyeing comprising providing a cellulosic yarn (paragraph 0096), immersing the dye in a single sulfur bath (paragraph 0067, scour/sulfur dye, box 1) of bath temperature 70°C (paragraph 0076) for 10.7 seconds or 7-14 seconds (paragraph 0075) wherein the sulfur dye has a concentration of 8g/L and a pH of 11.9 (paragraph 0076), skying for less than 8-11 seconds as the distance of the scour box to the rinse box is much less than the 8-11 it takes to travel through the scour box which is 8-11 seconds (see Figure 1. first two boxes, 104a is exit from the sulfur dye scour to entry into box 2 of scour rinsing, 8-11 sec is time to go through the rollers in the scour rinse box 2, paragraph 0047), rinsing the yarn in clean (fresh) water with continuous flow at room temperature (paragraph 0077, 0046 and 0042) after skying in the scour rinse tank (paragraph 0077), dyeing the yarn in indigo dye between 7-15, preferably 10-13 sec (paragraphs 0078-0079) wherein the dye solution has a pH of 11.5-12.5 (paragraph 0053) and skying after dyeing is 1:5,1:18 or preferably a 1:10 ratio of immersion to oxidation (paragraph 0059) for a 10-13 second immersion in indigo dyebath, the skying would be 100-130 seconds. Colwell ‘033 teaches using sulfur black dye (paragraph 0090-0096).
Colwell ‘033 does not specify open-end or ring yarns or the indigo dye concentration of 0.5-12 g/L.
Revolaze teaches ring spun yarn or open ended yarn are conventionally indigo dyed using ring dyeing applications (paragraph 0006) wherein sulfur dye is applied prior to indigo dye (paragraph 0054). Revolaze teaches improved ring dyeing is effectively achieved using indigo dye concentrations of 2-2.5 g/L or 3-5g/L (page 28, indigo feed-concentration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Colwell ‘033 by dyeing open ended or ring spun yarns and using indigo dye concentrations of 2-5g/L as Revolaze teaches these types of yarns are conventionally and effectively ring dyed using similar indigo dyes at the claimed concentrations ranges. Using a conventional ring spun or open ended yarn to produce a ring dyed indigo effect is obvious as is using conventionally effective indigo dyed concentrations known to produce the ring dyed effect.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed regarding Colwell ‘033 as they apply to the new rejection above have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. As indicated in the rejection above, Colwell clearly teach all the claimed method steps including immersion times, sulfur or indigo dye concentrations, pH levels and rinsing steps as preferred embodiments. The only teachings Colwell ‘033 lacks are the specific open ended or ring spun yarns and the concentration of indigo dyes which are clearly conventional as new rejection citing Revolaze teaches open ended and ring spun yarns are conventionally ring dyed using similar indigo concentrations. Nothing unobvious is seen in using conventional yarn types and dye concentrations to produce the same ring dyeing effects on cellulosic yarns.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMINA S KHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm EST.
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/AMINA S KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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