DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 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.
2. Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Torii et al. (US 2006/0063889 A1).
Torii et al. disclose a coating composition including an amide group-containable macromolecule compound (A) having an amide group or to have an amide group (equivalent to the amide group-containable polymer compound (A) that has an amide group of the claimed invention as recited in claim 1) and an anti-oxidizing material (B) (equivalent to component B of the claimed invention as recited in claim 1) wherein the anti-oxidizing material (B) includes poly(arylene sulfide) (PAS); and the PAS is not particularly limited and includes poly (phenylene sulfide ketone), poly (phenylene sulfide sulfone), poly (biphenylene sulfide) and poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS). In particular, PPS is suitably used (meeting the limitation that component B is polyphenylene sulfide, as recited in claim 1). The anti-oxidizing material (B) accounts for 0.1 to 20 mass % of a total amount of said amide group-containable macromolecule compound (A) and the anti-oxidizing material (B) (meeting the limitation that a content of the polyphenylene sulfide (B) is 1 to 50% by mass of a total of the amide group-containable polymer compound (A) and the polyphenylene sulfide (B), as recited in claim 1). The amide group-containable macromolecule compound (A) is an amide group-containing polymer (a1) having an amide group and an aromatic ring, and/or an amide group-containing-polymer precursor (a2) to convert into the amide group-containing polymer (a1) by baking at a time of coating with said coating composition (meeting the limitation that the amide group-containable polymer compound (A) is an amide group-containing polymer (al) having an amide group and an aromatic ring and/or an amide group-containing polymer precursor (a2) that changes to the amide group-containing polymer (al) in a sintering step when forming the powder coating material composition into a film, as recited in claim 1). Preferably, the coating composition further comprises a fluororesin (C) (equivalent to the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) of the claimed invention, as recited in claim 1) having a melting temperature of, for instance, 310 C. The coating composition comprising the fluororesin (C) can form, by coating, a coating film structurally separated into two layers of a first layer (front layer) based on the fluororesin (C) and a second layer based on the amide group-containable macromolecule compound (A) and the anti-oxidizing material (B). In case of laminating a fluororesin layer comprising a fluororesin (D) (equivalent to the perfluorinated fluororesin (D) of claim 3) on the first layer. The fluororesin (C) comprises a polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer having fluorine. The fluororesin (C) preferably comprises a fluorine-containing polymer obtained by polymerizing one or more kinds of fluorine-containing monomers selected from the group of fluorine-containing monomers consisting of chlorotrifluoroethylene (CTFE), trifluoroethylene, tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), (meeting the limitation that the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) comprises tetrafluoroethylene, as recited in claim 1), hexafluoropropylene (HFP), vinylidene fluoride (VdF), and perfluoro(alkyl vinyl)ether (PAVE) (equivalent to the perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether of claim 4). The fluororesin (C) comprising tetrafluoroethylene-based copolymer is more preferable in view of corrosion resistance and perfluororesins are preferably employed in the view of having both corrosion resistance and heat resistance. As the trace comonomer, there can be used one or more kinds of fluorine-free monomers and/or fluorine-containing monomers not being the perfluoroolefines nor perfluorovinylether as mentioned above. Preferably, a repeating unit derived from the trace comonomer in a molecular chain of the perfluoro polymers is less than 10 mol % of all monomer units of the perfluoro polymers (meeting the limitations of claim 4). Preferably, the fluororesin (C) accounts for 50 to 90 mass % of the total amount of the amide group-containable macromolecule compound (A), the anti-oxidizing material (B) and the fluororesin (C) (meeting the limitation that the content of the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) is 50.0 to 95.0% by mass of a total of the amide group-containable polymer compound (A), the polyphenylene sulfide (B), and the perfluorinated fluororesin (C), as recited in claim 1). The coating composition can be produced whether it is of a powder coating material type (meeting the limitation that the composition is a powder coating material composition, as recited in claim 1) or of a liquid coating material type. The coating composition according to the present invention can suitably be used as a primer composition. (meeting the limitation that the coating material composition is an undercoating material composition for a fluororesin layer comprising a perfluorinated fluororesin (D), as recited in claim 3). The fluororesin layer is formed on the coating film, and comprises a fluororesin (D) (also meeting the limitations of claim 4) and as the fluororesin (D), there may be used the same one as the fluororesin (C) when the coating composition according to the present invention does not comprise the fluororesin (C). Preferably, the fluororesin layer has a film thickness of 200 microns or more (meeting the limitations of claim 8). The fluoro-laminate according to the disclosed invention comprises the article to be coated, the coating film and the fluororesin layer (meeting the limitations of claim 6, 7, and 9) and the fluoro-laminate comprises an article to be coated, a coating film obtained by coating with said coating composition onto an article to be coated, and a fluororesin layer, wherein said fluororesin layer comprises a fluororesin (D), and said article to be coated, said coating film and said fluororesin layer are laminated in this order. (See Abstract and paragraphs 0017, 0018, 0020-0029, 0034-0042, 0054-0064, 0070-0075, 0079-0083, 0092-0099, 0124-0131, 0144-0147, and 0166). With regards to the limitation that the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) has a melting point of 250 to 320°C (as recited in claim 5) and that the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) has a melt flow rate (MFR) in a range of 5 to 30 (g/10 min) (as recited in claim 1), the Examiner takes the position that such property limitations are inherent in the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) taught by Torii et al. given that the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) taught by Torii et al. and that of the claimed invention are identical. Similarly, with regards to the limitation that the apparent density of the powder coating material is 0.50 to 1.00 (g/mL) (as recited in claim 1), the Examiner takes the position that such a property limitation is inherent in the powder coating material taught by Torii et al. given that the powder coating material taught by Torii et al. and that of the claimed invention are identical.
With regards to the limitation that the perfluorinated fluororesin (C) comprises
tetrafluoroethylene in a range of 85.0 to 99.5 mol% and the powder coating material has an average particle size of 10 to 50 µm, the Examiner would like to point out that workable physical properties such as concentrations and particle sizes are deemed to be obvious routine optimizations to one of ordinary skill in the art, motivated by the desire to obtain the required properties, particularly given that Torii et al. specifically teach that the tetrafluoroethylene-based copolymers are preferably employed in the view of having both corrosion resistance and heat resistance.
Conclusion
3. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEEBA AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-1504. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7am-6pm.
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/SHEEBA AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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