DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This application is a national stage entry under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/JP2022/022872 filed 6/7/2022.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)-(d) by Application No. JP 2021-140164 filed 8/30/2021, which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claims 1-8 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamada et al. (JP 2020/169251) in view of Miyano et al. (US 2018/0371276).
Regarding claim 1: Yamada is directed to a photocurable inkjet printing ink composition containing:
A photopolymerizable component of an amine modified oligomer as utilized in the working examples and preferably 1-15 wt% of a photopolymerization initiator of formula (I) and 0.1-7% by mass of a sensitizer that is preferably a thioanthone based sensitizer relative to total amount of the solid ink (equivalent to all photopolymerizable components representing 100 parts by mass).
Miyano is directed to a photocurable inkjet composition that comprises a polymerizable component of an amine modified oligomer in an amount of 0.5-10 mass% of the inkjet composition ([0068] Miyano). One skilled in the art would have been motivated to have selected this amount of amine modified oligomer in Yamada for curability and storage stability and jetting ability ([0068] Miyano). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to have included an amount of 0.5-10 mass% amine modified oligomer in the composition to arrive at claim 1 of the present invention.
Regarding claims 2-3: The polymerizable groups are preferably used in the range of 15-70% by mass.
Regarding claims 4, 6-8: The combination of Yamada and Miyano doesn’t mention a specific viscosity. However, Yamada teaches viscosity is a function of the number of reactive groups and molecular weight and can be adjusted to achieve desired properties.
Case law holds that “discovery of an optimum value of a result effective variable in a known process is ordinarily within the skill of the art.” See MPEP 2144.05(II).
In the present case, one skilled in the art could have selected reactive groups and molecular weight such that the resulting composition has a desired viscosity, and would have been motivated to have done so to adjusted to achieve desired properties. Selection of a reactive group and molecular weight is well within the skill level of one skilled in the art.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to have selected reactive groups and a given molecular weight such that the resulting composition has a viscosity within the scope of the claims.
Regarding claim 5: A polyfunctional photopolymerizable component of tetrafunctional or higher (meth)acrylate is used in an amount of 15-70 wt% of the total amount of solid ink.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT T BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-3514. The examiner can normally be reached Telework M-F 9-5 Pacific Time Zone.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lanee Reuther can be reached at (571) 270-7026. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT T BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764
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