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 § 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 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bok et al (KR 20200061948, cited in IDS, published on 2020-06-03) in view of De Haan et al (WO2021032826, published on 2021-06-20, cited herein with identical US 20220267248).
Bok teaches a method for preparing a polyester copolymer comprising the following procedure:
a) A bis-2-hydroxy ethyl terephthalate (BHET) purification, which contains a step of recrystallization of the monomer in distilled water and methanol mixed solution (5:5 weight ratio) heated to 50° C (the solute can dissolved at a heating temperature of 30 to 100 ℃) while stirring (see Example 1 and claim 1).
Note that amount of water in a mixture above can be increased up to 99% wt. (see claim 1).
b)Then purified BHET added to a slurry tank along with terephthalic acid (TPA) and isophthalic acid (IPA) dissolved in ethylene glycol (EG), where an addition glycol, such as cyclohexanedimethanol or propanediol can be added (meeting the limitations of claims 3, 4, 6 and 12).
c)The oligomer is produced by a condensation polymerization reaction carried out for 2-3 hours, and the polyester was prepared by raising the temperature to 280°C under reduced pressure so that the final vacuum level was 1.0 Torr or less.
d)The final polymer is obtained by solid phase polymerization for 18 hours under a nitrogen atmosphere at a temperature of 193°C (see Production Example 1: Polyester production, meeting the limitations of claim 10).
Regarding claim 5, Bok does not teach a cyclohexanedimethanol derivative. Instead, the reference uses cyclohexanedimethanol. They are equivalent, because both monomers form the same residue in the final polymer chain.
In reference to claims 7 and 8, Bok teaches that the esterification reaction can be performed at a pressure of 0 to 10.0 kg/cm2 and a temperature of 150 to 330°C and condensation polymerization reaction may be performed at a temperature of 250 to 330° C., preferably 270 to 290° C., pressure 0.5 to 2 torr for 1 to 20 hours under stirring.
Regarding claims 9 and 11, Bok teaches that the final polyester have an intrinsic viscosity of 0.50 to 0.90 dl/g.
Bok does not teach the pressure value when BHET and water are mixing, amount of by-product according to formula 1 and aqueous BHET used in step 2 of claim 1 and amount of water stipulated in claim 2.
De Haan discloses a process of making pure BHET used for the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (see 0002).
The procedure includes a crystallization of BHET in an aqueous solution at 50-70C (see 0062), eventually obtaining a monomer with purity of at least 97.0 wt. . % (see 0010) and having moisture content of 5 wt. % (see claim 4, meeting the limitations of claim 2), suitable for further polymerization.
The position is taken that since De Haan provides BHET of high purity, amount of by-products in further Bok’s process is minimized.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to expect small amount of by-products in Bok’s polymer, when high purity monomers, provided by De Haan are used.
Regarding pressure, applied at the first step, the position is taken that it is a normal experimental approach to use high pressure at elevated temperature in order to minimize solvent evaporation.
In the instant case substitution of equivalent methods requires no express motivation, as long as the prior art recognizes equivalency, In re Fount 213 USPQ 532 (CCPA 1982); In re Siebentritt 152 USPQ 618 (CCPA 1967); Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. Inc. V. Linde Air products Co. 85 USPQ 328 (USSC 1950)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use pressure at the Bok’s first step in order to prevent water evaporation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY LISTVOYB whose telephone number is (571)272-6105. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm EST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Heidi Riviere Kelley can be reached at (571) 270-1831. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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GL
/GREGORY LISTVOYB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765
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