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 19-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roller et al. (US 20110237736) in view of Fischer et al. (AU 720104, cited in IDS).
Roller disclose a method of applying an aqueous dispersion coating comprising a polymer particles on a wooden substrate (see 0191, meeting the limitations of claim 21), where the polymer comprises the following residues (see Example A at 0196-0198):
45, 8 g n-butyl acrylate (BA), 39.96% g methyl methacrylate (MMA), 165.1 g styrene (meeting limitations of claim 24), 22.78 g methacrylic acid (MA) (meeting limitations of claims 26-27), 21.45 g ureidomethacrylate (N-(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)imidazolidin-2-One) and 33.0 g Bisomer MPEG 350 MA (methoxypolyethylene glycol monomethacrylate).
The position is taken that methyl methacrylate, styrene and part of butyl acrylate and can be considered as the claimed monomer M1. In particular, the monomer above can be represented by acrylic acid aster (i.e., MMA and BA).
Another part of butyl acrylate (meeting limitations of claim 26) and methacrylic acid (meeting limitations of claim 25) represent monomer M2, meeting the limitation of claim 19 reciting at least one M2 monomer contains acid group.
Ureidomethacrylate (N-(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)imidazolidin-2-One) is monomer M3 (meeting limitations of claims 28-30).
Monomer 4 is represented by Bisomer MPEG 350 MA (meeting the limitations of claim 31).
Note that instant claim 1 allows the composition formula, where at least parts of monomers M1 and M2 are identical.
After synthesis the polymer, which has a glass transition temperature of 32° C, is neutralized (see 0200).
In reference to claim 22, Roller teaches that the polymer above has a molecular weight of 9200g/mol (see 0201).
In reference to claim 23, Roller teaches a chain transfer agent (see 0127).
Regarding claims 31-35, Roller discloses such crosslinking agents as polyamines and carboxylic acid dihydrazides (see 0118 and 0122).
In reference to claim 36, Roller teaches a polystyrene dispersion having an HDC particle size of 50 nm, comprising an oligomer (Solids based on Solids of the polymer dispersion from the above example A) (see Example 2a, b, c at 0203).
Roller fails to teach the claimed amount of monomer M3 and pH after neutralization.
Fischer teaches a method of applying a coating polymer particle composition on a wood substrate (see 6:35, meeting the limitations of claim 21), where the composition comprises the following residues:
14.2-46.3 % wt of methylmethacrylate (MMA), 14.2-37.8% wt. of styrene (STY) and 15 % wt. of Aceto acetoxy ethyl Methacrylate (AAEM), where total amount of all acrylate containing monomers are 100 % (see Examples 3-10 at page 10).
In this composition, MMA and STY represent claimed monomers M1 and M2, while AAEM is a reactive monomer M3.
Fischer discloses that the polymer is neutralized and pH does not exceed 6 (see 2:15).
Fischer teaches that the dispersion possesses very high storage stability and resistivity to organic solvents (see 1a:10 and 9:15).
The position is taken that stability is increases at pH values close to neutral and solvent resistivity increases with cross-linking density, which raises with increase of crosslinker content.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to neutralize Roller’s composition to pH 6 in order to increase storage stability of the dispersion above and a coating solvent resistivity by increasing a content of a monomer M3.
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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