DETAILED ACTION
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103
Claims 1-8 and 11-13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over HIRATA'247 (US- 20220251247), as set forth in the last office action and reiterated herein below.
Claim 1: Hirata'247 teahces hollow particles which comprise a shell containing a resin and a hollow portion surrounded by the shell (0030), wherein the shell contains at least 60% by mass of crosslinkable monomer units (para. 0020). The monomers forming the hollow particles comprise non-crosslinkable and crosslinkable monomers wherein the non-crosslkinable comprises carboxyl group-containing monomers (para. 0070);therefore, it is necessarily inherent the hollow particles have carboxy groups on a surface thereof. With regards to the carboxylic acid amount value, Hirata'247 does not report the carboxylic acid amount per unit area; however, because the hollow particles of Hirata'247 comprises the same monomers and are formed by essentially the same process steps in the same order (see rejections to claim 11 below), it is expected that the carboxylic acid amount, if measured, would have a value that is within the claimed range. In the alternative, because Hirata'247 teaches non-crosslinkable monomers to include both carboxy-containing monomers and non-carboxy containing monomers as equivalent, it would have been obvious as matter of choice to select carboxy-group- containing monomers.
Claim 2: Hirata'247 teaches the carboxy group-containing monomers including ethylene glycol dilmethuacrylate (EGDMA) as preferred (para. 0090) which monomer contains a radically polymerizable group (ethylene glycol) and a protected carboxy group because the carboxy group (COO) is not a terminal group.
Claim 3: The monomers forming the hollow particles comprise non- crosslinkable and crosslinkable monomers wherein the non-crosslkinable and crosslinkable monomers both comprise carboxyl group-containing monomers (Hirata'247, para. 0070 and therefore, it is necessarily inherent the hollow particles have carboxy groups on a surface thereof.
Claims 4-5: Hirata'247 teaches the carboxy group-containing monomers including ethylene glycol dilmethuacrylate (EGDMA) as preferred (para. 0090) which monomer contains a radically polymerizable group (ethylene glycol) and a protected carboxy group because the carboxy group (COO) is not a terminal group.
Claim 6: Hirata'247 teaches all the monomers for forming the hollow particles are "polymerizable monomers" (para. 0064-0065); therefore, it is necessarily inherent that more than 50% by mass of the total monomers in the polymer is hydrocarbon.
Claim 7: Hirata'247 teaches the monomers for forming the hollow particles comprising crosslkinable and non-crosslinkable monomers wherein the non- crosslinkable monomers include acrylic monomers units (para. 0077) and the crosslinkable monomers also preferably are acrylic monomers (Hirata'247, para. 0090); therefore, it is necessarily inherent that the content of acrylic monomer units is more than 50% by mass with respect to all monomer units contained in the polymer.
Claim 8: Hirata'247 discloses that the hollow particles have a void ratio of at least 80% (para. 0167) and thus meets the calimed range of at least 50%.
Claim 11: Hirata'247 teaches a method for making hollow resin particles comprising:
preparing a mixture liquid containing a monomer for skeleton formation, a hydrocarbon solvent, a polymerization initiator, a dispersion stabilizer and an aqueous medium (para.0062-0063), wherein the hydrocarbon solvent includes hydrophobic solvents (Hirata'247, para.0111); in the alternative, because hydrophobic solvents are suggested, it would have been obvious as matter of choice to select hydrophobic solvents;
suspending the mixture liquid to prepare a suspension in which droplets of a monomer composition containing the monomer for skeleton formation, the hydrophobic solvent and the polymerization initiator are dispersed in the aqueous medium (para. 0129-0133);
and preparing a precursor composition containing precursor particles by subjecting the suspension to a polymerization reaction and adding a carboxy group-containing monomer which contains a radically polymerizable group and a carboxy group to further continue the polymerization reaction when a polymerization conversion rate of the monomer for skeleton formation reaches 1% by mass or more and 99% by mass or less, wherein the precursor particles comprise a shell and a hollow portion surrounded by the shell, and the precursor particles include the hydrophobic solvent in the hollow portion (para. 0141-0145);
and wherein the shell of the precursor particles contains a polymer of the monomer for skeleton formation and the carboxy group-containing monomer, and the shell has carboxy groups on an outside surface thereof (para. 0144-0145). The monomers forming the hollow particles comprise non-crosslinkable and crosslinkable monomers wherein the non-crosslkinable and crosslinkable monomers both comprise .
carboxyl group-containing monomers (Hirata'247, para. 0070 and 0090);therefore, it is necessarily inherent the hollow particles have carboxy groups on a surface thereof. With regards to the water solubility of the carboxy group-containing monomer; Hirata'247 teaches carboxy group-containing monomers be "hydrophilic" or a mixture of "hydrophilic and hydrophobic" (para. 0068-0071); therefore, they are necessarity more water-soluble than the hydrophobic solvents (para. 0111), and it is expected the hydrophilic monomers to have water solubility within or overlapping the claimed range by nature of hydrophilicity of the monomers.
Claims 12-13: Hirata'247 teaches a molding resin composition comprising the hollow particles and a binder resin having a functional group including an epoxy group (epoxy resin), an amino group (polyamide, polyimide), an isocyanate group (polyurethane), a hydroxy group (polyphenylene ether), a carboxy group (poly(meth)arcylate or polyester), or a thiol group (polyphenylene sulfide and polyphenylene ether) (Hirata'247, para. 0175).
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues that the hollow particles of Hirata cannot have sufficient carboxy group on the surface of the shell because Hirata does not perform deprotection of the protected carboxy group. However, this is not the only way to introduce the carboxy group to the surface of the particles. As stated in Applicant’s own specification, another way to introduce the carboxy group onto the surface is to add at least 2 wt% of the carboxy group-containing monomer to the toal monomers contained in the mixture liquid (instant specifiicaiton, paragraph 0072). Here, Hirata’247 adds from 2 wt% to 20 wt% of the carboxy group monomers in the mixture liquid containing total monomers (Hirata, Pages 11-12, Table 1, Non-crosslinkable monomer). Therefore, the carboxy group necessaritly deposits on the surface of the hollow particles.
With regards to the amount of the carboxy group per unit area, as all four of the components contain carboxy groups and the polymerization conversion rate is high, evident from the high void ratio and the thickness of the shell of the hollow particles, it is necessarily inherent that the carboxy group concentration as claimed is met.
Applicant's arguments filed March 26, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for the reasons stated above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Hirata'247 teaches a method of making hollow resin particles comprising essentially similar steps as claimed, namely: a mixture liquid preparation step comprising preparing a mixture liquid which contains a polymerizable monomer containing a non-crosslinkable monomer and a crosslinkable monomer, a hydrocarbon solvent, a polymerization initiator and an aqueous medium, a suspension preparation step comprising, by suspending the mixture liquid, preparing a suspension in which polymerizable monomer droplets including the hydrocarbon solvent are dispersed in the aqueous medium, a polymerization step comprising, by a polymerization reaction of the suspension, preparing a precursor composition containing a precursor particle having a hollow portion in which the hydrocarbon solvent is included. However, Hirata'247 does not teach carboxy-group containing monomers to have a deprotection step of the carboxy group in the carboxy-group-containing monomers as required in the instant claims 9 and 10.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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HOA (Holly) LE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1788
/HOA (Holly) LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788
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