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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 15-22) in the reply filed on 12/11/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 23-34 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected Groups II and III , there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/13/2024 has been considered by the examiner. Initialed copies accompany this action.
Drawings
The Drawings filed 6/13/2024 are approved by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 21 the phrase "preferably" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 15-17, 19, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kong et al (CN114479613) in view of Cesareo et al (US2017/0190581). The machine translation is replied upon for the rejection purposes.
Regarding claim 15, Kong discloses a granular composition (an epoxy resin powder coating) comprising: from 20 to 95% by weight of a particulate material which is a filler (pigments and fillers); from 0.02 to 50% by weight of graphene nano-platelets (graphene nanosheets; from 0.5 to 60% by weight of a binder; wherein at least 90% of the graphene nano-platelets have a lateral dimension (x, y) from 50 to 20000 nm and a thickness (z) from 1 to 50 nm (the graphene nanosheets have a sheet diameter of 3 μm to 9 μm and a sheet thickness of 1 nm to 3 nm). See para 0007-0013 and examples 1-5. Kong does not disclose the graphene nano-platelets have a carbon-oxygen (C/O) ratio ≥40:1. Cesareo discloses graphene nano-platelets which have a lateral size (x, y) from 50 to 50,000 nm and a thickness (z) from 0.34 to 50 nm, having a C/O ratio ≧100:1 (abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filling date of the invention to use the graphene nano-platelets which have a lateral size (x, y) from 50 to 50,000 nm and a thickness (z) from 0.34 to 50 nm, having a C/O ratio ≧100:1 taught by Cesareo in the composition of Kong, which is highly pure, inexpensive to produce and very safe from a health and environmental point of view, with a reasonable expectation of success for providing an epoxy resin powder coating with high adhesion, low friction, high wear resistance, and high corrosion resistance.
Regarding claims 16 and 17, Kong discloses the particulate material also comprises pigments, the pigment is P. Black 6 (nano-carbon black, para 0040).
Regarding claim 19, Kong discloses the fillers are selected from the group consisting of: calcium carbonate; kaolin; mica; talc; silica; barium sulphate; zinc phosphate; calcium phosphate; organic and metallic stearates such as stearates of aluminum, barium, calcium, magnesium, tin, and zinc; aluminium silicate; and any combination thereof (para 0022).
Regarding claim 22, Kong discloses the granular composition does not contain Zinc phosphate or calcium phosphate.
Claims 18, 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kong et al (CN114479613) in view of Cesareo et al (US2017/0190581) as applied above, further in view of Ma et al. (US2023/0115050).
Kong in view of Cesareo discloses a granular composition as described above and is incorporated herein by reference.
Regarding claim 18, Kong discloses granules having a particle size of from 50 to 4000 μm as claimed. Ma discloses a powder coating composition, which can be ground to any desired particle size and in an electrostatic coating application, the composition can be ground to an average particle size of at least 10 microns or at least 20 microns and up to 130 microns (para 0110). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filling date of the invention to grind the powder coating composition of Kong to an average particle size of at least 10 microns or at least 20 microns and up to 130 microns with a reasonable expectation of success of forming a protective anti-corrosion coating, and achieving the effect of corrosion protection.
Regarding claims 20 and 21, Kong does not the binder is a wetting and dispersing agent as recited in the claims. Ma discloses a dispersant used in a powder coating composition (para 0090). Ma discloses dispersants for use in the composition include fatty acid, phosphoric acid esters, polyurethanes, polyamines, polyacrylates, polyalkoxylates, sulfonates, polyethers, and polyesters, or any combination thereof (para 0090). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filling date of the invention to use the dispersant taught by Ma in the powder coating of Kong, in order to improve the separation of the filler particles by wetting the particles and breaking apart agglomerates (para 0090).
Conclusion
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/HAIDUNG D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
1/15/2026