DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's submission filed on 02/13/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 3-6, and 8-9 are pending. Claims 1 and 6 have been amended.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KARASHINA WO0102660.
Claims 1 and 6. KARASHINA discloses a building wall (Fig.2) provided with at least an underlay face member (24) and an overlay face member (26), the underlay face member directly or indirectly connected to a stud (23), the overlay face member being an indoor-facing member and connected to the underlay face member, wherein the overlay face member is connected to the underlay face member via at least one of an adhesive (25) and a first fastener (illustrated in Fig.2), and wherein a coating amount of the adhesive is less than 100 g/m2 (Page 4:13 and claim 8 discloses coating thickness within 50-400g m2) in a case of the adhesive, and a number of fasteners of the first fastener is 7.2 fasteners/m2 to 32.7 fasteners/m2, inclusive, in a case of the first fastener.
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 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KARASHINA WO0102660 as applied to claims 1 and 6 above.
Claims 3 and 8. KARASHINA discloses the underlay face member is connected to the stud via a second fastener (shown in Fig.2) but is silent a number of fasteners of the second fastener is less than 5.0 fasteners/m. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to use a fasteners less than 5.0 fasteners/m to secure the underlay face member to the stud since its routinely in the field an average of 4 screws per stud is recommended thus anything over would be incur more cost without any advantage.
Claim 4 and 9. KARASHINA discloses an additional face member (Page.2:21-22 discloses “Two or more bonded face materials 1 and two or more bonded face materials 2”), the additional face member connected to the stud (illustrated in Fig.2), the underlay face member connected to the additional face member, wherein the underlay face member is connected to the additional face member via a third fastener (two or more bonded face materials 1), wherein the additional face member is connected to the stud via a second fastener (via fasteners as shown in Fig.2) but is silent a number of fasteners of the second fastener is less than 5.0 fasteners/m. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to use a fasteners less than 5.0 fasteners/m to secure the underlay face member to the stud since its routinely in the field an average of 4 screws per stud is recommended thus anything over would be incur more cost without any advantage.
Claim 5. KARASHINA is silent on the building wall is configured such that, during a fire, the underlay face member located on a side of the fire deforms relatively greatly as compared to the overlay face member (KARASHINA discloses in Page… that the face material 1 have high strength and excellent fire resistance based on the material cited such as fiber reinforced gypsum board, while face material 2 does not have this property) but is silent on an air layer is formed between the underlay face member and the overlay face member in a partial region thereof, in a state where the overlay face member does not fall off from the underlay face member. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to have an air pocket/air layer formed from the deformation of the inner layer in relation to the outer layer, since it is well settled case law that a reference is valid for what it would convey explicitly or implicitly to one skilled in the art.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/13/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued that , stating that the adhesive of HARASHINA is calculated in terms of the solid content of the adhesive rather while the instant application isn’t. Focusing on paragraph [0031] of the present application which states that "Examples of the vinyl acetate resin-based adhesive include the Yoshino Gypsum Co., Ltd. Manufactured product name: Yoshino Sakubi Bond (Purity of from 34% to 38%, inclusive)."
Although these elements, “vinyl acetate resin-based adhesive ”, are found as examples or embodiments in the specification, they were not claimed explicitly. Nor were the words that are used in the claims defined in the specification to require these limitations. A reading of the specification provides no evidence to indicate that these limitations must be imported into the claims to give meaning to disputed terms. Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices, Inc. 7 USPQ2d 1064. Therefore, examiner cannot and will not include such alleged ‘limitations’ in the interpretation of the claims.
Applicant then argues KARASHINA fails to disclose a number of fasteners of the first fastener is 7.2 fasteners/m2 to 32.7 fasteners/m2. Example draws Applicant’s attention to the limitation “at least one of an adhesive and a first fastener” which KARASHINA met by disclosing a fastener, which is at least one of the two options required.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BABAJIDE A DEMUREN whose telephone number is (571)270-7017. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Glessner can be reached at 5712726754. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
BABAJIDE A. DEMUREN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3633
/BABAJIDE A DEMUREN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3633