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 § 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, 5 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by DE19958720A1.
As to claim 1, DE19958720A1 discloses in figure 5, a decorative film comprising: a decorative layer; and a plurality of expansion regions 10, each expansion region having an expansion element which is formed by at least one expansion slit 11 that penetrates the decorative film in the thickness direction. The preamble reciting “for application to a surface having non-planar surface regions” is not given patentable weight because it is merely a statement of intended use for the decorative film, and does not limit the structure of the decorative film. The claim further recites “a plurality of compression regions and/or expansion regions”, and therefore does not require any compression regions. The claim further recites “wherein the decorative film is inherently stiff”. This is believed to be met by the decorative film of DE19958720A1 in light of applicant’s specification (page 2, last paragraph).
As to claim 5, DE19958720A1 discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claim 1. DE19958720A1 further discloses in figure 5, wherein the at least one expansion slit 11 has longitudinal edges that are parallel to one another when the decorative film is laid flat and the at least one expansion slit has a constant slit width.
As to claim 10, DE19958720A1 discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention discussed above regarding claim 1. DE19958720A1 further discloses in figure 5, that the expansion regions 10 have a greater number of slits 11 (expansion elements) per unit area than non-expansion regions 15. The expansion regions 10 form convex surface regions having a smaller radius of curvature than the non-expansion regions 15 when the decorative film expands.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 6-9 and 11-18 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: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a decorative film comprising the combination required by claims 2-4, 6-9, 11 and 16-18, wherein the decorative film further comprises the compression regions having a star-shaped or diamond-shaped compression element as recited in claim 1.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a decorative film comprising the combination required by claim 12, wherein the decorative layer is configured such that the light reflection properties or light transmission properties of the decorative layer can be changed by applying an electrical voltage thereto. Claims 13-14 are objected to by virtue of their dependency.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art taught or fairly suggested a vehicle comprising the combination required by claim 15, and further comprising the decorative film recited in claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David Chung whose telephone number is (571)272-2288. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Caley can be reached at (571)272-2286. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID Y CHUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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