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 .
Response to Amendment
The preliminary amendment filed on 02/14/2025 is the latest filed amendment and is under consideration by the Examiner. No claim has been amended. Claims 1-13 are currently pending in the instant application.
It is noted an earlier preliminary amendment, filed on 07/10/2024, with claim 10 amended, is of record. Applicant is requested to confirm that preliminary amendment filed on 02/14/2025 should be considered and not preliminary amendment filed on 07/10/2024.
Priority
This application is a 371 of PCT/KR2022/003335 (filed on 03/10/2022). Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Republic of Korea on 01/10/2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) filed on 07/10/2024, 12/09/2024, and 04/06/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and have been considered by the examiner. An initialed copy accompanies this Office Action.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 07/10/2024 have been considered.
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.
Claims 11-13 are 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 11, in line 3 and line 8, the phrase "such as" 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).
Claims 12 and 13 directly or indirectly depend from claim 11 and are indefinite based on their dependencies.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 are allowed over the prior art of record.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the claims, filed on 02/14/2025, have been carefully reviewed and searched.
The best new prior art found is to EP 3001487 B1, hereinafter Park. Park discloses a binder with a core-shell structure for secondary battery electrode wherein the core includes styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and the shell includes a copolymer of two or more monomers selected from the group consisting of a conjugated diene-based monomer, a (meth)acrylic ester-based monomer, an acrylate-based monomer, a vinyl-based monomer, a nitrile-based monomer, and an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer, and the binder includes a functional group providing binding capacity to surfaces of the SBR particles (See [0001] and [0019]). Park discloses that the core-shell structure is formed by (a chemical reaction) polymerization process (See [0070]). Park also discloses a viscosity controlling agent (thickener) including carboxymethylcellulose (See [0056] and [0071]).
However, Park failed to disclose a nanocellulose interacts with a functional group of the shell surface of the core-shell latex particle as required in claim 1. Therefore, claim 1 is allowable over the prior art of record. Claims 2-10 depend from claim 1 and are allowable based on their dependencies.
Claims 11-13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHANH TUAN NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8082. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST.
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/KHANH T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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