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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2023-109090, filed on 7/3/2023.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sacripante (US PGP 2014-0134534).
Sacripante teaches a toner which is composed of biodegradable and recycled materials (Abstract). The toner comprises a polyester binder resin, wherein the binder resin comprises recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) ([0005]). The amount of PET in the binder resin is from 5% to 70% by weight ([0019] line 3-5). The binder resin further comprises bio-based materials ([0019] line 6-8). Examples of polyols which may be used for the polyester include 1,2-propanediol (propylene glycol) ([0030] line 1-3), and Example 4 of a sustainable resin includes 1,2 propylene glycol as a monomer ([0143]). In this example the propylene glycol is approximately 10.3% by mass of the entire binder resin (117g/1,133g). The toner further comprises a wax ([0067]), which may be an ester wax ([0069]). The toner may have a core shell structure ([0104],[0116]). A toner particle having a shell would be expected to have a circumferential length occupied by the release agent of less than 5% of the entire circumferential length of the outermost surface of the toner particle, as most of the release agent present near the surface of the core particle would be covered by the shell layer. The toner may be mixed with a carrier to form a two-component developer ([0126]). The toner may be combined with an enclosure for a toner accommodating unit ([0131]).
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.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sacripante (US PGP 2014-0134534) in view of Yoko (WO 2022-202672).
The entire discussion of Sacripante above is included herein. Although Sacripante teaches that the toner contains biomass-derived components, the origin of the propylene glycol used in the binder resin is not disclosed. Yoko teaches a polyester resin including a bio-mass derived polyhydric alcohol and polyethylene terephthalate (Abstract, [0014]), which may be used in toners ([0002]). The biomass-derived monomers are included in the resin in order to reduce the environmental impact of the resin ([0027]). Examples of the biomass-derived polyhydric alcohol components include propylene glycol ([0021]), and exemplary resins 5 and 7-11 include biomass-derived propylene glycol as one of the alcohol components (Table 1, [0066]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the toner of Sacripante to have used propylene glycol that is biomass-derived in order to further reduce the environmental impact of the toner.
Conclusion
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/J.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1734
/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 08/10/2026
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