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 § 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(s) 21, 23, 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sawada (TWI 400,284B) in view of Sugita et al. (JP 2001-088245) and Horii (JP 2015007737 A, English Translation).
Regarding claim 21, Sawada teaches the process of applying coating liquid to the surface of base film (claims), where the base film is polymer such as polycarbonate (page 3, second paragraph). Step A, Sawada teaches the coating liquid is used to form hard coating layer (page 4, fifth paragraph), where the coating liquid comprises epitaxial radiation curable compound resin (as UV curable resin additives) and radical radiation curable compound (claims, and page 4, fifth paragraph) as UV curable oligomer, additionally, the hard coating layer includes flake shape particle with nano size such as inorganic flakes (page 5, 7th-8th paragraphs). Therefore, it would be obvious that the inorganic flakes were dispersed and mixed with the coating liquid ingredients/compounds prior to forming the hard coating layer. Additionally, the coating liquid also include photopolymerizing initiator for the irradiation/curing with ultraviolet (page 6, fifth paragraph). Sawada teaches the radical radiation curable compound includes polyurethane acrylate (as UV curable oligomer) (page 4, 4th paragraph). Step B, Sawada teaches the step of applying an intermediate layer to improved adhesion between the base film/substrate and the hard coating layer thus forming bonding surface on the plastic substrate, and applying liquid coating on the bonding surface (page 3, last two paragraphs). Step C, Sawada teaches UV curing of the coating liquid thus forming hard coating layer (page 6, fifth paragraph). Although Sawada does not specify of the percentage amount of the UV curable oligomer or UV curable resin additive, however it would be obvious that UV curable oligomer have first weight percentage, and UV curable resin additive have second weight percentage
However, Sawada fails to disclosed the polymer plastic front plate comprising a touch panel, an ink layer applied in directed on the hard coating layer, an OCA layer applied on the hard coating layer for attacking in direct to the touch panel such that hard coating layer and the ink layer are sandwiched between the plastic substrate and the touch panel and bonded by the optical clear adhesive and plurality of dispersed nano-scale flaky inorganic substance arranged in a randomly distributed horizontal direction in the hard coating layer to form discontinuously layered dispersed gas barrier layer in the hard coating layer.
Whereas, Sugita discloses the hard coating layer is printed using ink (Sugita, page 7, 5th paragraph) and Horii is in the art of forming scratch resistance hard coating film (abstract), teaches forming a hard coating layer (13) (abstract, Fig. 1), coated with adhesive layer (31) and on the adhesive layer (31) touch panel (3) was attached (Fig. 3, page 13, last paragraph), where the adhesive layer (31) is made from optical clear adhesive (OCA) (page 13, last paragraph).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Sawada with Sugita and Horii and attach the touch panel to the hard coating layer using OCA, to form a working touch panel display device and to coat the hard coat layer of Sawada with an ink as taught by Sugita motivated by the desire to have scratch resistance and visual labeling so that hard coating layer and ink layer are sandwiched between plastic substrate and touch panel and bonded by optical adhesive motivated by the desire for end use applications.
Whereas, Sugita is in the prior art of coating protective layer (13) on a base material having curable resin (14a) and filler (15) that are curable with ionizing radiation (18) (abstract), teaches the coating material of the protective layer made from binder resin and hard filler such as flaky filler (claim 1), flaky filler such as flaky inorganic/alumina (claim 3), curable resin such as polyurethane resin (page 3, 12th paragraph), include photo initiator and where the curable resin is UV cured (page 5, second to last paragraph), where the substrate is made of plastic plate (page 5, last paragraph). Sugita teaches the process of coating the protective layer having UV curable polymer and flaky inorganic resulted in flaky inorganic/alumina (16) oriented parallel to the surface of the coating film (page 6, 10th paragraph, Fig. 3C).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Sawada with Sugita to align the flaky inorganic in the hard coating layer oriented in a parallel and horizontal direction to the surface, and dispersed in a randomly and forming discontinuous layered dispersed gas barrier layer, to provide with a process which prevent protrusion of the flaky filler during coating process of the effective film (page 6, 10th paragraph).
Sawada (with Sugita) teaches the flaky particles added with 5-95% by weight (Sawada, page 2, 8th paragraph), where polyurethane acrylate as an acrylate based free radiation hardening type compound (Sawada, page 4, 4th paragraph), is using with 5-95% by mass (Sawada, page 2, 5th paragraph), as first weight percentage. Therefore, leading to having UV curable resin with second weight percentage ranging from 0% by weight (5% of flakes with 95% of polyurethane) to 90% by weight (5% of flakes with 5% of polyurethane). In the case where the claimed ranges, “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976). (MPEP 2144.05).
Regarding claim 23, Sawada (with Sugita) teaches the use of UV-curable resin such as polyurethane resin (Sugita, page 3, 12th paragraph) with Tg of about 210℃, and UV-curable oligomer of polyurethane acrylate (Sawada, page 4, 4th paragraph), with Tg of 123℃.
Regarding claim 25, Sawada teaches the use of nanoscale flaky inorganic/alumina material (Sawada, page 5, 7th-9th paragraphs).
Regarding claim 26, Sawada (with Sugita and Heikel) teaches the substrate is made of polycarbonate (Sawada, page 3, 1st paragraph).
Claim(s) 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sawada (TWI 400,284B) in view of Sugita et al. (JP 2001-088245) and Horii (JP 2015007737 A, English Translation) as applied to claim 1, further in view of Khatri (US Pat. 9,085,711 B1).
Regarding claim 22, Sawada in view of Sugita does not teach the use of polyurethane resin with sol-gel silica hybrid mixture.
However, Khatri is in the process of forming coating mixture having hardness and corrosion protection property (Col. 1, lines 13-18), teaches the process of mixing nano size aluminum oxide with sol-gel (as a hybrid mixture) with UV curable resin for coating solution (Col. 12, lines, lines 57-67), where the UV curable resin include polyurethane resin (Col. 15, lines 59-60).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Sawada (with Sugita) with Khatri to add the above ingredients to the coating material mixture, to provide with a coating that have reduced optical gloss property (Col. 2, lines 21-24).
The combined Sawada (with Sugita and Khatri) teaches UV curable oligomer as a polyurethane acrylate (Sawada, page 4, 4th paragraph), and where the UV curable resin is polyurethane resin (Khatri, Col. 15, lines 59-60) as UV curable monomer.
Claim(s) 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sawada (TWI 400,284B) in view of Sugita et al. (JP 2001-088245) and Horii (JP 2015007737 A, English Translation) as applied to claim 1, further in view of Chen (PG Pub 2011/0057359 A1).
Regarding claim 24, Sawada (with Sugita) teaches the use of UV-curable resin such as polyurethane resin (Sugita, page 3, 12th paragraph) with Tg of about 210℃, and UV-curable oligomer of polyurethane acrylate (Sawada, page 4, 4th paragraph), with Tg of 123℃.
The combined Sawada (with Sugita and Heikel) does not teach the addition of UV curable monomer.
However, Chen is in the process of coating plastic article (abstract), teaches the coating of a plastic article (such as polycarbonate) with photo curing resin (Claims 1-2), where the photo curing resin comprise polyurethane acrylate (Claim 3), and additionally include trifunctional monomer with a desired ratio to the resin (Claim 4), with an additional inorganic particles such as aluminum trioxide (Claim 7), where the trifunctional monomer include monomer such as THEICTA [0021], which has a glass transition temperature value not less than 240℃.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Sawada (with Sugita and Heikel) with Chen to add to the coating mixture a trifunctional monomer include monomer such as THEICTA, to provide using the three functional ligands are stronger cross-linking between molecules during the UV curing process, with reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
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/RONAK C PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788
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