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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-16 are pending. Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-13 in the reply filed on April 1, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 14-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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 1-5,7,8,10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Samain (US 2014/0374044).
Samain teaches grafting (coating) cellulosic and cellulose based polymer textile strips and substrates made from textile fibers (fabrics, paragraph 0115) such as cotton, flax, hemp, rayon with a polyvinyl acetate (preparing a composite) by impregnating with a solution and then treating with a solution comprising potassium hydroxide (exposing to an alkali solution) and methanol (swelling agent) to hydrolyze (saponification) the polyvinyl acetate to polyvinyl alcohol (paragraph 0073-0074, 0052,0116). Exposure of cotton to potassium hydroxide inherently mercerizes the cotton and exposure of polyvinyl acetate to potassium hydroxide hydrolyzes the polyvinyl acetate to polyvinyl alcohol through saponification. Samain teaches OVA curves on the surface of the substrate (Figure 1) Samain teaches adjusting the coating thickness by modifying the reaction conditions (paragraph 0084) and adjusting the density of the polymer bound to the surface (paragraph 0010). Substituting cotton for rayon could be at once envisages as Samain only teaches 10 possibilities of substrates. Regarding claim 11, the dispersant is an option component in claim 10 and if claim 11 was written in independent form, dispersant and species of dispersant are still optional. Accordingly, the teachings of Samain are sufficient to anticipate the material limitations of the instant claims.
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 1-8 and 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Samain (US 2014/0374044) as evidenced by Yang (Surface Properties of a Novel Poly(vinyl alcohol) Film Prepared by Heterogenous Saponification of Poly(vinyl acetate) Film, Polymers, 2017, 9, 493).
Samain is relied upon as set forth above.
Samain does not specify saponification.
Yang teaches that Poly(vinyl acetate) in the presence of alkali hydroxides is saponified to Polyvinyl alcohol and this reaction is performed in the presence of alkaline solutions of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfate, methanol and water (page 3 of 9, paragraph 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Samain by adding a dispersant of sodium sulfate to the alkali solution as Yang teaches this is a conventional component combined with methanol, water and hydroxide to convert polyvinyl acetate to polyvinyl alcohol through saponification. Using conventional components to produce the conversion and saponification is obvious. Regarding the nano-sized curves, these curves are present in the methods of Samain as demonstrated by the figures and could be adjusted through routine experimentation to the desired nano-sized as Samain teaches the films produced are only nanometer thick (paragraph 0122). Samain further teaches the thickness of the film can be adjusted based on reaction conditions. Similarly the planar density can be adjusted through routine experimentation based on the desired coating level as Samian recognizes the density impacts the continuity of the film formed on the fabric.
Claims 1-8 and 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Samain (US 2014/0374044) as evidenced by Yang (Surface Properties of a Novel Poly(vinyl alcohol) Film Prepared by Heterogenous Saponification of Poly(vinyl acetate) Film, Polymers, 2017, 9, 493).
Samain is relied upon as set forth above.
Samain does not specify saponification.
Yang teaches that Poly(vinyl acetate) in the presence of alkali hydroxides is saponified to Polyvinyl alcohol and this reaction is performed in the presence of alkaline solutions of sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfate, methanol and water (page 3 of 9, paragraph 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Samain by adding a dispersant of sodium sulfate to the alkali solution as Yang teaches this is a conventional component combined with methanol, water and hydroxide to convert polyvinyl acetate to polyvinyl alcohol through saponification. Using conventional components to produce the conversion and saponification is obvious. Regarding the nano-sized curves, these curves are present in the methods of Samain as demonstrated by the figures and could be adjusted through routine experimentation to the desired nano-sized as Samain teaches the films produced are only nanometer thick (paragraph 0122). Samain further teaches the thickness of the film can be adjusted based on reaction conditions. Similarly the planar density can be adjusted through routine experimentation based on the desired coating level as Samian recognizes the density impacts the continuity of the film formed on the fabric.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Samain (US 2014/0374044) in view of Lee (Heterogeneous Surface Saponification of Suspension-Polymerized Monodisperse Poly(vinyl acetate( Microspheres using Various Ions, Journal of Polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol 44, 3567-3576 (2006).
Samain is relied upon as set forth above.
Samain does not specify saponification.
Lee teaches that Poly(vinyl acetate) in the presence of alkali hydroxides is saponified to Polyvinyl alcohol and this reaction is performed in the presence of alkaline solutions of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium sulfate (Na2SO4), methanol (CH3OH) and water (page 3569, right column, last paragraph, left column, second paragraph: Figure 3). Lee exemplifies 0.7 mol/L NaCl (58.44g/mol*0.7 mol/L=40.90g/L NaCl). Lee teaches using deionized and distilled water (page 3569, left column, last paragraph; page 3570, right column, last line).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the methods of Samain by adding sodium chloride or sodium sulfate to the alkali solution as Lee teaches this is are salts combined with methanol, water and hydroxide to convert polyvinyl acetate to polyvinyl alcohol through saponification wherein the salts impact the swelling of the polyvinyl alcohol. Using known salts as swelling controlling components to produce the conversion and saponification of polyvinyl aetate to polyvinyl alcohol is obvious. It would have been obvious to use distilled water in the methods of Samain as water is just present to dissolve the salts and provide a carrier for the chemical components in a solution, nothing unobvious is seen in using water, deionized water or distilled water as they all are able to make a solution. Regarding the nano-sized curves, these curves are present in the methods of Samain as demonstrated by the figures and could be adjusted through routine experimentation to the desired nano-sized as Samain teaches the films produced are only nanometer thick (paragraph 0122). Samain further teaches the thickness of the film can be adjusted based on reaction conditions. Similarly the planar density can be adjusted through routine experimentation based on the desired coating level as Samian recognizes the density impacts the continuity of the film formed on the cotton.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMINA S KHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm EST.
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/AMINA S KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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