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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over JP 2014-146054 (henceforth JP ‘054).
JP ‘054 teaches a toner comprising colored resin particles containing a binder resin a colorant, a softening agent, a charge control agent and an external additive (Abstract, [0024-48], [0077-90] and [0101-106]). JP ‘054 does not teach the physical properties recited by the Applicant in pending claim 1. However, in embodiments JP ‘054 teaches the same toner made the same methods and using the same materials taught by the Applicant to produce a toner with the requisite physical properties recited in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9. Specifically, Example 1 of JP ‘054 ([0102-104]) is analogous to the Applicant’s Example I-1 ([0184] of the instant specification). In these examples binder resin materials comprising roughly equal parts (in each reference) of styrene, n-butyl acrylate, a polymethacyrlic acid ester macronomer (AA-6), tetraethylthiuram disulfide as a molecular weight modifier and divinyl benzene as a crosslinking agent are dissolved to prepare a polymerizable monomer composition ([0101] of JP ‘054 and [0184] of the instant specification). Additionally a colorant, a styrene-acrylic resin containing a quaternary ammonium salt as a charge control agent and a synthetic ester wax as a release agent are further added to the solution ([0101-102] of JP ‘054 and [0184-185] of the instant specification). Separately, both the Applicant ([0186]) and JP ‘054 ([0102]) teach the formation of a magnesium hydroxide colloidal dispersion. The polymerizable monomer composition is then added to the magnesium hydroxide colloid dispersion and a polymerization initiator is then added followed by high-shear stirring for form droplets of the polymerizable monomer composition ([0103] of JP ‘054 and [0188] of the instant specification). The temperature of the droplet dispersion is then raised and polymerization is carried out ([0104] of JP ‘054 and [0189] of the instant specification). Once polymerization has reached the desired level shell monomers and initiators are added and polymerization of a shell around the polymerized core particles is carried out ([0104] of JP ‘054 and [0189] of the instant specification).
Therefore, as can be seen above, both the Applicant and JP ‘054 teach the same procedure using the same materials in the same proportions to form toner particles. As such, the toner particles are understood to be the same and the toner of JP ‘054 will therefore inherently possess the same properties as the toner taught by the Applicant in Example I-1. As such, the toner of JP ‘054 will inherently possess the properties recited by the Applicant in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9. Additionally, JP ‘054 teaches the use of fatty acid metal salt particles as external additives in an amount of 0.1 parts by mass of the toner particles in the toner of Example 1 ([0106] see also [0084]). The fatty acid metal salt particles are further taught to have a number average primary particle diameter of 0.8 to 1.2 micrometers ([0085]). As such, the toner of JP ‘054 reads on all of the limitations recited by the Applicant in pending claims 1-9.
Claim(s) 1, 4-6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over WO 2020-090537 (henceforth WO ‘537).
WO ‘537 teaches a toner comprising colored resin particles containing a binder resin a colorant, a softening agent, a charge control agent and an external additive (“Example 1” section of the provided translation). WO ‘537 further teaches that the glass transition temperature determined from a temperature dependence curve for a loss tangent should be between 50 and 90 °C (Abstract). WO ‘537 does not teach the remaining physical properties recited by the Applicant in pending claim 1. However, in embodiments WO ‘537 teaches the same toner made the same methods and using the same materials taught by the Applicant to produce a toner with the requisite physical properties recited in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9. Specifically, Example 1 of WO ‘537 (“Example 1” section of the provided translation) is analogous to the Applicant’s Example I-1 ([0184] of the instant specification). In these examples binder resin materials comprising roughly equal parts of styrene, n-butyl acrylate, a polymethacrylic acid ester macromonomer (AA-6), tetraethylthiuram disulfide as a molecular weight modifier and divinyl benzene as a crosslinking agent are dissolved to prepare a polymerizable monomer composition (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537 and [0184] of the instant specification). Additionally, a colorant, a styrene-acrylic resin containing a quaternary ammonium salt as a charge control agent and a synthetic ester wax as a release agent are further added to the solution (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537 and [0184-185] of the instant specification). Separately, both the Applicant ([0186]) and WO ‘537 (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537) teach the formation of a magnesium hydroxide colloidal dispersion. The polymerizable monomer composition is then added to the magnesium hydroxide colloid dispersion and a polymerization initiator is then added followed by high-shear stirring for form droplets of the polymerizable monomer composition (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537 and [0188] of the instant specification). The temperature og the droplet dispersion is then raised and polymerization is carried out (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537 and [0189] of the instant specification). Once polymerization has reached the desired level shell monomers and initiators are added and polymerization of a shell around the polymerized core particles is carried out (“Example 1” section of the provided translation of WO ‘537 and [0189] of the instant specification).
Therefore, as can be seen above, both the Applicant and WO ‘537 teach the same procedure using the same materials in the same proportions to form toner particles. As such, the toner particles are understood to be the same and the toner of WO ‘537 will therefore inherently possess the same properties as the toner taught by the Applicant in Example I-1. As such, the toner of WO ‘537 will inherently possess the properties recited by the Applicant in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9. As such, the toner of WO ‘537reads on all of the limitations recited by the Applicant in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9.
Claim(s) 2-3 and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020-090537 (henceforth WO ‘537) in view of JP 2014-146054 (henceforth JP ‘054).
The complete discussions of WO ‘537 and JP ‘054 above are included herein. WO ‘537 and JP ‘054 teach the same production process to produce identical toners, but WO ‘537 does not teach the use of fatty acid metal salt particles as external additives.
JP ‘054 teaches the use of fatty acid metal salt particles as external additives in an amount of 0.1 parts by mass of the toner particles in the toner of Example 1 ([0106] see also [0083-85]). The fatty acid metal salt particles are further taught to have a number average primary particle diameter of 0.8 to 1.2 micrometers ([0085]). The use of said particles is taught to produce the toner with stable chargeability over time and to prevent deterioration of image quality due to fogging even in high temperature and high humidity environments ([0084]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of theinstant application to have utilized the fatty acid metal salt external additive particles taught by by JP ‘054 on the toner particles of WO ‘537.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US PGP 2018/0107133 teaches a toner with a flowability in a range of 8.6 to 11.4 percent but does not read on the Applicant’s claim limitations.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER L VAJDA whose telephone number is (571)272-7150. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30-4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amber Orlando can be reached at (571)270-3149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 10/14/2026
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