DETAILED ACTION
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1 and 4-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUROKAWA (WO 2022181579 A1, publication date: September 01, 20220) in view of HIRATA (US-2021/0354102).
Note: US-2024/0124662 which is the English Equivalent of Kurokawa is being used as a translation. Citations in the rejection below are taken from the US-2024/0124662 publication.
Claim 1: Kurokawa teaches hollow particles which comprise a shell containing a
resin and a hollow portion surrounded by the shell (Kurokawa, para. 0048), wherein a volume average particle diameter Dv is 3 µm to 20 µm (Kurokawa, para. 0062), which falls within the claimed range of 1.0 µm to 30.0 µm. Kurokawa does not measure the ratio of the apparent specific area and theoretical specific area; however, the hollow particles of Kurokawa are deemed to have met the ratio within the claimed range because the hollow particles of Kurokawa are made by essentially the same process as that of the claimed hollow particles comprising the same monomers within the same proportions; namely, the process comprises 5 steps: (1) mixture liquid preparation step which comprises a mixture of (a) first polymerizable monomer, oil-soluble polymerization initiator, hydrocarbon solvent, dispersion stabilizer and aqueous medium; (2) Suspension step which comprises suspending the mixture liquid to prepare a suspension in which the droplets of the monomer composition are dispersed in the
aqueous medium; (3) the polymerization step which forms second precursor particles;
(4) solid-liquid separation step to obtain a solid component containing the second
precursor particles ; and (5) a solvent removal step. Compare the description in
Kurokawa at paragraphs 0166-0291 to the instant specification, at paragraph 0043 to
0079. The instant specification mentions 4 steps; however, in step (4) which is named
the solvent removal step also includes a solid-liquid separation step which is considered
a step (4) in Kurokawa. In light of the similar process steps using similar monomers and
processing additives, it can be expected that the hollow particles resulted from
Kurokawa process would arrive at the same specific surface area ratio value as
claimed.
The hollow particles of Kurokawa comprises a shell containing, as a
resin, a polymer in which at least 50 parts by mass of a crosslinkable monomer units,
contained in 100 parts of all monomer units (Kurokawa, para. 0175-0185). Kurokawa also teaches a crosslinkable monomer unit at a content of more than 50 parts by mass in 100 parts by mass of all monomer units, and contains a difunctional crosslinkable monomer unit derived from a difunctional crosslinkable monomer
(Kurokawa, para. 0181-0182), and non-crosslinkable polymer comprise only one polymerizable functional groups. However, the polymers of Kurokawa including elements other than carbon and hydrogen, in particular, they are acrylic and acrylate resins. In the same field of endeavor, Hirata teaches hollow particles comprising crosslinkable monomer unit having two or more polymerizable functional groups and the crosslinkable include hydrocarbon monomer units as well as acrylic resins as equivalent (Hirata, paragraphs 0039-0048). In light of the teaching of Hirata, the POSITA would have found it obvious to expand the acrylic resins taught by Kirokawa to include hydrocarbon monomer units taught by Hirata.
Claim 4: The hollow particles of Kurokawa comprises a polymer containing
a crosslinkable monomer unit at a content of more than 50 parts by mass in 100
parts by mass of all monomer units, and contains a difunctional crosslinkable monomer
unit derived from a difunctional crosslinkable monomer and a trifunctional or higher-
functional crosslinkable monomer unit derived from a trifunctional or higher-functional
crosslinkable monomer (Kurokawa, para. 0181-0182).
Claim 5: Kurokawa teaches the hollow particles having a void ratio of at least
65% (Kurokawa, page 24, Table 2) which is well within the claimed range 50% or more.
Claim 6: Kurokawa teaches a resin composition comprising the hollow particles
as defined by claim 1 above and a matrix resin (Kurokawa, para. 0299).
Claim 7: The matrix resin for the resin composition of Kurokawa includes:
polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyurethane resin, epoxy resin, acrylonitrile-
butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin, poly(meth)acrylate, polycarbonate, polyamide,
polyimide, polyphenylene ether, polyphenylene sulfide, polyester,
polytetrafluoroethylene, maleimide resin, bismaleimide triazine resin, liquid crystalline
polyester resin, phenolic resin, vinyl ester resin, unsaturated polyester resin, cyanate
ester resin, polyetherketoneketone resin and polyetherimide resin (Kurokawa, para. 0107-0108).
Claim 8: The resin composition comprises reinforcing fibers (Kurokawa, para. 0010 and 0096-0097).
Claim 9: Kurokawa teaches the content of the reinforcing fibers in the resin
composition being from 20% to 80% by mass (Kurokawa, para. 0115) which is well within the claimed range of 5 parts by mass to 200 parts by mass.
Claim 10: The reinforcing fibers in the resin composition include carbon fibers
and glass fibers (Kurokawa, para. 0113).
Claim 11: Kurokawa teaches the content of the hollow particles is 5% to 30% by
mass with respect to the matrix resin (Kurokawa, para. 0300) which is the exact same range as claimed.
Claim 12: Kurokawa teaches a resin molded body obtained from the resin composition defined in claim 6 above (Kurokawa, para. 0316).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot in view of the new reference (Hirata) applied in the rejection herein above.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOA (Holly) LE whose telephone number is (571)272-1511. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.
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HOA (Holly) LE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1788
/HOA (Holly) LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788
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