DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
Claim(s) 1-16 is/are pending.
Claim(s) 1-16 is/are rejected.
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 .
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 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim(s) 2, 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 2 is vague and indefinite because the phrase “weight ratio of the monomer mixture I to the monomer mixture I is from 1:20 to 3.5:1” is unclear and confusing, since the ratio of monomer mixture I to itself is always 1:1. For the purposes of the present Office Action, claim 2 is treated as referring to the weight ratio of monomer mixture I to monomer mixture II.
Claim 9 is vague and indefinite because it is unclear whether the phrase “hydroxyl acid” refers: (i) a hydroxyl number / value; or (ii) an acid number / value. For the purposes of the present Office Action, the phrase “hydroxyl acid” is treated as referring to a hydroxyl number.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 (AIA )
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) 1-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over:
• HAYASHI ET AL (US 2009/0041942), or
• CN 101273103 (HAYASHI-CN ‘103).
in view of DOW ANSWER CENTER - DEFINE POLYURETHANE FUNCTIONALITY, OH NUMBER, AND EQUIVALENT WEIGHT.
HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 and HAYASHI-CN ‘103 discloses water-based coating compositions comprising an acrylic resin emulsion, wherein the emulsion contains:
• core / shell acrylic resin particles comprising:
:
(I) a core formed using a first monomer mixture (I) comprising one or more of the following monomers:
• 0.05-30 wt% of at least one unsaturated monomer(s) containing at least two unsaturated bonds (corresponding to the recited “functional monomer with two or more double bonds”) -- for example:
• vinyl compounds, such as divinylbenzene, etc.;
• (meth)allyl compounds, such as (meth)allyl (meth)acrylate, etc.;
• (meth)acrylate compounds, such as trimethylolpropane tri(meth)acrylate; pentaerythritol di(meth)acrylate; pentaerythritol tri(meth)acrylate, and glycerol tri(meth)acrylate; ethyleneglycol di(meth)acrylate; etc.;
• optionally a carboxylic acid group-containing unsaturated monomer (e.g., (meth)acrylic acid; maleic acid; fumaric acid; itaconic acid; etc.) (corresponding to the recited “ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer” of claim 3);
• a hydroxyl group-containing unsaturated monomer (e.g., hydroxyethyl (meth)acrylate; hydroxypropyl (meth)acrylate; hydroxybutyl (meth)acrylate; etc.) (corresponding to the recited “acrylic monomer with at least one hydroxyl group”);
• optionally one or more other ethylenically unsaturated monomer(s) -- for example:
• alkyl (meth)acrylate ester with alkyl groups of C1 or carbon atoms, such as methyl (meth)acrylate; ethyl (meth)acrylate; n-butyl (meth)acrylate; 2-ethylhexyl (meth)acrylate, isobornyl (meth)acrylate, cyclohexyl methacrylate, etc. (corresponding to the recite “alkyl (meth)acrylate” of claim 3);
• polymerizable aromatic compounds, such styrene, α-methylstyrene, vinyl ketone, t-butylstyrene, para-chlorostyrene, vinylnaphthalene, etc. (corresponding to the recited “vinyl aromatic compound” of claim 3);
(II) a shell formed using a second monomer mixture (II), wherein the second monomer mixture (II) contains one or more of the monomers previously disclosed for the first monomer mixture (I);
wherein the weight ratio of the monomer mixture (I) and monomer mixture (II) (and therefore core portion / shell portion) is 50/50 to 98/2;
wherein the core / shell particles have a hydroxyl value of 10-150 mg KOH/g and a particle size of 20-140 nm;
wherein the emulsion of core / shell acrylic resin particles formed via two-stage emulsion polymerization comprising:
• forming a first emulsified composition comprising the first monomer mixture (I), a first emulsifier, and a first initiator;
• forming a second emulsified composition comprising the second monomer mixture (II), a second emulsifier, and a second initiator;
• conducting a first stage polymerization with the first emulsified composition to form an emulsion of the core portion of the core / shell particles;
• conducting a second stage polymerization by adding the second composition to the emulsion of the above core portion of the core / shell particle to form the shell portion of the core / shell particle, thereby forming an emulsion containing the core / shell particles;
wherein:
• the emulsifiers are emulsifying agents well known to those skilled in the art;
• the initiators include water-borne peroxides (e.g., potassium persulfate, ammonium peroxide, ammonium persulfate, etc.);
Illustrative, non-limiting examples of the core / shell particles include the core / shell particles of EMmA2 wherein:
• the core is formed from a first monomer mixture (I) containing:
• about 8 wt% hydroxyl group-containing monomer (corresponding to the recited “at least one acrylic monomer with at least one hydroxyl group in the monomer mixture I is present in an amount of from 1% to 10%” of claim 8);
• about 1 wt% crosslinking monomer (corresponding to the recited “functional monomer with two or more double bonds”) (corresponding to the recited “at least one functional monomer with two or more double bonds in the monomer mixture I” of claim 8);
• the shell is formed from a second monomer mixture (II) containing:
• about 8 wt% hydroxyl group-containing monomer;
• about 1 wt% crosslinking monomer (corresponding to the recited “functional monomer with two or more double bonds”) (corresponding to the recited “at least one functional monomer with two or more double bonds in the monomer mixture II” of claim 8);
The water-based coating composition comprises:
• the above acrylic resin emulsion of core / shell acrylic resin particles;
• one or more curing agent(s) comprising:
• a melamine-based resin;
• optionally other conventional curing agents (e.g., isocyanate compounds, such as trimethylene diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate, xylylene diisocyanate, isophorone diisocyanate, etc.);
wherein the water-based coating compositions can be applied to be applied to various substrates. (HAYASHI ET AL ‘942, entire document, e.g., paragraph 0010-0013, 0036, 0043, 0048, 0051-0052, 0055, 0057-0065, 0067-0069, 0158-0160, 0169, 0191, 0193, 0199, etc.; Table 1, etc.) (see corresponding portions of HAYASHI-CN ‘103)
Regarding claims 1-15, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize known acrylic resin emulsions containing core / shell acrylic resin particles as components for the water-based coating compositions of HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 or HAYASHI-CN ‘103 in order to form decorative and/or protective coatings for a variety of substrate.
Further regarding claims 1, 9, since DOW ANSWER CENTER - DEFINE POLYURETHANE FUNCTIONALITY, OH NUMBER, AND EQUIVALENT WEIGHT provides evidence that for polymers, the hydroxyl number (mg KOH/g) = 33 x hydroxyl weight%. the claimed hydroxyl content of 0.2-2.2 wt% corresponds to hydroxyl number of 6.6-72.6 mg KOH/g. Furthermore, the disclosed hydroxyl value of 10-150 mg KOH/g in HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 corresponds to hydroxyl contents of 0.3-4.5 wt%. Therefore, HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 and HAYASHI-CN ‘103 discloses acrylic core / shell particles with hydroxyl contents and hydroxyl numbers / values which at least substantially overlaps the claimed hydroxyl content of claim 1 and the hydroxyl number / values of claim 9.
Further regarding claim 1, HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 and HAYASHI-CN ‘103 discloses illustrative, non-limiting examples of core / shell particles wherein the hydroxyl group-containing monomer content in the first monomer mixture (I) and second monomer mixture (II) is equal (i.e., about 8 wt%), resulting in a weight ratio of the recited monomer mixture I to the recited monomer mixture I of 1:1, which falls within the claimed range of 1:30 to 2:1. Additionally and/or optionally, one of ordinary skill in the art would have selected the ratio of hydroxyl group-containing monomer in the core portion and shell portion of the core / shell acrylic particles of HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 in order to obtain the optimal hydroxyl value for specific coating compositions (e.g., based on desired curing characteristics such as degree of curing, speed of curing, curing conditions, etc.).
Further regarding claims 1-15, regarding the phrase “for wood substrate”, a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
Regarding claim 12, one of ordinary skill in the art would have utilized effective amounts of well-known, commercially available emulsifiers conventionally used to form water-based emulsions (e.g., anionic emulsifiers; non-ionic emulsifiers; etc.) as the emulsifiers used in the two-stage polymerization process used to form the core / shell particles of HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 or HAYASHI-CN ‘103.
Regarding claim 16, one of ordinary skill in the art would have applied the water-based coatings of HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 or HAYASHI-CN ‘103 to known, non-metal substrates (e.g., wood, etc.) in order to provide said substrates with attractive and/or durable coatings.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over:
• HAYASHI ET AL (US 2009/0041942), or • CN 101273103 (HAYASHI-CN ‘103), in view of DOW ANSWER CENTER - DEFINE POLYURETHANE FUNCTIONALITY, OH NUMBER, AND EQUIVALENT WEIGHT,
as applied to claims 1-16 above,
and further in view of AZUMA ET AL (US 2015/0111026).
AZUMA ET AL ‘026 discloses that it is well known in the art to apply core / shell acrylic-based emulsion coatings (e.g., as a protective or decorative paint, etc.) to a wide variety of substrates (e.g., plastic, metal, wood materials, etc.). (paragraph 0217, etc.)
Regarding claim 16, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the water-based coatings of HAYASHI ET AL ‘942 or HAYASHI-CN ‘103 to known, non-metal substrates (e.g., wood, as suggested in AZUMA ET AL ‘026) in order to provide said substrates with attractive and/or durable coatings.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
NAKANE ET AL (US 7,875,684) and NAKANE ET AL (US 2006/0135651) and NARITA ET AL (US 2009/0280256) and TOMIZAKI ET AL (US 2008/0108743) and KITAZONO ET AL (US 2014/0004365) and KITAGAWA ET AL (US 2014/0030528) and IMANAKA ET AL (US 2013/0089731) and TAKAYAMA ET AL (US 2018/0016462) and TOMIZAWA (US 2022/0389272) and KUBO ET AL (US 2025/0128287) and MESTACH ET AL (US 2009/0143528) disclose compositions containing acrylic-based core / shell particles.
VOIT ET AL (US 2010/0064938) and SAKAI ET AL (US 5,990,219) disclose coatings or paints for wood substrates.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Vivian Chen (Vivian.chen@uspto.gov) whose telephone number is (571) 272-1506. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 6 PM. The examiner can also be reached on alternate Fridays.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Callie Shosho, can be reached on (571) 272-1123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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May 30, 2026
/Vivian Chen/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
Prosecution Insights