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
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.
Claim(s) 1-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2017/010098A1 issued to Katagiri et al. in view of WO 2012/169207A1 issued to Kamata et al.
Regarding claims 1, 3, 8, 9, and 11-Katagiri et al. discloses a rubber-reinforcing cord for reinforcing a rubber product. [¶¶ abstract, 0001 and example 10]. The rubber-reinforcing cord comprising at least one filament bundle and a coating provided to cover at least a portion of a surface of the filament bundle. The coating film includes hydrogenated nitrile rubber (H-NBR), a maleimide-based cross-linking agent, a blocked isocyanate, and a filler (carbon black); in the coating film, with respect to 100 parts by mass of the rubber component, the content of the maleimide-based cross-linking agent is 50 parts by mass, the content of the isocyanate compound is 40 parts by mass, and the total content of the maleimide-based cross-linking agent and the isocyanate compound is 90 parts by mass; the mass ratio (mass of maleimide-based cross-linking agent/mass of isocyanate compound) of the maleimide based cross-linking agent to the isocyanate compound is 1.25; and the content of the filler is 10 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the rubber component. The content of the filler is less than 10 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the rubber component of the coating film as sought in Applicant’s claims 1, 3, 8, 9, and 11.
Thus, as discussed above, the content of the filler is 10 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the rubber component of the coating film in the rubber-reinforcing cord disclosed by Katagiri et al.
Katagiri et al at ¶ 0042 disclose that the content of the filler is 2-20 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the rubber component of the coating film in the rubber-reinforcing cord.
Katagiri et al., at working Examples 7-9 further disclose a specific example in which the content of the filler is 2 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the rubber component of the coating film in the rubber-reinforcing cord.
Kamata et al., at working Examples 4-9, teach that the content of a filler (silica or carbon black) with respect to 100 parts by mass of the rubber component in a coating film of a rubber-reinforcing cord that includes a rubber component, a maleimide-based cross-linking agent, and an isocyanate compound is set to 1 or 5 parts by
mass.
Kamata et al., further at ¶ 0027, they teach that when the content of the filler is large in the coating film of the rubber-reinforcing cord, the flex fatigue resistance of the rubber-reinforcing cord is likely to deteriorate.
As such, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have easily modified the amount or content of the filler to be less than 10 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the rubber component of the coating film in the rubber reinforcing cord of Katagiri.
Regarding the limitations sought in claims 2 and 4-7, a person skilled having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have easily modified the amount or content of the of the maleimide-based cross-linking agent and the isocyanate compound (blocked isocyanate) included in the coating film of the rubber-reinforcing cord taught by Katagiri et al as at ¶ 0039.
Regarding Claim 10, Kamata et al., at examples 1-11 teach the use of 4,4' -diphenylmethane bismaleimide as the maleimide-based cross-linking agent in the coating film of the rubber-reinforcing cord including a rubber component, a maleimide-based cross-linking agent, and an isocyanate compound.
A skilled artisan would have easily used 4,4' -diphenylmethane bismaleimide as the maleimide-based cross-linking agent included in the coating film of the rubber-reinforcing cord of Katagiri et al., based on the teachings of Kamata et al.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPUB 20140093729 issued to Furusawa.
Furusawa teaches a rubber-reinforcing cord for reinforcing a rubber product such as a belt, comprising a matrix rubber and the rubber reinforcing cord embedded in said matrix rubber [abstract, ¶ 0050, claims 1-14]. Furusawa teaches that the cord comprising a reinforcing fiber bundle and a first coating located on the outer surface of the cord comprising a first rubber consisting essentially of nitrile rubber and a first crosslinking agent. Furusawa teaches that the nitrile-based rubber is at least one selected from nitrile rubber, hydrogenated nitrile rubber, carboxylated nitrile rubber and carboxylated hydrogenated nitrile rubber. Furusawa teaches that the crosslinking agent may be a maleimide or isocyanate compound [claim 8]. Furusawa teaches a second coating which may be the same or different from the first coating [¶ 0036]. Therefore, the coating may comprise a second rubber component which consists essentially of a nitrile-based rubber and a second crosslinking agent. Furusawa was not applied as the components are found in different coating layers.
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/Arti Singh-Pandey/
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 1759
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