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
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abe JP_2008308646_A (see machine English translation).
1. Regarding Claims 1-9, Abe discloses a decorative (paragraph 0002) comprising a base film layer that is transparent (corresponds to claimed transparent film layer) (paragraph 0054) with two or more acrylic-based colored adhesive layers, in this order (paragraphs 0053, 0055, 0057) wherein said acrylic-based colored adhesive layer can comprise a white pigment (paragraph 0062; “Pigment 1”) with a Tg of -48C and lower (paragraph 0062), as is being claimed in instant Claims 3 and 5. Abe discloses using PET as its transparent base film layer (paragraph 0054), as do Applicants in their Specification. Abe discloses a thickness lower than the claimed 240 microns for its total decorative film (Examples; paragraph 0058), as is being claimed by Applicants in claim 7. Abe further discloses that said acrylic-based adhesives can comprise a carboxy group and amino group (paragraph 0011), as is being claimed in instant Claims 4 and 6. Abe does not use any flame retardants, as is being claimed in instant Claim 9. Given that Abe teaches substantially the same structure and composition as that being claimed and found in Applicants’ specification, it would therefore be expected for it to inherently have the same physical properties such as color difference, chroma C*, and total heat release, as is being claimed in instant Claims 1, 2, and 8.
Conclusion
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/TAHSEEN KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1781 June 20, 2026
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