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 2021-021790 (henceforth JP ‘790).
JP ‘790 teaches a toner comprising a toner base particle comprising a binder resin and a colorant with external additives embedded in the surface of said base particles. The external additive is taught to be silicon-titanium polymer composite particle. JP ‘790 does not teach peak values in a stretching vibration spectrum or the proportion of the number of the titanium atom in a sum of the numbers of a carbon atom, an oxygen atom, a silicon atom, a phosphorous atom and the titanium atom obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. However, JP ‘790 does teach the same process for forming the silicon-titanium polymer composite particles on the surface of the toner base particles taught by the Applicant to produce values of these properties within the ranges taught in pending claim 1.
Specifically, JP ‘790 teaches preparing an organosilicon compound liquid comprising ion exchanged water and methyltriethoxysilane, adjusting the pH to 3.5 with HCl and heating the solution to 60 C in a water bath ([0115]). A toner base particle solution is then added to the organosilicon compound liquid and the pH is adjusted with NaOH and heated ([0120]). To this solution a 44% aqueous solution of titanium lactate is added along with additional organosilicon compound liquid and the pH is adjusted again with NaOH while being stirred at temperature ([0121]). The pH is then lowered with HCl and the temperature is lowered and held under stirring ([0121]). The solution is then filtered to obtain toner particles. This is the same procedure utilizing the same reactant materials taught by the Applicant in inventive examples of the instant specification (see [0109-117]). As such, the toners of JP ‘790 will inherently possess the properties recited by the Applicant in pending claims 1, 4-6 and 9. As can be seen above the silicon polymer segment is a condensation polymerization product of an organic silicon compound (methyltriethoxysilane) which also reads on the Applicant’s Formula (5) recited in pending claim 8.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 09/28/2026
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