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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujii et al. (JP 2019152805 A).
Claim 1: Fujii teaches a shrinkable label comprising a film body 1 and a concavo-convex pattern 3 on the second main surface 1b (page 2, lines 12-15), wherein the concavo-convex pattern 3 includes a convex portion 4 (Fig. 2, Fig. 4 and page 3, line 27). The film body 1 meets the claimed shrink film, and the convex portion 4 meets the claimed first region. Fujii teaches the film body 1 is shrinkable by heat (page 2, line 13) and comprises a polyethylene terephthalate PET (page 2, lines 20-21). Fujii teaches the convex portion 4 formed of a UV curable ink by an ink jet printing (Page 3, lines 27-28 and page 5, line 38). The printed UV curable ink meets the claimed coating. Fujii teaches the concavo-convex pattern 3 further includes a flat surface portion 5A (Fig. 4 and page 5, line 26). The flat surface portion 5A meets the claimed second region having no coating. Fujii teaches the film body 1 has a rectangular shape (page 2, line 23), and the convex portion 4 includes square shapes (Fig. 1).
With respect to the claimed contour, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to adjust or change the shape of the convex portion 4, since it has been held that making changes in shape involves only routine skill in the art. In re Dailey, 357 F.2d 669, 149 USPQ 47 (CCPA 1966) (The court held that the configuration of the claimed disposable plastic nursing container was a matter of choice which a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious absent persuasive evidence that the particular configuration of the claimed container was significant.)
Claim 2: With respect to the dimension of the second region, the experimental modification of this prior art in order to ascertain optimum operating conditions fails to render applicants’ claims patentable in the absence of unexpected results. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to adjust dimension of the flat surface portion 5A, and the motivation would be to control the design on the shrinkable label. A prima facie case of obviousness may be rebutted, however, where the results of the optimizing variable, which is known to be result-effective, are unexpectedly good. In re Boesch and Slaney, 205 USPQ 215.
Claim 3: The convex portion 4 of Fujii meets the claimed image.
Claim 4: Fujii teaches the convex portion 4 is colored (page 3, line 29).
Claim 6: Fujii teaches the concavo-convex pattern 3 further includes a flat surface portion 5A (Fig. 4 and page 5, line 26). The flat surface portion 5A meets the claimed second region having no coating.
Claim 7: Fujii teaches the convex portion 4 has a height difference L2 of 1-50 µm (page 5, lines 25-28) which overlaps with the claimed 5 µm or more.
Claim 8: Fujii teaches the concavo-convex pattern 3 further includes a flat surface portion 5A (Fig. 4 and page 5, line 26). The flat surface portion 5A meets the claimed second region having no coating. The claimed thickness of less than 5 µm includes zero; and the no coating meets the claimed zero thickness.
Claim 9: Fujii teaches the film body 1 comprises a polyethylene terephthalate PET (page 2, lines 20-21).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujii et al. (JP 2019152805 A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ono et al. (US 2022/0162468 A1).
Fujii teaches the claimed invention as set forth above.
Claim 5: Fujii does not teach opaque UV curable ink. Ono teaches a radiation curable inkjet ink may be transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque, and may be colorless or colored [0038]. Ono shows that opaque ink is an equivalent inkjet ink in the radiation curable inkjet ink art. Therefore, because these two inkjet inks, (i.e., transparent ink and opaque ink) were art-recognized equivalents before the effective filing date of the invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to substitute the transparent ink with opaque ink.
Pertinent Prior Art
Saito et al. (US 2022/0203741 A1) and Ohta (US 2010/0086689 A1).
Correspondence
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BS
September 25, 2026
/BETELHEM SHEWAREGED/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1785
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