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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tozawa et al. (2014/0367141) in view of McNutt (12580098).
Tozawa et al. discloses a shielded electrical wire (Fig. 1B) comprising an inner conductor (11); an insulator (12’) covering the inner conductor; a shield conductor (13) covering the insulator; and an outer sheath (14) covering the shield conductor, wherein a cross-sectional area of the inner conductor is 3 mm2 to 160 mm2 ([0007]-[0008]), and wherein the insulator contains polyolefin as a resin (re-claim 1). Tozawa et al. also discloses the insulator containing a flame retardant ([0019]) (re-claim 2); the outer sheath being cross-linked ([0021]) (re-claim 3); the polyolefin of the insulator being cross-linked ([0021]) (re-claim 4); in a cross-section perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the cable, the insulator and the outer sheath being disposed such that an outer circumference of the insulator and an outer circumference of the outer sheath form concentric circles (re-claim 5); and the insulator having a thickness of 0.4 mm or more (Table 2) (re-claim 6).
Tozawa et al. does not disclose the outer sheath containing polyurethane as a resin and a flame retardant (re-claims 1 and 2).
McNutt discloses a shielded electrical wire (100) comprising an inner conductor (115), an insulator (125), and an outer sheath (130), wherein the outer sheath contains polyurethane as a resin and a flame retardant (col. 12, lines 28-29, flame retardant polyurethane, and lines 40-44).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to use flame retardant polyurethane as taught by McNutt for the outer sheath of Tozawa et al. to meet the required protection of the outer sheath since polyurethane is known for its highly tear and abrasion resistance.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAU N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-1980. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 7am to 5:30pm.
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/CHAU N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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