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
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(s) 1, 5, 11, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tasaka (US 20140192286 A1).
Re Claim 1, Tasaka discloses on Fig. 1 and 4, a reflection film comprising, in the following order: a hardcoat layer (glass substitute resin used in place of glass plates 4 and 4’, can contain hard coating layers) [Par 3, 235 and 359]; a reflective layer (Fig. 4: wavelength selective layers 16a-16 of liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 197] reflecting light in a wavelength-selective manner; and a heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liqud crystal layer 1) [Par 248-249] laminated (“lamination”) [Par 247] on one side of the reflective layer (Fig. 4: wavelength selective layers 16a-16 of liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 197], wherein the reflective layer (Fig. 4: wavelength selective layers 16a-16 of liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 197] is formed of a composition containing a polymerizable liquid crystal compound (cholesteric liquid crystal 1 is made of a polymerizable group and polymerization initiator, and optically active compound) [Par 26-27 and 123], and the heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 248-249] contains a thermoplastic resin (thermoplastic resin between cholesteric liquid crystal phase and second interlayer)[Par 211-212] or an elastomer.
Re Claim 5, Tasaka discloses on Fig. 3, a reflection film comprising, in the following order: a hardcoat layer (glass substitute resin used in place of glass plates 4 and 4’, can contain hard coating layers) [Par 3, 235 and 359]; a reflective layer (Fig. 4: wavelength selective layers 16a-16 of liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 197] reflecting light in a wavelength-selective manner; a polarization conversion layer (reflection layers 15a-15b circularly polarize light) [Par 197]; and a heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liquid crystal layer 1) [Par 248-249] laminated on one side of the polarization conversion layer, wherein the polarization conversion layer (15a-15b) is formed of a composition containing a polymerizable liquid crystal compound (Fig. 4: layers 15a-15b are part of liquid crystal layer 1 which is polymerizable, and optically active compound) [Par 27 and 123], and the heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liqud crystal layer 1) [Par 248-249] contains a thermoplastic resin (thermoplastic resin between cholesteric liquid crystal phase and second interlayer)[Par 211-212] or an elastomer.
Re Claim 11, Tasaka discloses, on Fig. 1, a windshield glass (windshield for automobiles) [Par 11] comprising: a glass plate (glass sheets 4 and 4’); and the reflection film according to claim 1 (Layers 3 through 3’), wherein the glass plate and the reflection film (liquid crystal layer 1) are bonded to each other through the heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liquid crystal layer 1, and the glass sheet is bonded to the laminate, which includes the inter layer 3 and 3’ at its edges) [Par 248-249 and 280].
Re claim 12, Tasaka discloses, an image display system (the film can be used in a liquid crystal display device)[Par 223] comprising: the windshield glass according to claim 11; and a projector irradiating a projection image light onto the windshield glass on a side of the reflection film (this would be inherently taught because liquid crystal display device would require a back light or image light to project onto and illuminate the display)[Par 223].
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.
Claim(s) 2-4, and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tasaka.
Re Claim 2, Tasaka discloses, the reflection film according to claim 1.
But Tasaka does not explicitly disclose, wherein the heat seal layer is a layer formed of a composition containing a polymerization initiator.
However, Tasaka does teach a polymer based heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liquid crystal layer 1, and are made of polyvinyl acetate) [Par 241 and 248-249] and the general use of thermal polymerization initiators (“Preferably, the fixation [of the liquid crystal] is attained by polymerization of the polymerizable group introduced into the liquid-crystal molecule. The polymerization includes thermal polymerization using a thermal polymerization initiator…”) [Par 128-129], to fix in place aligned polymers [Par 128-129]. One of ordinary skill in the art would have both been capable of using a thermal polymerization initiator in the heat seal layer, and would have been motivated to so in order to better keep the cholesteric liquid crystal phase (liquid crystal 1) in contact with the first or second interlayer (“…it is desirable that the liquid-crystal film in which the cholesteric liquid-crystal phase is fixed is kept in contact with the first interlayer to be mentioned below and that the liquid-crystal film in which the cholesteric liquid-crystal phase is fixed is also kept in contact with the second interlayer…”) [Par 212].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to modify the system of Tasaka such that, the heat seal layer is a layer formed of a composition containing a polymerization initiator, in order to fix in place the liquid crystal to the interlayer [Par 212].
Re claim 3, modified Tasaka teaches, the reflection film according to claim 2, and Tasaka further teaches, wherein the composition further contains a polymerizable compound (first and second interlayers contain the polymer, polyvinyl acetal resin, which is polymerized from ethylene vinyl acetate) [Par 241].
Re claim 4, modified Taksaka teaches, the reflection film according to claim 3, and Tasaka further teaches, wherein the polymerizable liquid crystal compound (optically active compound in cholesteric liquid crystal layer) has an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable group (optically active compound is an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable group) [Par 123], and the polymerizable compound has an ethylene polymerizable group (interlayers 3 and 3’ contain polymerizable ethylene vinyl acetate) [Par 241].
But Tasaka does not explicitly disclose, wherein the ethylene polymerizable group in the polymerizable compound is unsaturated.
However, Tasaka teaches the polymerizable compound has an ethylene based polymerizable group (interlayers 3 and 3’ contain polymerizable ethylene vinyl acetate) [Par 241], and teaches the general use of ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable groups (optically active compound is an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable group) [Par 123]. One of ordinary skill in the art would both be capable of and be motivated to use an unsaturated ethylene based polymerizable group in order to prevent precipitation of the resulting polymer layer, reduce haze, or broaden reflection width [Par 27].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to modify the system of Tasaka, such that the ethylene polymerizable group in the polymerizable compound is unsaturated, in order to prevent precipitation of the resulting polymer layer, reduce haze, or broaden reflection width [Par 27].
Re Claim 6, Tasaka discloses, the reflection film according to claim 5.
But Tasaka does not explicitly disclose, wherein the heat seal layer is a layer formed of a composition containing a polymerization initiator.
However, Tasaka does teach a polymer based heat seal layer (Fig 1 and 4: interlayer 3 and 3’ are thermal bonded to liquid crystal layer 1, and are made of polyvinyl acetate) [Par 241 and 248-249] and the general use of thermal polymerization initiators (“Preferably, the fixation [of the liquid crystal] is attained by polymerization of the polymerizable group introduced into the liquid-crystal molecule. The polymerization includes thermal polymerization using a thermal polymerization initiator…”) [Par 128-129], to fix in place aligned polymers [Par 128-129]. One of ordinary skill in the art would have both been capable of using a thermal polymerization initiator in the heat seal layer, and would have been motivated to so in order to better keep the cholesteric liquid crystal phase (liquid crystal 1) in contact with the first or second interlayer (“…it is desirable that the liquid-crystal film in which the cholesteric liquid-crystal phase is fixed is kept in contact with the first interlayer to be mentioned below and that the liquid-crystal film in which the cholesteric liquid-crystal phase is fixed is also kept in contact with the second interlayer…”) [Par 212].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to modify the system of Tasaka such that, the heat seal layer is a layer formed of a composition containing a polymerization initiator, in order to fix in place the liquid crystal to the interlayer [Par 212].
Re claim 7, modified Tasaka teaches, the reflection film according to claim 6, and Tasaka further teaches, wherein the composition further contains a polymerizable compound (first and second interlayers contain the polymer, polyvinyl acetal resin, which is polymerized from ethylene vinyl acetate) [Par 241].
Re claim 8, modified Tasaka discloses, the reflection film according to claim 3, and Tasaka further teaches on Fig. 4, wherein a content of the polymerizable compound (ethylene vinyl acetate) [Par 214] is 5% to 80% by mass with respect to a solid content of the composition (Ethylene vinyl acetate, is “…at least 50% by mass of the resin interlayer layer”) [Par 241].
Claim(s) 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tasaka as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Ito (DE 112005002043 T5, see attached Espacenet Machine Translation).
Re claim 9, modified Tasaks teaches, the reflection film according to claim 3.
But Tasaka does not explicitly teach wherein an I/O ratio of the polymerizable compound is 0.4 or more.
However, within the same field of endeavor, teaches, on Fig. 1, that it is desirable in thermoplastic polymerized resins to include wherien, an I/O ratio of the polymerizable compound is 0.4 or more (“…yielding a mixture containing inorganic fine particles and an organic polymer in a ratio of 70:30.”, Or 2.33) [Par 273].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the invention to modify the system of Tasaka with Ito in order to improve heat resistance, as taught by Ito [Par 52 and 105].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Tasaka does not teach, wherein a moisture content of the heat seal layer at 25° C. and 60% RH is 2.0% or less.
Saito (WO 2014162864 A1, See Machine Translation), teaches after production storing the film at 25 ºC and 55 % humidity, and separately teaches that the average moisture content of the film can be 1% or less.
But Saito does not explicitly disclose, wherein, the moisture content of the heat seal layer, measured at 25° C. and 60% RH is 2.0% or less.
The prior art neither teaches nor suggests to combine these limitations such that, wherein a moisture content of the heat seal layer at 25° C. and 60% RH is 2.0% or less.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Saito (WO 2014162864 A1) teaches a thermoplastic resin adhesive with low moisture content.
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/RAY ALEXANDER DEAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2872
/BUMSUK WON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
