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(s) 1-2, 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Takahashi et al. (US PGP 2015/0241804).
Takahashi teaches a toner comprising a binder resin and release agent (Abstract). The toner is analyzed by a flow particle image analyzer to determine the number of particles falling into circularity ranges between a circularity of 1.00 and 0.800 demarcated by a circularity of 0.01 (see Fig 1A). The total number of particles in the inventive example of Fig 1A is 4,991, the total number of particles with a circularity of less than 0.960 is 807 (see Fig 1A). As such, the percentage of particles with a circularity less than 0.960 is approximately 16% (807/4991 x 100% = 16%). Therefore, the number of particles with a circularity of less than 0.960 falls within the ranges recited in pending claims 1 and 9-10. Additionally, in embodiments Takahashi teaches an average particle diameter as low as 5.2 micrometers (see Tables 3-1 to 3-3). As the particle diameter taught by Takahashi is a weight average particle diameter it is understood that particles with diameters below 5.2 micrometers are present and as such the particles whose circularity are measured would be expected have particle diameters within the recite range of 4.5 micrometers or less and circularity values of 0.96 or less within the range recited in pending claim 1. Furthermore, as 84% of the toner particles are taught to have circularities above 0.960 and below 1.00 it is clear that the average circularity of the toner is within the range of 0.96 and 0.99 (see Figure 1A).
The toner is further taught to include additional components such as a fluorine-modified quaternary ammonium salt or fluorine activator as a charge control agent and therefore the toner particles will contain a halogen element ([0054]). The toner particles are further taught to be paired with carrier particles to form a two component developer ) [0103-107]).
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) 3-5 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi et al. (US PGP 2015/0241804) in view of JP H10-142838 (henceforth JP ‘838).
The complete discussion of Takahashi above is included herein. While Takahashi does teach the use of charge control agents that may contain a halogen atom, Takahashi does not teach an abundance value for said halogen atoms.
JP ‘838 teaches a toner with a controlled shape coefficient (Abstract). Additionally, JP ‘838 teaches that the shape and size distribution of the toner may be controlled through aggregation and coagulation of primary particles by use of heating the particles near the softening point of the resin and using a coagulating agent ([0116], [0120-128]). Specifically, after classification of toner particles is performed toner fines may be recycled into toners of the desired particle size distribution by use of a coagulating agent ([0116] and Examples 18-20). In embodiments JP ‘838 teaches the use of a 0.3% by weight aqueous solution of octyltrimethylammonium bromide as a coagulating agent as a coagulating agent (see Examples 18 and 20). This is the same compound used in approximately the same amount taught by the Applicant to produce the requisite abundance values recited in pending claims 3-5 (see [0154] and [0158-161] of the instant specification). Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant specification to have utilized the coagulating agent and method taught by JP ’838 to utilize and recycle toner fines not meeting the size requirements taught by Takahashi et al. to produce additional toner particles in a more efficient and economical manner.
Claim(s) 3, 6, 13 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi et al. (US PGP 2015/0241804) in view of CN 103631105 (henceforth CN ‘105).
The complete discussion of Takahashi above is included herein. While Takahashi does teach the use of charge control agents that may contain a halogen atom, Takahashi does not teach an abundance value for said halogen atoms.
CN ‘105 teaches a toner and further teaches that the particle size of said toner particles can be controlled as desired by forming aggregates of primary toner particles using dodecyl trimethylammonium chloride as a surfactant ([0199-200]). It would have been well within the purview of one of ordinary skill in the art through routine laboratory experimentation to ascertain and perfect the requisite amount of said surfactant. Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant application to have utilized the surfactant taught by CN ‘105 in the method of making the toner of Takahashi et al. in order to control the particle size and dispersion stability during agglomeration.
Claim(s) 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi et al. (US PGP 2015/0241804) in view of Sasaki et al. (US PGP 2010/0196817).
The complete discussion of Takahashi above is included herein. Takahashi teaches toner particles for use in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, but neither teach the particular limitations of such an apparatus including a detachable process cartridge and a toner cartridge for housing said toner.
Sasaki teaches a toner and further teaches an image forming apparatus and process cartridge for developing such a toner as well as a toner cartridge for housing such a toner. The image forming apparatus is taught to comprise a photoreceptor, a charging unit for charging the photoreceptor, an exposure unit for forming a latent image, a developing unit for developing the latent image with toner, a transfer unit for transferring the developed image to a substrate and a fixing unit for fixing the transferred image to the substrate ([0145-147]). Additionally, the process cartridge is taught to comprise at least one of the units of the image forming apparatus described above and the toner cartridge is taught to house the toner ([0148-155]). Sasaki further teaches an image forming method utilizing said apparatus comprising the same steps outlined above in describing the functions of the various components of the image forming apparatus ([0131-144]).
Therefore, Takahashi teaches toner particles for use in an image forming apparatus and image forming method but does not teach the specific steps of such a method or the necessary components of such an apparatus. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have been motivated to look to the prior art to determine what said steps and components were. Therefore, it would have been obvious to any person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the instant application to have utilized the toner of Takahashi in the image forming method and image forming apparatus taught by Sasaki et al.
Conclusion
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/PETER L VAJDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 09/30/2026
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