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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the two-layer coating must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shinohara et al. (2022/0193501) in view of Nagakura et al. (2022/0193494). Claim 1, Shinohara discloses a golf ball comprising a core and a cover of at least one layer which encases the core and has an outer surface on which numerous dimples are formed [0045], wherein the cover has a material hardness on the Shore D hardness scale of less than 60 [0058]; the outer surface of the cover has a paint coat thereon which is composed of at least two layers, an inner layer and an outer layer [0019], the inner paint layer being formed of a coating composition that includes as base resins an acrylic resin and a urethane resin [0025] and the outer paint layer being formed of a two-part curable urethane coating composition that includes a polyol component and a polyisocyanate component [0028, 0030] and contains zero parts of an inorganic or organic filler based on the solids content of the base resins; in a dimple cross-section, defining the ratio between the thickness of a paint layer (film thickness) formed at a center portion (bottom) of the dimple and the thickness of the paint layer formed at edge portions of the dimple as the edge ratio: (film thickness at dimple edge)/(film thickness at dimple center) × 100. Table 1, example 3, letting E1 be the edge ratio of the inner paint layer (6/8=75% E1), E2 be the edge ratio of the outer paint layer (71% E2), and ET be the edge ratio of the overall paint coat (16/22=72.7% ET), the golf ball satisfies the conditions -10 ≤ E2 - E1 ≤ 10 (71-75 = -4) and ET - E2 ≥ 0 (72.7-71 = 1.7). Shinohara does not disclose the compression of the golf ball. Nagakura teaches a golf ball when compressed under a final load of 1,275 N (130 kgf) from an initial load state of 98 N (10 kgf), has a compressive deformation of from 2.0 to 4.0 mm [0089]. One of ordinary skill in the art would modify the deformation for the desired performance. Claim 2, Shinohara discloses the coating composition for the inner paint layer has an acrylic resin content that is at least 50 wt% of the overall base resin [0021]. Claim 3, Shinohara discloses zero parts filler. Applicant claims less than 5%. Claim 4, Shinohara discloses the two-part curable urethane coating composition for the outer paint layer includes a polyol component which is composed primarily of a hydroxyl group-containing polyester polyol having an alicyclic structure on the molecule [0031, 0062] and a non-yellowing polyisocyanate such as hexamethylene diisocyanate [0034]. Claim 5, Shinohara discloses the two-part curable urethane coating composition for the outer paint layer polyol is not limited and further discloses a polyol component which is composed primarily of an acrylic polyol [0004, 0030] and an isocyanate component which is composed primarily of an elastic modified polyisocyanate [0035]. Claim 6, Shinohara discloses the two-part curable urethane coating composition includes a thickener which modifies the viscosity. Claim 7, Shinohara discloses the inner paint layer has a thickness of from 3 to 12 µm [0026]. Claim 8, Shinohara discloses the outer paint layer has a thickness of from 10 to 25 µm [0040]. Claim 9, Shinohara discloses the core has a diameter of 40 mm or less [0047]. Shinohara does not disclose the compression of the golf ball. Nagakura teaches a golf ball and, when compressed under a final load of 1,275 N (130 kgf) from an initial load state of 98 N (10 kgf), has a compressive deformation of from 3.0 to 4.0 mm [0073]. One of ordinary skill in the art would modify the deformation for the desired performance. Claim 10, Shinohara discloses wherein at least one layer of the cover is formed of a resin composition containing component (a) below or component (b) below or both: (a) an ionic ethylene-methacrylic acid-unsaturated carboxylic acid copolymer having an unsaturated carboxylic acid content of 5 wt% or more, (b) an ionic ethylene-methacrylic acid-unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer having an unsaturated carboxylic acid content of 5 wt% or more (Himilan) [0072]. One of ordinary skill in the art would modify the deformation for the desired performance.
Conclusion
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/RAEANN GORDEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3711
September 16, 2026
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