DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to application filed on January 13th, 2025 in which claims 1-15 were presented for examination.
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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II (Claims 1-3, 6, 9, 10) and Subgroup A (woven) in the reply filed on 12/17/25 is acknowledged.
Claim(s) 4, 5, 7, 8, 11-15 is/are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected embodiment, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/17/25.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
[0035] it is unclear whether this “a length Ct of a portion in which a region having the thickness t” is the same variable as [0034] “thickness t (3) of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B (2)” as illustrated in the Figures
[0071] it is unclear whether “thickness t in the cross-section” is the same as [0071] “thickness t of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B”
[0071] “thickness t of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B” needs review whether it should refer to drawing reference numeral (3) for consistency
[0071] “Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2011-174215, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2011-208313, and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2012-136804” are not in the IDS; as a courtesy, the references are attached in the PTO-892 herein; however, review is recommended as to whether or not the references are those intended by applicant
All tables in [0122] and [0123] should be resubmitted due to degraded line clarity
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-3, 6, 9, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyasaka (US Publication 2004/0175542) in view of Kwon et al (JP 2005/273116), herein Kwon, and Kawabuchi et al (JPS 6269820), herein Kawabuchi.
Regarding Claim 1, Miyasaka teaches a false-twist textured yarn (see Figs. 1, 2; [0044] "composite yarn such as…composite false twisted yarn…may be constituted from such a yarn"; [0039] "fabric…obtained by melt-spinning two types of polyesters…to produce a conjugate multifilament yarn"; for textured-- [0030] “thick-and-thin individual filament is of the invention is crimped”; [0045], [0074]) comprising
a polyester-based thermoplastic resin A ([0014-0015] “process of the present invention for producing a polyester conjugate filament thick-and-thin yarn fabric comprises…separately melting a polyester resin…and another polyester resin”; [0025] "As the fiber-forming polyesters from which the thick-and-thin filaments of the invention are formed, it is preferred to use a polyethylene terephthalate polyester containing a terephthalate unit as a main repeating units and a polybutylene terephthalate polyester containing butylene terephthalate units as a main repeating units", specifically the polyethylene terephthalate, herein PET, which is known to be thermoplastic)
and a polyester-based thermoplastic resin B ([0025], specifically the polybutylene terephthalate, herein PBT, which is known to be thermoplastic),
the false-twist textured yarn satisfying following requirements:
2) the polyester-based thermoplastic resin A and the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B are eccentrically joined (see Fig. 1; [0024] "The polyester conjugate filament thick-and-thin yarns (which will be referred to as 'thick-and-thin yarn of the invention' hereinafter) usable for the polyester conjugate filament thick-and-thin yarn fabric of the invention (which will be referred to as 'thick-and-thin yarn fabric of the invention' hereinafter) are selected from side-by-side type conjugate multifilament yarns and an eccentric core-in-sheath type conjugate multifilament yarns in which a part of the core portion of an individual filament forms a part of a peripheral surface of the individual filament, formed from two types of fiber-forming polyesters different in intrinsic viscosities from each other"; [0031] "a core portion 2 of the conjugate filament 1 is eccentric with respect to the sheath portion 3 and contained inside a sheath portion 3 and a part 2a of the core portion 2 is exposed outside in such a fashion as to form a part of the peripheral surface of the sheath portion 3");
3) an apparent thick-to-thin ratio (Dthick/Dthin) of the false-twist textured yarn is 1.05 to 3.00 ([0024] "thick-and-thin yarns"; [0024] "a plurality of thick portions and a plurality of thin portions are alternately formed"; [0034] "An apparent thick-and-thin ratio of the multi-filament yarn consisting of a plurality of individual conjugate filaments, as defined below, is at least 1.05 and preferably at least 1.2"); and
a crack in a direction substantially orthogonal to the fiber axis direction on a surface of the false-twist textured yarn (see Fig. 2; [0031] "cracks may be formed on the peripheral surface of the sheath portion or at the exposed portion of the core portion"; [0040] "[0040] A plurality of cracks is formed on the peripheral surface of the individual polyester conjugate filament usable for the invention, in the direction in which the cracks intersect the filament axis. As typically shown in FIG. 2, the cracks 4 are formed in the direction intersecting the filament axis direction 5 of the filament 1 in such a fashion as to extend from the filament peripheral surface towards the filament axis 5").
Miyasaka does not explicitly teach 1) a difference (Ma-Mb) between a weight-average molecular weight Ma of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin A and a weight-average molecular weight Mb of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B is 2,000 to 15,000.
Kwon teaches 1) a difference (Ma-Mb) between a weight-average molecular weight Ma of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin A and a weight-average molecular weight Mb of the polyester-based thermoplastic resin B is 2,000 to 15,000 ([0015] "one polymer is polyethylene terephthalate...and the other polymer is...polybutylene terephthalate...and the difference in number average molecular weight between the two polymers is 5,000 to 70,000"; [0009] "composite fibers manufactured using different fiber-forming polymers with a difference in number average molecular weight of 5,000 to 70,000...have excellent stretchability").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Miyasaka’s weight-average molecular weight differences between A and B to be in the range as taught by Kwon as a known balance between desired crimp elongation, elastic recovery, processability and/or shrinkage ([0009]), especially as both Miyasaka and Kwon are related to PET/PBT.
Miyasaka also does not explicitly teach 4) the false-twist textured yarn has a slit in a fiber axis direction.
Kawabuchi teaches 4) the false-twist textured yarn has a slit in a fiber axis direction (page 7 "fiber of the present invention has a random surface formed by fine groove-like irregularities…which extremely effectively improves dyeing properties and creates excellent optical effects and textures"; page 13 "Fig. 1…(a) shows unevenness (A) and (b) shows unevenness (B)", wherein Fig. 1b shows that the slits are in a fiber axis direction; page 4 "Fig. 1...irregularities of the fiber of the present invention, where (a) shows irregularities perpendicular to the fiber axis direction (a), and (b) shows irregularities parallel to the fiber axis direction (b)").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Miyasaka’s yarn with the slit as taught by Kawabuchi for easier dyeing, optical effects, and/or textures (page 7).
Regarding Claim 2, modified Miyasaka teaches all the claimed limitations as discussed above in Claim 1.
Miyasaka at least suggests wherein the false-twist textured yarn has a single yarn fineness of 3.0 dtex or more (Example 1 in [0089] "polyethylene terephthalate…and polyethylene terephthalate…side-by-side…resulting undrawn multifilament yarn...having a yarn count of 335 dtex/24 fil"; [0090] "undrawn yarn was subjected to the drawing process shown in Fig .3, and a multifilament (yarn count: 140 dtex/24fil)...consisting of conjugate filaments and having an apparent thick-and-thin ratio of 1.2 was produced", wherein 335/24 = 13.9583, and 140/24 is 5.83).
Though directed to PET+PET instead of PET+PBT, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Miyasaka’s PET+PBT with the values indicated by PET+PET as the values are still directed to polyester combinations.
Regarding Claim 3, modified Miyasaka teaches all the claimed limitations as discussed above in Claim 1.
Modified Miyasaka at least suggests wherein the false-twist textured yarn has a stretch recovery rate (CR) of 25.0% or more (Miyasaka teaches all the structure of Claim 1 which meets the structural limitations in the claims; as such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to measure the stretch recovery rate and get the recited range. Even if the range measured did not overlap but was merely close, a prima facie case of obviousness still exists. See MPEP 2144.05, Titanium Metals Corp. of America v. Banner, 778 F.2d 775, 783, 227 USPQ 773, 779 (Fed. Cir. 1985)).
Regarding Claim 6, Miyasaka teaches a twist yarn ([0049] "the thick-and-thin filament yarn fabric according to the present invention contains the multifilament yarns consisting of the polyester conjugate filaments described above as its constituent yarn... In the thick-and-thin yarn fabric according to the present invention, it is possible to individually use the multifilament yarn, to twist the yarn, whenever necessary and to weave or knit the yarn into the fabric") comprising
false-twist textured yarn (see rejection of claim 1),
wherein the twist yarn has a twist coefficient of 1200 to 6000 ([0091] "twist of 1,200 turns/m was imparted in a customary manner to the resulting thick-and-thin multifilament yarn and the yarn so twisted was used for both warp and weft to weave").
Modified Miyasaka further teaches the false-twist textured yarn according to claim 1 (see rejection of Claim 1, wherein the same modifications for the same reasons are made).
Regarding Claim 9, Miyasaka further teaches a woven or knitted fabric ([0049] "The thick-and-thin filament yarn fabric according to the present invention contains the multifilament yarns consisting of the polyester conjugate filaments described above as its constituent yarn... In the thick-and-thin yarn fabric according to the present invention, it is possible to individually use the multifilament yarn, to twist the yarn, whenever necessary and to weave or knit the yarn into the fabric"; [0091] "twist of 1,200 turns/m was imparted in a customary manner to the resulting thick-and-thin multifilament yarn and the yarn so twisted was used for both warp and weft to weave") comprising
yarn in at least a part of the woven or knitted fabric ([0049], [0091]).
Modified Miyasaka further teaches the yarn being the twist yarn according to claim 6 (see rejection of claim 6 wherein the same modifications for the same reasons are made).
Regarding Claim 10, Miyasaka teaches clothing (it is noted that a recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus satisfying the claimed structural limitations; see rejection of claim 9; Miyasaka teaches fabric which meets the structural limitations in the claims and performs the functions as recited such as being capable of being utilized as clothing) comprising
fabric in at least a part of the clothing (see aforementioned).
Modified Miyasaka further teaches the woven or knitted fabric according to claim 9 (see rejection of claim 9 wherein the same modifications for the same reasons are made).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and can be used to formulate a rejection if necessary: Suzuki et al (USPN 12071712), Date et al (JP 2008/038331), Horiguchi et al (USPN 7601656), Ueno et al (USPN 10745830), Matsuura et al (USPN 12378704) directed to false-twist textured yarn comprising eccentric polyester components; Masuda et al (US Publication 2019/0136421), Horiguchi et al (USPN 7820568) directed to yarn comprising eccentric polyester components; Choi (KR 2015/0065517), Haseley (USPN 3626442) directed to eccentric; Murakami et al (USPN 6074751) directed to plates; Koh et al (USPN 6919131), Akasaki et al (JPH 11315437) directed to alkali weight loss treatment; Otsuka (JP 2009/138284) directed to composite.
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/GRACE HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3732