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.
(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) 1-4 and 6-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Miyai et al (WO 2021/039692) (See Miyai et al. (US 2022/0259437) for citations).
Regarding claims 1-2 and 6, Miyai discloses a gas barrier coating composition (0019) comprising zirconium hydroxide, i.e. a metal hydroxide, (0020), zirconium oxide, i.e. metal oxide, (0014, 0020) and phosphoric acid (0023).
Regarding claims 3-4, Miyai discloses the gas barrier coating of claim 1, wherein given that Miyai discloses metal hydroxide, metal alkoxide is not required by Miyai.
Regarding claim 7, Miyai discloses the gas barrier coating of claim 1, wherein the phosphoric acid is polyphosphoric acid (0023).
Regarding claim 8, Miyai discloses gas barrier laminate (0034) comprising on a base material, a coating film including the gas barrier coating of claim 1 (0034) wherein the coating film is a reaction product produced by a reaction (abstract) of the metal hydroxide, metal oxide and phosphoric acid as explained above.
Regarding claims 9-11, Miyai discloses the gas barrier laminate of claim 8, wherein given that Miyai discloses the same gas barrier coating composition as claimed in present claims, it is clear that the gas barrier coating film of Miyai would inherently have the same properties as presently claimed.
Regarding claim 12, Miyai discloses the gas barrier laminate of claim 8, further comprising an anchor coat layer provided between the base material and the coating film (0034).
Regarding claim 13, Miyai discloses the gas barrier laminate of claim 8, wherein the base material comprises a biaxially stretched PET with a thickness of 12 microns (0036, 0046), the coating film in applied amount of between 0.05 to 2 g/m2 (0072) is formed on the base material and a non stretched PP film with a thickness of 50 microns is disposed on the coating film (0036) via adhesive layer (0079), the gas bas barrier laminate has an oxygen transmission rate is 25 cc/m2dayatm (at 40C and 90% RH) or less and a water vapor transmission rate of 5.5 g/m2day (at 40C, 90% RH) or less (0012).
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) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyai et al (WO 2021/039692) in view of Suemastsu et al. (US 2019/0284389).
Regarding claim 5, Miyai discloses the gas barrier coating of claim 1 wherein gas barrier coating comprises flame retardant (0033) but Miyai does not disclose any specific type such as aluminum hydroxide.
Suemastsu discloses gas barrier material comprises flame retardant such as aluminum hydroxide (0082) to obtain flame retardant gas barrier coating (0081, 0082).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use aluminum hydroxide of Suematsu in the flame retardant of Miyai to obtain flame retardant gas barrier coating.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMIR SHAH whose telephone number is (571)270-1143. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am - 5:00pm.
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/SAMIR SHAH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787
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