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 .
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.
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) 1-4, 7-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102((a)(1)) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over JP 2021188220A.
JP ‘220 discloses a meltblown nonwoven fabric formed from a blend of a polypropylene based resin having a MFR of 10-150 g/10 min and a propylene based resin with a MFR or1000 g/10 min or higher. See abstract. The resin having the higher MFR can be present in amounts of 95% by weight or less. See page 7. The composition can include light stabilizers and un absorbers, See page 8. The meltblown nonwoven can be used to form electret processed filters. See page 9. Since the first MFR can be 10 and the second can be 1000 or higher, the second MFR can be at least 10 times greater than the first MFR.
With regard to the property of Quality factor value and the tensile elongation in the TD and MD, JP ‘220 does not disclose or measure these properties.
However, since JP ‘220 discloses the same composition formed into filters, it is reasonable to expect that either it would necessarily have the same properties, since like materials must have like properties, or else it would have been obvious to have selected the properties of the nonwoven including fiber denier, fiber orientation, basis weight and porosity, in order to provide a filter having the desired tensile elongation in the TD and MD and the desired Quality factor.
Claim(s) 1-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sugiuchi et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0087715 in view of Akiba et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0077646.
Sugiuchi discloses a nonwoven fabric formed from first and second polyolefin resins. Polyolefin resin A is a polypropylene based resin having a MFR of 3500 g/10 min less. See paragraphs 0009-0012. The polyolefin B is a polypropylene based resin having an MFR of 5-100 g/10 min. See paragraph 0013-0014. Resin A can be present in amounts of up to 100% and Resin B can be present in amounts of 1-30%. See paragraph 0014. The fibers can have a diameter of 2 denier or less. See paragraphs 0020, 0060. Note that a polypropylene fibers having a diameter of 40 microns as claimed would have a denier of about 1.1 denier. The composition can further include UV absorber, light stabilizer, heat stabilizers, flame retardant and other components. See paragraph 0058. The material can be used as an electret filter. See paragraph 0064.
Sugiuchi differs from the claimed invention because it does not clearly teach that the nonwoven is a meltblown fabric or adding the hindered amine compounds or magnesium stearate.
However, Akiba teaches forming electret filters, (see paragraph 0040), by either meltblowing or spunbonding, (see paragraph 0029). Akiba teaches incorporating electrical chargeability enhancing agents such as hindered amine compounds and magnesium stearate.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have formed the filter either by spunbonding or meltblowing, since Akiba teaches that both methods were knows to be useful in forming electret filters. It further would have been obvious to have included the claimed additives in order to enhance the electrical chargeability of the fibers as taught by Akiba.
With regard to the property of Quality factor value and the tensile elongation in the TD and MD, Sugiuchi does not disclose or measure these properties.
However, since Sugiuchi discloses the same composition formed into filters, it is reasonable to expect that either it would necessarily have the same properties, since like materials must have like properties, or else it would have been obvious to have selected the properties of the nonwoven including fiber denier, fiber orientation, basis weight and porosity, in order to provide a filter having the desired tensile elongation in the TD and MD and the desired Quality factor.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIZABETH M IMANI whose telephone number is (571)272-1475. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Wednesday 7AM-7:30; Thursday 10AM -2 PM.
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/ELIZABETH M IMANI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1789
