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 .
Status of Application
Claims 14-29 are pending and presented for examination.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required: The disclosure fails to provide antecedent basis for the paint formulation comprising a generic nanoparticle oxide as the specification only discloses niobium oxide nanoparticles as part of the paint formulation.
Claim Objections
Claim 14 is objected to because of the following informalities: “epoxy curing curing agent” should correctly be “epoxy curing agent”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
1. Claims 14-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 14-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the elements. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted elements are: niobium oxide nanoparticles. The claimed paint formulations are disclosed as requiring niobium oxide nanoparticles to achieve the goals of the paint formulations. In particular, as disclosed at paragraph 004 of Applicant’s disclosure, the niobium oxide nanoparticles allow for the development of a water-soluble coating with high anti-corrosion performance, even when applied in low film thickness and with a single coat and allows for the avoidance of toxic organic solvents.
Claim 14 recites 31-45% of fillers, pigments and optionally color concentrates and then recites the pigments selected from a group consisting of different percentages of pigments. However, it is unclear if the percentage of the pigments is in reference to the weight percentage of the entire component A or is only the amount of pigment as a weight percentage with respect to total filler, pigment and color concentrate. Therefore, claim 14 is indefinite. Claims 15-29 depend from claim 14 and are indefinite for the same reasons. For examination purposes, the weight percentages have been interpreted with respect to total weight of component A.
The term “mainly” in claims 17 and 19 is a relative term which renders the claims indefinite. The term “mainly” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Claim 28 depends from claim 17 and is indefinite for the same reasons. For examination purposes, “mainly” has been interpreted as greater than 50 wt%.
Claim 19 recites the inorganic pigments and fillers are metallic oxides and wherein the metallic oxides are selected from a group including salts, sulphates, carbonates, silicates, titanates, chromates, phosphates and metallic zinc and aluminum. However, these elements that are recited are not metallic oxides. Therefore, it is unclear if the pigment and fillers are intended to be metal oxides only or rather to be selected from a group including components that are not metal oxides. Therefore, claim 19 is indefinite. For examination purposes, claim 19 has been interpreted as being inclusive of all the elements claimed rather than limiting the pigments and fillers to only be metal oxides.
Claim 22 refers to “the additives”. However, there are several additives in the paint formulation and it is unclear as to exactly what additive is being referenced by the term “the additives” in claim 22. Therefore, claim 22 is indefinite. For examination purposes, “the additives” has been interpreted as referring to any component of the formulation.
Claim 24 recites gloss properties of the formulation. However, the gloss property is only relevant to a coated and cured formulation and would not be relevant to the formulation itself. Therefore, it is unclear what it means for the formulation to have a gloss as claimed. Thus, claim 24 is indefinite. For examination purposes, the claim has been interpreted as “wherein the cured paint formulation presents 20 to 60 gloss units”.
Claim 26 recites a method of treating a substrate surface including several treatments followed by comprising applying the paint coating formulation according to claim 14. It is unclear if the claim is intended to require all of the initially recited treatments or is only intended to claim the step of applying the paint formulation which comes after the transitional language “comprising”. Therefore, claim 26 is indefinite. For examination purposes, the initial treatments are interpreted as only being part of the preamble with the claim only directed to a step of applying the paint formulation according to claim 14.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Miranda et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6992126) cited for teaching niobium oxide based paint (abstract) including two components with one component including epoxy resin, solvent and silicone, and the second component including an epoxy curing agent (see Example 2, column 5).
Conclusion
Claims 14-29 are pending.
Claims 14-29 are rejected.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT S WALTERS JR whose telephone number is (571)270-5351. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dah-Wei Yuan can be reached at 571-272-1295. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ROBERT S WALTERS JR/
June 4, 2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1717
Prosecution Insights