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 .
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanaka (US 2006/0207701) in view of Europe 226 (EP 2,662,226) and Japan 918 (JP 10-193918) and optionally Shibamoto (US 2018/0312007).
Tanaka discloses a pneumatic tire (e.g. tire size 180/55ZR17) for two wheeled vehicle having a tread comprising a central rubber portion (crown rubber portion) and shoulder rubber portions [FIGURE 4]. The central portion has a width = 20-60% of the tread width. At 70oC, tan delta of the central portion is less than tan delta of the shoulder portions so that the shoulder portions provide improved grip performance of turning movements and the central portion provides low rolling resistance and low heat generating properties so that the tire has improved fuel economy and high speed durability and can exhibit superior wear resistance. At 70oC, tan delta of the shoulder portions is 0.20 to 0.40. Tanaka is silent as to modulus of the central and shoulder portions and is silent as to ground contact areas at different camber areas.
As to claims 1-19, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide Tanaka’s pneumatic tire for two wheeled vehicle as a motorcycle tire such that:
a complex elastic modulus Ec* of the crown rubber is smaller than a complex elastic modulus Es* of each of the shoulder rubbers, and when the motorcycle tire under a regular state in which the tire is mounted on a regular rim and inflated to a regular internal pressure, is placed on a flat horizontal surface, by applying a regular tire load, ground contact areas A0, A10 and A40 of the tire at tire camber angles of 0 degrees, 10 degrees and 40 degrees, respectively, satisfies the following conditional expressions:
0.3 <= (Ec* X A0)/(Es* X A40) <= 1.05; and
0.95 <= A10/A0 <= 1.05 [claim 1],
the complex elastic modulus Ec* of the crown rubber is 4.5 to 6.5 MPa
[claim 2],
the complex elastic modulus Es* of each of the shoulder rubbers is 6.5 to 8.5
MPa [claim 3],
a loss tangent tan δs of each of the shoulder rubbers is 0.25 to 0.35
[claims 4-6],
in a tire-meridian cross section of the tire under the regular state, a radius of
curvature of the crown region is 0.45 to 0.65 times a nominal sectional width of the tire [claims 7-9],
a length in the tire axial direction of the crown region is 50% to 70% of a tread
width [claim 10-12],
the following conditional expression is satisfied:
0.95 = A10/A0 =< 1.00 [claims 13-15],
the following conditional expression is satisfied:
1.00 = A40/A10 = 1.30 [claims 16-18],
the following conditional expression is satisfied:
1.00 = A40/A10 = 1.30 [claims 17-18],
the following conditional expression is satisfied:
1.00 = A40/A10 = 1.25 [claim 19]
since:
(1) Tanaka discloses a pneumatic tire (e.g. tire size 180/55ZR17) for two wheeled vehicle having a tread comprising a central rubber portion (crown rubber portion) and shoulder rubber portions [FIGURE 4] wherein (A) the central portion has a width = 20-60% of the tread width , (B) at 70oC, tan delta of the central portion is less than tan delta of the shoulder portions so that the shoulder portions provide improved grip performance of turning movements and the central portion provides low rolling resistance and low heat generating properties so that the tire has improved fuel economy and high speed durability and can exhibit superior wear resistance and (C) at 70oC, tan delta of the shoulder portions is 0.20 to 0.40;
(2) Europe 226 teaches providing a pneumatic motorcycle tire having a tread comprising a center portion (modulus E*1), middle portions (modulus E*2) and shoulder portions (modulus E*3) wherein modulus E*1 at 70oC (center portion) is smaller than modulus E*3 (shoulder portion) to improve turning ability and ride comfort and wherein (E*2-E*1)/E*1 = 1-20% and (E*3-E*2)/E*2 = 1-7% [FIGURE 1, paragraphs 1, 6, 27, 35-37] and wherein in EXAMPLE 3 [TABLE 1], at 70oC, E*1 (center portion) = 5.5 MPa and E*3 (shoulder portion) = 5.9 MPa;
and optionally:
(B) Shibamoto teaches providing a pneumatic tire for two wheeled vehicle having a tread comprising a central portion (modulus E*c) and shoulder portions (modulus E*s) such that, at 100oC, modulus E*c (central portion) is smaller than modulus E*s (shoulder portion) [e.g. E*c = 1-4 MPa, E*s = 1-4 MPa] so that the center portion has excellent contact performance and steering stability and the shoulder portions have excellent grip performance and excellent steering stability in cornering; it being noted that E* increases with decreasing temperature and it being noted that Shibamoto, like Tanaka, teaches dividing the tread into only three portions (one central portion and two shoulder portions); and
(3) Japan 918 teaches providing a pneumatic motorcycle tire having a tread such that radius of the tread surface increases from the tire equator to each tread end to improve lateral force and side slip performance during turning when a tire is given a camber angle wherein Japan 918 discloses a pneumatic motorcycle tire having tire size 190/55R17 (section width SW = 190 mm) and radius R1 (crown region) = 92 mm and having the following ground contact areas at cambers of 0o, 10o, 20o, 30o and 40o:
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and
at camber angle = 0o, width (ground contact area) = 45.1 mm,
at camber angle 10o, width (ground contact area) = 46.3 mm,
at camber angle 20o, width (ground contact area) = 48.5 mm,
at camber angle 30o, width (ground contact area) = 50.0 mm,
at camber angle 40o (ground contact rea) = 52.6 mm,
the tire having radius R1 (crown region) = 48% section width SW [92 mm/190mmx100% = 48%] and ground contact areas at cambers of 0o, 10o, 20o, 30o and 40o being about equal [FIGURES 1, 4, paragraphs 1, 5, 11, 13, 24, 31, 50, 53 of machine translation, and TABLE 1, EXAMPLES 2, 4-6].
As to claims 1-19, the following additional comments are made:
As to claim 1: Europe 226 and optionally Shibamoto motivate one of ordinary skill in the art to provide Tanaka’s pneumatic tire such that modulus Ec* (central portion) is smaller than modulus Es* (shoulder portions) and Japan 918 motivates one of ordinary skill in the art to profile Tanaka’s pneumatic tire such that ground contact area A0 (camber 0o), ground contact area A10 (camber 10o) and ground contact area A40 (camber angle 40o) are about equal (e.g. ratio A10/A0 ≈ 1); the expression 0.3 <= (Ec* X A0)/(Es* X A40) <= 1.05 in claim 1 thereby being satisfied. When Ec* = 5.5 MPa [as per Europe 226’s EXAMPLE #3], Es* = 5.9 MPa [as per Europe 226’s EXAMPLE 3], A10/A0 ≈ 1 [as per Japan 918], then (Ec* X A0)/(Es* X A40) ≈ 0.93. This value of 0.93 falls within the claimed range of 0.3 to 1.05. With respect to ratio A10/A0 ≈ 1, it is noted that Japan 918’s FIGURE 4 shows the ground contact area at 0o camber being slightly narrower and slightly longer than the ground contact area at 10o camber.
As to claim 2, Europe 226 discloses Ec* = 5.5 MPa. This value of 5.5 MPa falls within the claimed range of 4.5 to 6.5 MPa.
As to claim 3, Europe 226’s disclosure of Ec* = 5.5 MPa [EXAMPLE #3] and (E*2-E*1)/E*1 = 1-20% and (E*3-E*2)/E*2 = 1-7% render obvious Es* = 6.5 to 8.5 MPa since the expressions (E*2-E*1)/E*1 = 1-20% and (E*3-E*2)/E*2 = 1-7% teach one of ordinary skill in the art that the shoulder portions may have modulus Es* greater than 5.9 MPa [EXAMPLE #3].
As to claims 4-6, Tanaka teaches tan delta at 70oC shoulder portions = 0.2 to 0.40.
As to claims 7-9, Japan 918 discloses a radius of the crown region being 92 mm for a pneumatic motorcycle tire having a size of 190/55R17 (nominal section width = 190 mm); the radius thereby being 48% of the nominal section width of the tire.
As to claims 10-12, Tanaka discloses width of central portion being 20-60% tread width.
As to claims 13-19, Japan 918 motivates one of ordinary skill in the art to profile Tanaka’s pneumatic tire such that the each of the claimed ground contact ratios are satisfied so as to improve lateral force and side slip performance during turning when a tire is given a camber angle.
ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
4) Claim 20 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Japan 351 (JP 2008-143351) discloses a set of motorcycle tires wherein each tire has a tread comprising a central portion and shoulder portions, wherein, for the front tire, hardness of the shoulder portions is greater than hardness of the central portion and wherein, for the rear tire, hardness of the shoulder portions is less than hardness of the shoulder portions [FIGURES 1, 3, machine translation].
As to claim 20, the prior art fails to render obvious providing the two wheeled pneumatic tire of Tanaka (US 2006/0207701) as motorcycle tire set consisting of a front wheel tire and a rear wheel tire such that in each of the front wheel tire and the rear wheel tire, the complex elastic modulus Ec* of the crown rubber is smaller than the complex elastic modulus Es* of each of the shoulder rubbers, and a difference (Es*-Ec*)F between the complex clastic modulus Ec* of the crown rubber and the complex clastic modulus Es* of each shoulder rubber of the front wheel tire is larger than a difference (Es*-Ec*)R between the complex elastic modulus Ec* of the crown rubber and the complex elastic modulus Es* of each shoulder rubber of the rear wheel tire.
Remarks
5) The remaining references are of interest.
6) Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN D MAKI whose telephone number is (571)272-1221. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:30AM-6PM.
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/STEVEN D MAKI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749
March 25, 2026