Teijin Limited

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

Mar 25, 2021

2020002865 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 25, 2021)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
14/011,066 08/27/2013 Yutaka Yagi 056777.00044 2333
115871 7590 03/25/2021
Banner & Witcoff, LTD
Client number 056777
1100 13th Street
Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20005
EXAMINER
WEYDEMEYER, ETHAN
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1783
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
03/25/2021 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
PTO-115871@bannerwitcoff.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
____________

Ex parte YUTAKA YAGI, TORU SUGIYAMA,
YUTAKA KONDO, MICHIHARU TANIGUCHI,
YUHEI KONAGAI, and IKKOU FURUKAWA
____________

Appeal 2020-002865
Application 14/011,066
Technology Center 1700
____________

Before MICHAEL P. COLAIANNI, GEORGE C. BEST, and
MERRELL C. CASHION, JR., Administrative Patent Judges.

CASHION, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Appellant1 appeals from a Final
Office Action, dated December 10, 2018, rejecting claims 1–11 and 15–17.
We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(a).
We AFFIRM.

1 “Appellant” refers to “applicant” as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.42. Appellant
identifies “Teijin Limited” as the real party in interest. Appeal Br. 2.
Appeal 2020-002865
Application 14/011,066

2
The invention relates to a shaped product that is thin-walled and
lightweight, having high rigidity and excellent surface appearance, where the
shaped product can have a complicated three-dimensional shape produced
by a simple process. Spec. 5. According to the Specification, prior art
shaped products made from metal- or fiber-reinforced materials are difficult
to form in complicated shapes and tend to suffer from a number of
deficiencies, such as corrosion (metal), poor appearance (metal) or limited
use in applications requiring high strength and rigidity. Id. at 1–2. To
address these deficiencies, the inventor discloses a shaped product made by
from a fiber-reinforced material comprising reinforcing fibers having a
specific configuration. Id. at 4–5. Claim 1, reproduced from the Appeal
Brief’s Claims Appendix, illustrates the invention:
1. A shaped product comprising a reinforced
composite material including discontinuous reinforcing fibers
contained in a thermoplastic resin,
wherein the reinforcing fibers contained in the shaped
product are cut from a reinforcing fiber strand, are isotropic in a
plane, and are two-dimensionally oriented, and include a
reinforcing fiber bundle (A) comprising the reinforcing fibers of
a critical single fiber number defined by formula (1) or more, a
ratio of the reinforcing fiber bundle (A) to a total amount of the
reinforcing fibers in the shaped product is 20 vol% or more and
less than 90 vol%, and an average number (N) of the
reinforcing fibers in the reinforcing fiber bundle (A) satisfies
the following formula (2):
critical single fiber number=600/D (1)
0.7x104/D2