Decorative laminates are known. A decorative laminate typically includes a substrate and a coating layer on the substrate (often called a top-coat); see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,044 (Takahashi et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,797,102 (Garcia et at), U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,399 (Takahashi et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,029,759 (Sobieski et al.).
In general, a top-coat is known to provide a certain amount of abrasion resistance to the decorative laminate to prevent the decorative laminate from undue marring and scratching. However, many decorative laminates having a protective topcoat still suffer from undue marring and scratching during one or more of manufacturing, packaging, storage, transportation, installation, and service life.
In addition, it is sometimes desirable to provide certain visual and/or tactile characteristics to a decorative laminate so as to help penetrate certain markets by providing a similar but, e.g., less expensive product via the use of a decorative laminate.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for new and improved decorative laminates that have one or more desired properties such as abrasion resistance, tactile characteristic, combinations of these, and the like.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds