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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 15 September 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 15 September 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that the prior art does not disclose the specific angles of the router bit claimed and it would not have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to do so. However, the claim is only directed to a router bit. Therefore limitations such as “joint angle”, “material thickness”, the router and any others that reference things outside of the structure of the router bit itself is merely intended use and thus the prior art need not discloses such limitations. Therefore the prior art merely has to disclose the specifications of the claimed router bit with respect to itself. As the prior art discloses the claimed limitations with respect to the bit itself the arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 21-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 8,464,768 to Dammers (Dammers).
Concerning claim 21, Dammers discloses, a router bit for use in a router to make, in a starting work material having a planar inner side and a planar outer side and a defined material thickness and with the router being configured at a defined tilt angle being an angle between a router axis of rotation and a first notional line normal to the inner side of the work material, an asymmetrical corner joint between a first piece of the starting work material and a second piece of the starting work material and having a joint angle of being an inside angle defined by the first piece and second piece in position to form the corner joint, the router bit comprising:
a proximal shank (11) defining a router bit axis of rotation and being operable for releasably mounting the router bit to the router for rotation by the router about the router bit axis of rotation that is coincident with the router axis of rotation;
a distal bevel/slant cutter (E1 in the figure reproduce below) defining two bevel/slant sides with a bevel/slant side length and a bevel/slant angle where the bevel slant sides meet, the bevel/slant angle being determined by the following formula:
bevel/slant angle = 180* - joint angle,
the bevel/slant side length being determined by the following formula:
bevel/slant side length = material thickness x secant ((1/2 x bevel/slant angle) - tilt angle) (as the formulas are directed to subject matter outside the scope of the claimed invention, the prior art merely must be capable of performing said function which it does, it need not disclose doing so); and
a shoulder cutter (E2) between the shank (11) and bevel/slant cutter (E1), and adjacent the bevel/slant cutter (E1), the shoulder cutter defining two shoulder sides and an associated shoulder side angle being the angle on the outside of the profile between the distal side of a second notional plane normal to the router bit axis of rotation positioned at the proximal end of the shoulder sides and one of the shoulder sides, the shoulder side angle being determined by the following formula:
shoulder side angle = joint angle - tilt angle (as the formulas are directed to subject matter outside the scope of the claimed invention, the prior art merely must be capable of performing said function which it does, it need not disclose doing so);
whereby with the router set at the intended tilt and the router moved relative to the work material or the work material moved relative to the router, the router bit makes in one pass a cut with two sides to produce the first piece and the second piece, on one side of the cut only the bevel/slant cutter engages the work material to form a first joint end in the first piece, and on the other side of the cut both the bevel/slant cutter and shoulder cutter engage the work material to form a second joint end in the second piece; and the first joint end comprises a slant plane extending between the outer side and the inner side and a planar band of the inner side adjacent the slant plane, and the second joint end comprises a beveled plane and a shoulder plane, such that with the first piece and second piece in position to form the corner joint in which the first joint end is in abutment with the second joint end, the beveled plane is adjacent to and in parallel abutment with the slant plane, and the shoulder plane is adjacent to and in parallel abutment with the planar band (as the limitations are directed to subject matter outside the scope of the claimed invention, the prior art merely must be capable of performing said function which it does, it need not disclose doing so).
Concerning claims 22-25, as the claimed invention specifically excludes the joint angle (as the claimed is only directed to the router bit itself) such limitation is merely intended use. The router bit of Dammers is capable of performing said functions.
PNG
media_image1.png
466
680
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Matthew Katcoff whose telephone number is (571)270-1415. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th: 8-4, Fri: Flex.
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, Christopher Templeton can be reached at (571) 270-1477. 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.
/Matthew Katcoff/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3725 11/01/2025