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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 07/16/2026 has been entered.
Claim Status
Claim 1 has been amended. Claims 1-23 remain pending and are ready for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claims 1-23 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.
The term “a range near zero” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “a range near zero” 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.
Claims 2-23 depend upon claim 1, thus inherit its deficiencies and therefore are rejected as well.
Relevant Art Cited by Examiner
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is cited to establish the level of skill in the applicant’s art and those arts considered reasonably pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure. See MPEP 707.05(c).
Kamio (US20190097554A1) discloses “Considering a detection error or the like, for example, if it is equal to or less than a predetermined value close to 0, it is determined that the output shaft angle change amount Δ0 is 0.”
Shimoyama (US 20020125847 A1) discloses “A reference numeral 10C denotes means for controlling a motor driving current, which controls a driving current of a motor so as to reduce a deviation between a target position of the driven member 2 set by target position setting means 10D and a current position of the driven member 2 detected by the position detector 11 to zero.”
Scherdel (US 20080107435 A1) discloses “Since the temporal deviation of the motor shaft position from the desired position is now known, the motor activation of the step motor can be influenced via a regulation such that the deviation goes towards zero.”
Ito (US 20080285401 A1) discloses “In the first embodiment among these embodiments, only the recording power level is controlled such that an asymmetry value for a specific code length is close to zero, that is, within a predetermined range around zero.”
Oya (US 20160362136 A1) discloses “the vehicle speed gain Gv is fixed to zero in the range where the vehicle speed V is close to zero”.
However, none of the above arts, alone or in combination, explicitly discloses the current combination of limitations of claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-23 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The reasons for allowance of Claim 1 are that the prior art of record, including the references cited below, neither anticipates, nor renders obvious the recited combination as a whole; including the limitations of a machine learning device that learns a control condition for a magnetic bearing device that includes a magnetic bearing having a plurality of electromagnets that apply an electromagnetic force to a shaft, the machine learning device comprising: “and the predetermined range being a range near zero, and the constant value being zero.”
As dependent claims 2-23 depend from an allowable base claim; they are at least allowable for the same reasons as noted supra.
The prior art made of record, Kyo et al. (JP 2001165163 A), Sakawaki (US20170234363A1), Ueyama (US5879113A), Tamai (US20200141415A1), Shinzen (JP2005057847A), Someya (US20050052146A1), Kita (WO 9938249 A1), Fujita et al. (US20190386595A1), Ueda et al. (US20030213256A1), Cella et al. (US20190121338A1), Tsutsumi (US20170063261A1), Hosek (US 8803513 B2), Deane (US10119592B2), Sakawaki (US20140363321A1), Hosek (US8803513B2), Kamio (US20190097554A1), Shimoyama (US 20020125847 A1), Scherdel (US 20080107435 A1), Ito (US 20080285401 A1), and Oya (US 20160362136 A1) neither anticipates nor renders obvious the above-recited combinations for at least the reasons specified and as shown in Applicant’s Arguments filed 07/16/2026.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VI N TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-1108. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00.
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/V.N.T./Examiner, Art Unit 2117
/Christopher E. Everett/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2117
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