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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/29/2025 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species 1 in the reply filed on 6/4/2024 is acknowledged. The arguments are persuasive and as such the restriction requirement as set forth in the Office action mailed on 4/5/2024 is hereby withdrawn. In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement as to the rejoined inventions, applicants are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 10, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or (a)(2) as being anticipated by Nicolai US 7644944.
Claim 1. A bottom bracket gearshift (fig.19) for an electric bicycle with an auxiliary drive (in that the Nicolai gearshift is inherently capable of use with an electrically lighted, controlled or powered bicycle thereby shifting burden to applicant to obtain/test Nicolai to prove otherwise in accordance with MPEP 2112.01 and 2114), comprising: a bottom bracket shaft (22), a shift gearbox (71, 79, 72, 80, 40, 41, 204, 205) configured for setting different transmission ratios (ratios of 72, 80, 40, 41, 204, 205), and an input stage (202, 203) arranged at a transmission input of the shift gearbox (71, 79), wherein the input stage is arranged between the shift gearbox and the bottom bracket shaft and is configured as a speed increasing gear for increasing the rotational speed of the bottom bracket shaft (e.g., via engagement of all clutches while the bike is rolling such that the bottom bracket shaft is back driven by 202/203), and wherein the shift gearbox has two or more shift stages (shift stages 72, 80, 40, 41, 204, 205) which are provided with shifting clutches (69, 70, 104) for shifting different gears of the shift gearbox.
Claim 2. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1, wherein the input stage comprises a first input gear (202) on a driven side of the input stage on an input shaft (45) of the shift gearbox and a second input gear (200) on a drive side of the input stage coaxial with the bottom bracket shaft.
Claim 4. The bottom bracket gearshift according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a freewheel (29) is arranged between the input stage and the bottom bracket shaft.
Claim 10. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1, comprising a housing (H) that accommodates the shift gearbox and the bottom bracket shaft and that is configured to accommodate the auxiliary drive (in that it has space within and/or thereon that is inherently capable to accommodate as such in accordance with MPEP 2112.01 and 2114).
Claim 13. An electric bicycle with the bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1 the bottom bracket gearshift being provided in an area (area near/proximate 22) of a bottom bracket (bottom bracket of bottom bracket shaft 22) of the electric bicycle.
Claims 1-3, 5, 9, 10, 13 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or (a)(2) as being anticipated by Kawakami US9758213.
Claim 1. A bottom bracket gearshift (figs.8) for an electric bicycle (1) with an auxiliary drive (21), comprising: a bottom bracket shaft (7a), a shift gearbox (45, 41, 51, 53) configured for setting different transmission ratios (ratios of 41, 51), and an input stage (36) arranged at (near) a transmission input (input of gearbox) of the shift gearbox, wherein the input stage is arranged between the shift gearbox and the bottom bracket (radially inner shaft portion of 36 extends in between gearbox and 7a) shaft and is configured as a speed increasing gear for increasing the rotational speed of the bottom bracket shaft (although fig.8 shows a one-way clutch 30 preventing back driving of 7a, Kawakami expressly discloses [col.16, ll.46-60] that the one-way clutch is optionally absent to allow thereby allowing back driving of 7a by the motor 21), and wherein the shift gearbox has two or more shift stages (stages of 41, 51) which are provided with shifting clutches (45, 53) for shifting different gears (gears of 45, 53) of the shift gearbox.
Claim 2. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1, wherein the input stage comprises a first input gear (38) on a driven side of the input stage on an input shaft (44) of the shift gearbox and a second input gear (outer gear portion of 36) on a drive side of the input stage coaxial with the bottom bracket shaft.
Claim 3. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 2, wherein the second input gear on the drive side of the input stage is seated on a hollow shaft (inner hollow shaft portion of 36 mounted on 7a) on the drive side of the input stage, and the hollow shaft is mounted on the bottom bracket shaft.
Claims 5 and 14. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 3, wherein the bottom bracket gearshift comprises an output-side hollow shaft (29), to which a drive gear (13) for a traction device (15) extending to a rear wheel (4) of the electric bicycle is attachable, and wherein the bottom bracket shaft extends coaxially in the output-side hollow shaft.
Claim 9. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 5, wherein the hollow shaft on the drive side and the output-side hollow shaft are arranged side by side on the bottom bracket shaft (see fig.8).
Claim 10. The bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1, comprising a housing (22) that accommodates the shift gearbox and the bottom bracket shaft and that is configured to accommodate the auxiliary drive (see fig.8).
Claim 13. An electric bicycle with the bottom bracket gearshift according to claim 1 the bottom bracket gearshift being provided in an area (area of 7a) of a bottom bracket (bottom bracket of 7a) of the electric bicycle.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 11, 12 and 15-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The art of record does not suggest the totality of limitations therein, does not provide any teaching, suggestion or motivation to modify toward the entirety of applicant's claims, nor was there any readily apparent cogent reasoning that is unequivocally independent of hindsight that would have led one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the prior art to obtain the entirety of applicant’s claimed invention.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VICTOR L MACARTHUR whose telephone number is (571)272-7085.
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/VICTOR L MACARTHUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618