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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 30, 41 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art fails to disclose or to fairly suggest the invention in the combination as claimed.
The prior art fails to disclose the connection module having the holding part which itself includes a recess into which a sleeve part is inserted, which has an annualar groove and is slipped onto a cable that includes sensor lines of the angle sensor, the holding part includes a threaded bore into which a threaded pin is screwed and which at least partially projects into an annualar groove of the sleeve part to retain the sleeve part in a form fitting manner and to reinforce the cable which is arranged in a friction locked manner in the sleeve part.
Claims 20,23 32 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
As it regards claim 20 Applicant’s remarks regarding the elastic deformation of a region of the hood part, are persuasive.
As it regards applicant’s arguments concerning claim 23 regarding the plastic deformation of the projections, these arguments are persuasive.
The prior art further fails to disclose in combination as it regards claim 32 wherein the signal lines of the cable are routed to a plug connector part via a plus in connection and a circuit board which is fixed in place in the bottom part which is connected to a corresponding mating plug connector part which is fixed in place in the top part, and a connection cable is routed through a screwed cable gland arranged on the top part to a further circuit board which is connected to the mating plug connector part and is fixed in place in the top part.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 7/29/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Boletta fails to expressly disclose the pin members as described in the office action with respect to the connection module. It is pointed out that the connection module of claim 16 is not expressly claimed to be electrical connection module. It is further pointed out that the description of the member having the pins is only to identify a connection module, meaning an element to which a connection is made, the electrical components brought in by the modifying references, it is only asserted by the examiner that such an existing connection module or means of making some manner of connection, being present would have been obvious to combine with the electrical components so as to allow for a compact packaging of the electrical connections.
Regarding the rectangular shape of the connection this is disclosed by Haebele element 5. Further it is considered that such shapes are well known and would have been obvious to select any shape for connections and that there is no such requirement for a shape and that there is only a pointing to the knowledge in the art of such shapes existing.
Applicant argues that there is no teaching of the hood part being clamped between the bottom part and the holding part. Emphasis being placed by applicant on the term clamped. It is considered by the examiner that the term clamped is broad enough to cover the definition of being held tightly, as the respective components are so held, that is to say held in place without allowing for a movement away from the desired location, the device is clamped in place. Any further limitations regarding the term clamped per se would be an improper reading of limitations into the claim language.
As it regards applicant’s arguments concerning claims 24 and 26 regarding the annular groove and O-ring. These arguments are not persuasive as the prior art taken as a whole and informing one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the effective filing would have demonstrated such grooves and O-ring configurations to be conventional and well known.
As it regards claims 27 and 29 with regard to the Bayonet style connections, their use is well known in the art, as evidenced by at least Dover (US3248531) (cited on 892 of 7/17/25 and demonstrating an age predating the instant invention).
As it regards claims 33, and 39 the machine translation of Pfann discloses the use of O-rings. One of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the effective filing would have found the claimed structure to be obvious in view of conventional structures, applicant’s remarks regarding this are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1 Claim(s) 16-19, 21-22 and 37-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Motovario (WO201507983) in view of Schmidt (US10914301) Masuda (US20170108067) and Habele (US20070264869).
With respect to claim 16 Motovario discloses a drive comprising: An a electric motor (1) including a rotor shaft (3) an encoder (9) and a hood par (21); and a connection module (member passing through hood 21 in figure 4 which can be connected to an element outside of the motor) including a top part (external to 21) a holding part (including the outward projecting member external to the hood) and a bottom part (internal of the hood including outward projecting flange) connected to the top part of the holding part, the holding part projecting through an opening (the connection module which passes through the wall of the hood) the connection part being attached to the hood by the hood part being clamped between the bottom part and the holding part.
Motovario does not disclose expressly the connection module being removably attached. One of ordinary skill in the art would have found such a provision to have been an obvious matter to allow for the changing of the connection module in the event of damage.
Schmidt discloses (column 2 lines 25-26) the use of a detachable housing for electronic device having an electric drive motor.
Habele (para 6) discloses the use of a connection module configured for an electric load to provide power and control to an electric motor.
It would have been an obvious smatter to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Motovario, Schmidt and Habele to provide a removable connection module to pass electrical signals or power to the motor of Motovario. The motivation for doing so would be to allow for ease of repair of the device.
Motovario as modified discloses the invention as claimed except expressly the use of an angle sensor. Masuda (para 56) discloses an angle sensor (26) which uses an encoder as the angle sensor. This is further disclosed to be used in the control of the electric motor. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to sue an angle sensor in the control of the motor of Motovario as this is a known and conventional manner of controlling the motor.
With regard to the opening being in the shape of a slot per se, the use of a slot would have been an obvious matter to one of ordinary skill in the art as such a shape would allow for the directional insertion of the member of Motovario as modified.
Motovario figure 4 disclsoes an element having multiple pins, which an electrical connection module such as that taught by Masuda would have included, the pins are shown such that the arrangement suggests to one of orinday skill an orientation. This would have led one of ordinary skill to select any needed shape to provide the desired function of the device. Such changes of shape are within the skill of one in the art.
With respect to claim 17 Mootovario as modified (see Motovario use of encoder and teachings of Masuda to use an angle sensor per se) further discloses wherein the angle sensor if adapted to acquire the rotary position of the rotor shaft and the hood part is attached to a housing part of the electric motor.
With respect to claim 18 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the hood part is directly or indirectly attached to the housing part of the electric motor (see again figure 4).
With respect to claim 19 Motovario (see again figure 4 of Motovario the connection module is so orientated and the pin connections as taught by Matsuda are shown to be rectangular thus the slot would be oriented as claimed) as modified further discloses wherein the slot is aligned in parallel with an axis of rotation of the rotor shaft.
With respect to claim 21 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the angle sensor (9) is arranged in a spatial region surrounded by the hood part (figure 4) and the bottom part and the top part are arranged outside of the spatial region (they are spaced away from the encoder itself and as such the limitation is understood to be met).
With respect to claim 22 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein projections are arranged on the bottom part on a side of the bottom part facing the hood part, the projections being pressed against the hood (see flange type extension as shown in figure 4).
With respect to claim 37 Motovario as modified further discloses the use of metal sheets to form a housing of electronics component (see Matsuda para 263) as metal sheeting is known to be used in such electronic housings it would have been obvious to use to form the hood part.
With respect to claim 38 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein a fan wheel is connected to the rotor shaft in a torsionally fixed manner (so as not to detach the fan element 7 this is the case).
2. Claims 24-29,31,33-36 and 39-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Motovario (WO201507983) in view of Schmidt (US10914301) Masuda (US20170108067) and Habele (US20070264869) as applied to claim 16 above and in further view of Sew (DE102008028603).
With respect to claim 24 Motovario as modified discloses the invention as claimed discloses the invention as claimed except for the use of a sealing ring.
Sew discloses (para 0048) the use of an O-ring (see provided machine translation).
It would have been an obvious mater to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the effective filing to combine the teachings of Sew to use an O-ring ana motor structure with the device of Motovario as modified.
The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a sealing member to prevent the incursion of water in a known manner with readily available parts.
With respect to claim 25 Motovario as modified discloses wherein the holding part projects into a recess and is located by a step member (see manner in which plug fits) while not disclosing in use with the holding part per se, Motovario does disclose the use of recesses into which stepped members of the structure project and into which sealing members are situated (as is the conventional manner of securing an O-ring type seal). It would have been an obvious matter to apply such a teaching to the holding part so as to prevent the incursion of water or other unwanted contaminants and further to aid in securing the holding member and bottom member.
With respect to claim 26 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the hood part includes an annular groove (see figure 4 where he hood meets the motor body) this teachings would be obvious to apply to the connection at the holding part to again secure and prevent incursion of contaminants, and the projections are evenly spaced apart from one another in a circumferential direction in relation to a ring axis of the annular groove (conventional in the mounting of an O-ring so as to support the O-ring and prevent deflection thereof during the installation of the members to be sealed.)
With respect to claim 27 As it regards the sue of a bayonet style connection, such connections are known and would have been obvious to select to allow for a tool-free installation.
With respect to claim 28 the guide areas as claimed would have been understood to be necessary structures of a bayonet style connection. Such connections are well known and the structures thereof would have been obvious to include. The inclusion of a positive lock member to ensure proper connection is well known in the art of electrical elements see again Kato as demonstrating this well- known phenomenon.
With respect to claim 29 With regard to guide areas these are well known in the art to be structures of the bayonette style connector. It would have been obvious to include any of the known structures which are needed for the bayonet connector to function, as it regards the respective widths this would have been an obvious manner of controlling movement of the connection and locking the device in place once the desired insertion depth was achieved.
With respect to claim 31 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the bottom part includes at least one uninterrupted bore through which a screw is passable (see stacked elements of Schmidt, bore holes through which screws pass are well known, the middle portion of Schmidt teaches a through bore, but this would be obviously applicable to the bottom portions as well in the event that an external threaded fastener was used in place of a threaded boss, which is a known functional equivalent) and is screwable into two threaded bores that are arranged in the holding part at a distance from each other so that the bottom part is align able in two orientations that differ in relation to the holding part (this would be only a reversal of the screw direction, in from the bottom as opposed to in from the top and a further shifting of the fastener elements to allow for different orientations which would have been obvious given the nature of the device of Motovario allowing for either an encoder or a braking elements which have different connections).
With respect to claim 33 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein a seal (see teachings of Sew to use an O-ring) which is arranged between the top part and the bottom part, seals the bottom part from the top part, the top part, and the bottom part being screw connected (the use of screws for connection is taught by Schmidt, the placement of the O-ring between the top and the bottom parts would have been obvious given the interface taught by Motovario between them and with the intent of keeping any contaminants out of inside of the hood element.)
With respect to claim 34 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the bottom part in a region of the bottom part arranged outside of the hood part has a broader extension in a direction perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the rotor shaft thana width of the slot or A slot width is independent of an axial position in relation to the axis of rotation of the rotor shaft (shown by the slot holing the rectangular connection plug) in region covered by first and second guide areas in an axial direction (as is the case due to the projection of the flange like holding members.
With respect to claim 35 Motovario further discloses wherein the first and second guide areas have a planar configuration, and a normal of the first guide area and a normal of the second guide area define a plane that is aligned in parallel with an axis of rotation of the rotor shaft (such a connection direction would have been an obvious matter based upon the desired or needed orientation of the connections, this would have been at most a rearrangement of the parts of the device.
With respect to claim 36 Motovario further discloses wherein in relation to the axis of rotation of the rotor shaft a radial clearance of the first guide areas is similar to a radial clearance of the second guide areas in relation to the axis of rotation of the rotor shaft (such a similarity or symmetry would have been obvious so as to provide a connection which would reduce failure due to a bending or misalignment of the connection).
With respect to claim 39 Motovario further discloses a method for producing a drive including Inserting a cable (which is an obvious functional equivalent of the PCB shown by figure 4 of Motovario as evidenced by the insertion of a cable in figure 3) that includes signal lines that is connected to the angle sensor into a recess of the holding part a sleeve part which is slipped onto the cable and connected to the cable by a frictional connection (such grommets as well known when passing an electrical signal line through an opening), is secured by a threaded pin (see threaded fasteners of Schmidt) that projects into an annular depression of the sleeve part and is screwed through a threaded bore of the holing part (see screwed together elements of Schmidt); Inserting the holding part into a recess of the bottom part and tightly connecting the holding part with the aid of at least one screw and sealing ring (O-ring disclosed by Sew) which is arranged in an annualar groove of the holding part or the bottom part; Guiding the holding part through an axial slot of the hood part of the drive until a boundary of the slot rests against a first guise areas of the holding part that are aligned in parallel with each other (see projections of the holding part of Motovario); Rotating the bottom part which is connected to the holding part about a ring axis of the annular groove such that second guide areas rather than the first guide areas rest against the boundary (conventional bayonet style connection as discussed in apparatus claims above obvious to use) and Placing the top part on the bottom part and connecting the top part with the aid of screws(see again Schmidt) and plugging a mating connector part which is fixed in place in the top part and connected toa connection cable into a plug connector part fixe din place in the bottom part (as would be the conventional manner of connecting the cables).
With respect to claim 40 Motovario as modified further discloses wherein the screw guided through a recess of the bottom part is screwed into a first or a second threaded bore (see Schmidt for threaded fasteners) of the holding part and when the screw is screwed into the first threaded bore the bottom part has a first spatial alignment or rotary position with respect to the holding part, and when the screw is screwed into the second threaded bore the bottom part has a second spatial alignment or rotary position with respect to the holding part, the first alignment differing from thew second alignment (which would have been an obvious manner of changing from one type of connection such as the cable for the brake 8 or the chip member for encoder 9, such techniques are taught by Motovario through such differing passages).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FORREST M PHILLIPS whose telephone number is (571)272-9020. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 9:00-5:00.
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, Dedei Hammond can be reached at (571) 272-3985. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FORREST M PHILLIPS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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