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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 12, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11-18 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. (US 10,377,410 B2) in view of Zona (US 2004/0147351 A1).
Regarding claim 11, Oh et al. discloses a steering system of a vehicle (the structure that supports the steering wheel, the steering assembly, and the wheels in Figure 1 of Oh et al.; Furthermore, Oh et al. makes mention of a driver in the specification), comprising:
a toothed rack (304) which is connectable to wheels of the vehicle to turn the wheels by a displacement of the toothed rack;
a steering drive for displacing the toothed rack, wherein the steering drive has a motor unit (307) and a gear unit (305 and 302 which has teeth) and wherein the gear unit is connected to the toothed rack and converts a rotation of the motor unit into a displacement of the toothed rack (Column 4 / Lines 50-54); and
a force transmission element (310) disposed between the motor unit and gear unit and which acts in a positive-locking manner;
wherein the force transmission element has a core element (311, 313, 315) and a covering element (317) which at least partially surrounds the core element;
wherein the core element has protruding regions (315 in Figure 4) for producing a positive-locking connection with respect to the motor unit and the gear unit and has connection regions (the recessed area between each two adjacent 315 in Figure 4) which connect the protruding regions; and
wherein the covering element is in direct contact with the motor unit and the gear unit (see Figure 3).
Oh et al. does not disclose that the core element has a greater strength than the covering element.
Zona teaches a force transmission element (1) that is comprised of a core element (2) and a covering element (3) which contacts and at least partially surrounds the core element and has a homogenous material construction, the core element having a greater strength than the covering element (2 includes 4 and 5 which are made of metal, and 3 is made of a rubber material. It is well-known that metal is stronger than rubber thus meeting the claim limitation) for the purpose of providing a force transmission element that has high dimensional stability and consequent precision of operation over time (Paragraph 0004).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the force transmission element of Oh et al. to be the force transmission element of Zona that has a core element and a covering element which contacts and at least partially surrounds the core element and has a homogenous material construction, and the core element having a greater strength than the covering element for the purpose of providing a force transmission element that has high dimensional stability and consequent precision of operation over time, as taught by Zona.
Regarding claim 12, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the force transmission element is a toothed belt and/or a chain (1 of Zona can be viewed as being a chain since each 5 is spaced apart from each other and are integrally connected to each other via each 4).
Regarding claim 13, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the core element is comprised of individual chain links (each 5 of Zona is viewed as being a chain link as much as Applicant’s figures show chain links).
Regarding claim 14, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the core element has protruding members (5; Zona) which form the protruding regions and has connection members (4; Zona) which form the connection regions and wherein the protruding members and the connection members are connected in a positive-locking manner or are constructed integrally (4 and 5 of Zona are welded to each other thus are viewed as being integrally formed; Paragraph 0015).
Regarding claim 15, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the covering element completely surrounds the core element (see Figure 3 of Zona).
Regarding claim 16, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that an abrasion resistance of the core element is greater than an abrasion resistance of the covering element (4 and 5 of Zona are made of metal, and 7 and 8 of Zona are made of plastics and rubber; It is known that metal has a higher abrasion resistance to plastic and rubber given the hardness of metal in relation of plastic and rubber).
Regarding claim 17, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the covering element damps noise and/or vibrations during a force transmission between the motor unit and the gear unit (the rubber coating of Zona is viewed as meeting this limitation because it is capable of damping noise and/or vibrations).
Regarding claim 18, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses that the core element is a plastics material or a metal material (2 includes 4 and 5 which are made of metal; Zona).
Regarding claim 21, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses a vehicle (the structure that supports the steering wheel, the steering assembly, and the wheels in Figure 1 of Oh et al.; Furthermore, Oh et al. makes mention of a driver in the specification), comprising: the steering system according to claim 11.
Claims 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. (US 10,377,410 B2) in view of Zona (US 2004/0147351 A1) as applied to claim 11 above, and further in view of Habegger (US 4,752,282 A).
Regarding claim 19, Oh et al. in view of Zona discloses all of the claim limitations, see above, but does not disclose that the covering element is a plastics material (8 of Zona is made of a plastic material; Paragraph 0017).
Habegger teaches a drive belt that has an elastomer material coating (4; Column 3 / Lines 58-62) that is on at least two sides of the belt.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the covering element of Oh et al. in view of Zona to be an elastomer material, as taught by Habegger, for the purpose of providing a friction that is low thus reducing friction losses in the system.
Regarding claim 20, Oh et al. in view of Zona and further in view of Habegger discloses that the plastics material is an elastomer material (Column 3 / Lines 58-62; Habegger).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed January 12, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant argued on Page 5 of the Remarks that “the transmission belt 1 of Zona does not have a covering element that has a homogeneous material construction. To the contrary, the alleged covering element of Zona’s transmission belt is the rubber layer 3 plus the plastic material 8.”
Paragraph 0014 of Zona discloses “In the drawings, the reference number 1 generally designates a toothed transmission belt comprising a metal core 2 coated with a layer of rubber 3.” Thus, element 3 is viewed as including element 7 in Figure 3 because Paragraph 0020 discloses that element 7 is a rubber coating. Element 8 is an additional coating of adhesion-proof plastic material, but element 8 is not viewed as being a part of the rubber coating because it is not made of rubber. The rubber coating (3, 7) is a homogeneous material thus meeting the claim limitation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADAM D ROGERS whose telephone number is (571)272-6561. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday from 6AM-2:00PM EST.
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/ADAM D ROGERS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617