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 . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06 February 2026 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 5-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to one or more non-elected inventions/species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 16 June 2025.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, wherein “the bent portion is provided at… the second portion” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) and/or an amendment to the claim(s) in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(c) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Suzuki et al. (US 11,176,961).
Suzuki et al. (US 11,176,961) teach a disk drive suspension (34, see FIG. 4, for instance) comprising a load beam (38) extending in a length direction (along C1 in FIG. 5, for instance) and comprising a dimple (52); and a flexure (42) overlaid on the load beam in a thickness direction of the load beam (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for instance), the thickness direction intersecting the length direction, wherein the load beam includes a side edge in a width direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the width direction intersecting the length direction and the thickness direction, the load beam and the flexure are fixed by a first fixing portion (B1) and a second fixing portion (B2) closer to a distal end of the load beam than the first fixing portion (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the flexure comprises a tongue (44a) opposed to the dimple in the thickness direction (as shown in FIG. 4, for instance); and an outrigger (includes 44c, for instance) connected to the tongue (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for instance), the outrigger includes a first portion (i.e., portion closest to B1 in FIG. 5, for instance) opposed to the load beam in the thickness direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance); and a second portion (i.e., portion adjacent to the first portion) projected in the width direction beyond the side edge of the load beam (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the first portion and the second portion are located between the dimple and the first fixing portion in the length direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the outrigger is bent (at 45b in the embodiment of FIGS. 13A-13B, for instance) in the thickness direction of the load beam at a bent portion (45B), and the bent portion is provided at the first portion (as shown in FIG. 13B relative to FIG. 5, for instance) [as per claim 1]; wherein the bent portion is located between the tongue and the first fixing portion in the length direction (as shown in FIGS. 13A-13B, for instance) [as per claim 2]; and wherein the outrigger includes a first outrigger (includes left-most 42c in FIG. 5, for instance) and a second outrigger (includes right-most 42c in FIG. 5, for instance), the first outrigger and the second outrigger being arranged in the width direction, and the tongue is located between the first outrigger and the second outrigger in the width direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), and each of the first outrigger and the second outrigger comprises the bent portion (as shown in FIGS. 13A-13B, for instance) [as per claim 4].
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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Suzuki et al. (US 11,074,932) in view of Phu et al. (US 12,020,732).
Applicant cannot rely upon the certified copy of the foreign priority application to overcome this rejection because a translation of said application has not been made of record in accordance with 37 CFR 1.55. When an English language translation of a non-English language foreign application is required, the translation must be that of the certified copy (of the foreign application as filed) submitted together with a statement that the translation of the certified copy is accurate. See MPEP §§ 215 and 216.
Suzuki et al. (US 11,074,932) teach a disk drive suspension (34, see FIG. 4, for instance) comprising a load beam (38) extending in a length direction (along C1 in FIG. 5, for instance) and comprising a dimple (52); and a flexure (42) overlaid on the load beam in a thickness direction of the load beam (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for instance), the thickness direction intersecting the length direction, wherein the load beam includes a side edge in a width direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the width direction intersecting the length direction and the thickness direction, the load beam and the flexure are fixed by a first fixing portion (B1) and a second fixing portion (B2) closer to a distal end of the load beam than the first fixing portion (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the flexure comprises a tongue (44a) opposed to the dimple in the thickness direction (as shown in FIG. 4, for instance); and an outrigger (includes 44c, for instance) connected to the tongue (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for instance), the outrigger includes a first portion (i.e., portion closest to B1 in FIG. 5, for instance) opposed to the load beam in the thickness direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance); and a second portion (i.e., portion adjacent to the first portion) projected in the width direction beyond the side edge of the load beam (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), the first portion and the second portion are located between the dimple and the first fixing portion in the length direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance) [as per claims 1 and 2]; and wherein the outrigger comprises a first face (downward facing face of 42c, as show in FIG. 5, for instance), at least part of which is opposed to the load beam (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance), and a second face (upward facing face of 42c, as show in FIG. 5, for instance) opposite to the first face in the thickness direction (as shown in FIG. 5, for instance) [as per claim 3].
Suzuki et al. (US 11,074,932), however, remain silent as to wherein “the outrigger is bent in the thickness direction of the load beam at a bent portion, and the bent portion is provided at the first portion or the second portion” as per claim 1, “wherein the bent portion is located between the tongue and the first fixing portion in the length direction as per claim 2, “wherein… the outrigger is bent at the bent portion to make the first face convex, and a bending angle of the outrigger at the bent portion is 0.5° to 3°” as per claim 3.
Phu et al. (US 12,020,732) teach an outrigger (342, see FIGS. 3A, for instance) being bent (at 376, as shown in FIG. 3B, for instance) in a thickness direction of a load beam (318) at a bent portion (376, for instance), and the bent portion is provided at a portion projected in a width direction beyond a side edge of the load beam (as shown in FIG. 3A, for instance), wherein the bent portion is located between a tongue and a fixing portion in a length direction (as shown in FIG. 3A relative to FIG. 1, for instance), wherein the outrigger is bent at the bent portion to make a face convex (as shown in FIG. 3B, for instance), and a bending angle of the outrigger at the bent portion is 0.5° to 3° (see lines 17-18 in column 6, for instance, i.e., “376 is bent towards the load beam at an angle θ1 from about 1.0 to 8.0 degrees” includes values within the claimed range) in the same field of endeavor for the purpose of improving dimple contact force (see line 63 in column 1 thru line 12 in column 2, and lines 11-16 in column 6, for instance). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have had the outrigger of Suzuki et al. (US 11,074,932) be bent in the thickness direction of the load beam at a bent portion, and the bent portion be provided at the second portion, wherein the bent portion is located between the tongue and the first fixing portion in the length direction, and wherein the outrigger is bent at the bent portion to make the first face convex, and a bending angle of the outrigger at the bent portion is 0.5° to 3°, as taught/suggested by Phu et al. (US 12,020,732). The rationale is as follows:
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to have had the outrigger of Suzuki et al. (US 11,074,932) be bent in the thickness direction of the load beam at a bent portion, and the bent portion be provided at the second portion, wherein the bent portion is located between the tongue and the first fixing portion in the length direction, and wherein the outrigger is bent at the bent portion to make the first face convex, and a bending angle of the outrigger at the bent portion is 0.5° to 3°, as taught/ suggested by Phu et al. (US 12,020,732) since such improves dimple contact force.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Craig A. Renner whose telephone number is (571) 272-7580. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 AM - 7:30 PM.
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, Steven Lim can be reached at (571) 270-1210. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CRAIG A. RENNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2688