DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Claims 2-4, 9-18, and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 10/20/25.
Applicant's election with traverse of Species I in the reply filed on 10/20/25 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the Examiner does not explain why the common special technical features are known or would have been obvious. This is not found persuasive because the prior art applicable to one species (with the special technical features of openings 10B) would not likely be applicable to another species; and/or the species are likely to raise different non-prior art issues.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 7, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being disclosed by Koji (JP2006116589).
Koji discloses the method including the step of: applying double shearing work to an end portion of at least one part of a metal sheet (see Fig. 1-6); forming a first area having a cutting margin of second shearing work of 5 mm or less (see Fig. 1, the shearing device 3 cis in contact with the die 2 which show a margin of 0 mm) in first cutting in the double shearing work, and carrying out second cutting (see Fig. 6) in the double shearing work in a state where movement on an end portion side of the first area is restrained (by the element 15); when a metal sheet 14 is formed into a pressed component through one or two or more times of press forming (see Fig. 1 and 6), using a metal sheet sheared by the metal sheet shearing work method according to claim 1 as the metal sheet.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, and 8 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.
Conclusion
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/OMAR FLORES SANCHEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3724