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 .
Response to Amendment
Amendment to the claims received 5/27/2025 has been entered. Claim 1, 4, 14, 16-17 and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims are considered but are moot in view of the allowance to the claims. However, new issues regarding specification, drawings and 112(b) have been presented below.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
108 shown in Fig. 1 (Note: Amendment to the specification [26], line 8 appears to improperly recite “109” instead of “108”)
132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 150, 152, 154 shown in Fig. 2-3 (Note: these appear to be described in [31]-[35] with 200-series reference characters).
160, 162, 164, 166, 168 shown in Fig. 6 (Note: these appears to be described in [38] using 200-series reference characters)
290 shown in Fig. 8 (Note: these appear to be described in [46]-[47] but with reference character “280”).
The drawings are objected to because Fig. 2 includes 2 reference characters that are chopped off (“100” is cut to appear to be “1” and “102” is cut to appear to be “10”).
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) 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. 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.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required:
Claim 12 recites “ a driven wheel that is rotated by the motor”, however no driven wheel or one rotated by a motor is discussed in the specification.
Claim 13 recites “the wheel speed is at least 5% faster than the line speed such that the wheel drags along the first line…”. This feature is not recited or otherwise discussed in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 10 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 10, line 2-3 recites “the driveshaft has a depression or a protrusion, and the spool has a protrusion or a depression”. The manner in which this presents allows for the combination of a protrusion or depression to be simultaneously present on both the driveshaft and the spool which would is not supported by the specification and drawings but also unclear how that would also provide for the functional limitation of “fix the spool relative to the driveshaft.” It is recommend to change the language to something such as “the driveshaft has a depression or a protrusion, and the spool has the other of a protrusion or a depression”.
Claim 10, line 3 recites “the depressions and protrusions match”, however the earlier recitation of the claim recites “one or more of the spools” and “depression” (singular) and “protrusion” (singular). Therefore reciting the plurality of depressions and protrusions make it unclear how many depressions/protrusions are required. Per examiner’s claim construction, only one of the spools is required to have the depression/protrusion but additional spools may also, a recommended fix would be to recite “depression(s) and protrusion(s)” such that only singular is required but can include more if more than one spool has the depression/protrusion.
Claim 12 and 14 recites “a driven wheel that is rotated by the motor.” It appears that this is intended to be the tensioning wheel 242 described in [33]-[34] and shown in Fig. 2 (under reference character “142”). However, the tensioning wheel is received on the rail 110 but has not driven connection to the motor to provide a driving force to the wheel. The wheel appears to be an idle wheel which is rotated purely based on contact of the line with the wheel and does not appear to be “rotated by the motor” as one of ordinary skill in the art would understand such a phrase to mean. While the motor rotates the spool which unwinds the line which acts on the tensioning wheel and can cause it to move, this would not be within the broadest reasonable interpretation that one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have understood “rotated by the motor” to mean. Therefore it is unclear how the invention achieves this function or what scope is recited.
Claims 13 and 15 are rejected by virtue of it’s dependency to claim 12 and 14, respectively
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9, 11, and 16-20 allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANNA M MOMPER whose telephone number is (571)270-5788. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5:30 pm (EST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert Siconolfi can be reached at (571)272-7124. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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ANNA M. MOMPER
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3654
/ANNA M MOMPER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3619