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
Election/Restrictions
Claims 2, 12-16, 18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/22/2025. Claims 1,3-11, 17, 19-20 are currently pending examination.
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, 3-4, 6, 17, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Choi US 2021/0052119 A1.
Re claims 1, 17, Choi discloses an intelligent cleaning device [fig. 1] comprising a cleaning brush [fig. 5], comprising:
a shaft rod 311, provided with two first ends opposite in an axial direction;
a cylindrical member 315, coaxially sleeving the shaft rod and provided with two second ends opposite in the axial direction,
a brush piece 3154 being arranged on an outer surface of the cylindrical member; and
at least one end member 312, installed on at least one of the first ends, the end member being provided with a blocking structure 3125 [fig. 13], the blocking structure being configured to prevent an entanglement from excessively extending away from the cleaning brush, the end member and the first end being provided with installation structures [3122, 3128, 3149, 314], matching each other respectively,
wherein the second end corresponding to the end member covers at least a portion of the end member [see fig. 13 annotated below].
Re claims 3, 19, Choi further discloses wherein the installation structure 3149 comprises:
a guide hole [hole of shaft rod 311], coaxially defined in an end surface of the first end; and
a guide shaft 3128, connected to the end member and configured to be inserted into the guide hole.
Re claims 4, 20, Choi further discloses wherein the installation structure comprises:
a guide sleeve 3128, arranged at an end of the end member facing the shaft rod and configured to sleeve the first end,
wherein a sidewall of the first end is provided with at least one first limiting structure, and an inner wall of the guide sleeve is provided with at least one second limiting structure matching the at least one first limiting structure [see fig. 13 annotated below].
Re claim 6, Choi further discloses wherein one of the first limiting structure and the second limiting structure is a limiting rib, and the other one of the first limiting structure and the second limiting structure is a limiting groove, the limiting rib matches the limiting groove in shape [see fig. 13 annotated below].
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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.
Claim(s) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi US 2021/0052119 A1.
Regarding claim 5, Choi discloses the invention as discussed above but fail to disclose wherein a distance between the blocking structure and an end of the guide sleeve away from the end member is greater than 5% of a length of the shaft rod along the axial direction of the shaft rod, and the blocking structure and the guide sleeve correspond to a same first end.
Choi does teach a given percentage of the distance between the blocking structure 3125 and an end of the guide sleeve 3128. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a distance greater than 5% in Choi since it has been held that "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." MPEP 2144.05 II A.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-11 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record does not show or fairly render obvious the combination set forth in the claims. In particular, the prior art does not show for claim 6, wherein the limiting rib and the limiting groove are in spiral shapes and match each other in shape, for claim 10, wherein the first end is provided with a plurality of the first limiting structures uniformly arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction of the shaft rod; or the guide sleeve is provided with a plurality of the second limiting structures uniformly arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction of the guide sleeve; or the first end is provided with a plurality of the first limiting structures uniformly arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction of the shaft rod; and the guide sleeve is provided with a plurality of the second limiting structures uniformly arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction of the guide sleeve, and for claim 11, wherein an outer wall of the guide sleeve is provided with at least one second assembly identifier, the at least one second assembly identifier corresponds to the at least one second limiting structure in position and is configured to mark a position of the at least one second limiting structure.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Carlos A. Rivera whose telephone number is (571)270-5697. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM -4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Keller can be reached at (571) 272-8548. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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C. A. R.
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3723
/C. A. RIVERA/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3723