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 received 12/04/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 5 have been amended. Claim 3 has been canceled. Claim 9 has been added.
Prior art rejection made over Matsuo et al. has been withdrawn in view of the amendments to the claims. Under further review of the newly presented claim scope a new prior art rejection has been presented below with respect to claims 5-7.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 5 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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) 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anitcipated by Oishi et al. (US 6530535 B2).
As per claim 5, Oishi et al. discloses a fishing spinning reel comprising:
a drive shaft (7) that is rotationally driven by a rotation operation of a handle (16) rotatably supported on a reel body (A, in particular portion 3); and
a one-way clutch (D, Fig. 3-10) that is disposed on the drive shaft and has an inner ring (39; Col. 6, Ln. 40-42), an outer ring (combination of 8 and 9 in Fig. 3-5; Col. 6, Ln. 45-47 or just 9 in embodiments of Fig. 6-10), and a holder (41; Col. 6, Ln. 48-52) holding a plurality of rolling members (42),
wherein the outer ring includes a stopper (8b in Fig. 5; Col. 6, Ln. 6-13; or 9b in Fig. 7; Col. 7, Ln. 56-60) that protrudes radially outward and is integrally formed with the outer ring, ring, and the stopper includes two flat side surfaces that face in opposite circumferential directions of the outer ring (Fig. 5, Fig. 7); and
the reel body is provided with an abutting portion (3j in Fig. 5, Col. 6, Ln. 6-13; or 3m in Fig. 7, Col. 7, Ln. 56-60) that abuts on the outer ring at two points on both of the flat side surfaces of the stopper to restrict rotation of the outer ring.
As per claim 6, Oishi et al. discloses the abutting portion is provided on a radially inner side of an outermost-diameter position of the stopper (Fig. 5, Fig. 7).
As per claim 7, Oishi et al. discloses the holder and the plurality of rolling members are positioned, in a radial direction, between the inner ring and the outer ring (Fig. 3-10).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-2, 4 and 8 are allowed.
Claim 9 is 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
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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ANNA M. MOMPER
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3654
/ANNA M MOMPER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3619