Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
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.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Germany on April 14th, 2022.
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 8 and 17 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.
Regarding Claims 8 and 17, the recitation of “the mounting device, the axle element, the stator, the rotor, and the unbalance mass” is vague and indefinite. As the parent claim recites a plurality of these elements, it is not clear if the claims at issue are intended to require all of the elements form respective excitation elements, or if only a subset are intended to. In light of the specification and in keeping with the interview with TIM E. NEWHOLM, it is believed that the claims are intended to require all individual elements for these respective exciters. Potential corrected language may include “wherein a plurality of stators” instead of “the stator”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 and 9-16 are allowed.
Regarding claims 1-7 and 9-16: While prior art of similar rotor and stator systems and function(s) thereof are known in soil compaction devices (see Ivanov US 2021/0172142, Steffen DE 10 2020 100 842 and Villwock et al. U.S. 10,794,014). These fail to disclose unbalanced masses attached directly to the side(s) of the rotor or wherein at least one of the stators surrounds only a circular segment of a circumference of the rotor assigned. The recitation of the claims in the instant application cannot be overcome by a case of obviousness. Additionally, the structures of Ivanov, Steffen and Villwock would require substantial modifications that would render them unrecognizable from their original structure and require an improper degree of hindsight to achieve.
Conclusion
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/KALPIT C. PATEL/Examiner, Art Unit 3671
/CHRISTOPHER J SEBESTA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3671