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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-7 finally are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xie TW I690397 in view of Junichi JP 2000249146 and Grabovac et al. (4,732,062).
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Xie meets all of the limitations of claim 1, i.e., a wrench sound seat lubrication structure, comprising:
a seat member 10 having an oil accommodating space formed at a hollow internal thereof chamber 22, a top end of the seat member having an opening formed thereon 22; [[24 arranged at the opening on the top end of the seat member Fig. 2; except for one or a plurality of through holes formed to penetrate through a side wall of the seat member and fluidly connected to the oil accommodating space to thereby store a lubricant oil inside the oil accommodating space 22 and releasing the lubricant oil via the opening 22 and the through holes and an oil storage piece disposed inside the oil accommodating space.
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Junichi teaches a lubricating structure of a slide surface wherein the oil supply passage 16 is coupled to the interior surface 3 via thin slits 5. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to modify the outer oil passages 34 of Xie by providing one or a plurality of slits as taught by Junichi to channel oil to the interior chamber 22 for constantly lubing the bearing or actuating member 24.
Xie modified by Junichi meets all of the limitations of claim 8, except for an oil storage piece disposed inside the oil accommodating space.
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Grabovac et al. teaches a floating fulcrum for a torque wrench with a lubricating means M’ which includes annular sealing-wiper rings 90 carried in annular channels formed about the opposite ends of the fulcrum block 50". It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to further modify the modified invention of PA with porous lubricant-saturated material as taught by Grabovac et al. so that light anhydrous lubricating oil is not subject to becoming unduly hard and still at low temperature. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to arrange the oil piece inside the chamber to act as wick to move the lubricant to the pivoting block.
Regarding claim 2, PA (prior art, Xie modified by Junichi and Grabovac) meets the limitations, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, wherein the through holes are arranged along an axial direction of the seat member Fig. 3 Xie.
Regarding claim 3, PA meets the limitations, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, except for arranging the through holes along one identical circumferential surface of the seat member. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to form the slits/through holes on the longer side to having a larger support surface as one means of supplying the lubricant, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikes, 86 USPQ 70.
Regarding claim 4, PA meets the limitations as best understood, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, wherein the actuating member 24 is a roller Fig. 3, two ends of the roller include a pivotal axle 25 respectively, and the opening of the seat member 22 includes two attachment slots 221 formed thereon and provided for the two pivotal axles 25 to be pivotally attached thereto.
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Regarding claim 5, PA meets the limitations, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, wherein the actuating member 30 is a block 52, Fig. 10, the block is arranged on the top end of the seat member, except for the opening 22 and for an area of the opening to be smaller than the actuating member. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to modify the embodiment of Figs. 9 and 10 of Xie by providing one or a plurality of slits for the grooves 34 as taught by Junichi to channel oil to an interior chamber for constantly lubing the bearing or actuating member block 52. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to form the interior chamber/opening 22 smaller than the actuating member to avoid excess oil.
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Regarding claim 6, PA meets the limitations, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, wherein a top surface of the seat member includes a receiving slot 26 formed to indent inward thereon Fig. 9, the actuating member 52 is received inside the receiving slot, except for an opening arranged at a bottom portion of the receiving slot. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to modify the embodiment of Figs. 9 and 10 of Xie by providing oil chamber for the seat member that is formed by one or a plurality of slits for the grooves 34 as taught by Junichi to channel oil to the interior oil chamber for constantly lubing the bearing or actuating member block 52.
Regarding claim 7, PA meets the limitations, i.e., the wrench sound seat lubrication structure according to claim 1, except for each one of the through holes to be a tapered hole, and an hole diameter decreases from one side of the oil accommodating space toward an outer side of the seat member. It is noted that Figs. 6 and 7 of the instant disclosed different embodiments of the through holes 23 with no criticality associated with either, indicating for alternative means of achieving the same results. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to modify the invention with through holes instead of slits, as an alternative means of channeling the oil to the chamber 22, requiring routine experimentation with predictable results. Further, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to provide a tapered hole tapering hole diverging toward outer surface, to supply oil with a higher pressure to the chamber, requiring routine experimentations with predictable results and since applicant has not disclosed that tapered holes solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with non-tapered holes supplying the oil to the chamber.
Claims 9 and 10 are finally rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PA as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Cuttler et al. (7,174,818).
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PA (prior art, Xie modified by Junichi and Grabovac) as applied to claim 1 above, meets all of the limitations of claim 9, except for comprising a protruding rib arranged inside the seat member and positioned between the actuating member and the oil accommodating space, a middle area of the protruding rib having a cut-out portion, and an area of the cut-out portion being smaller than an area of the opening of the seat member.
Cuttler et al. teaches a click-type wrench in which it discloses that it is known to provide small-diameter hole 35 for an oil chamber 34, prior art Figs. 1 and 2. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to further modify the chamber 22 of PA with the small-diameter hole as taught by Cuttler et al. to avoid differential pressure which could occur due to possible sealing from lubrication grease within the wrench assembly, which differential pressure could cause variation in torque readings 03:41-44. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to arrange the through holes/slits above the small-diameter hole as an alternative means of achieving the same results and since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikes, 86 USPQ 70.
Claims 11 and 12 are finally rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PA as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hsieh (2010/0247269).
PA (prior art, Xie modified by Junichi and Grabovac) as applied to claim 1 above, meets all of the limitations of claim 12, except for a sponge the oil storage piece.
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Hsieh teaches an oil reservoir for a threaded member for rust proofing, wherein the oil storage piece 50 made of porous polymer material or porous fiber material such as sponge [0019]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, to further modify the invention of PA with the porous material, such as sponge as taught by Hsieh to such that oil is slowly seep out for a long term effect. Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective date of the invention, in view of Hsieh to use a porous polymer material, such as foam as a suitable material to slowly seep out the oil and since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed October 29, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that claim 1 is amended to include a storage piece being disposed in the accommodating space and the lubricant oil being released via the opening and the through holes. Applicant argues that Grabovac in combination with Xie and Junichi do not render amended claim 1 unpatentable because the invention taught by Grabovac functions differently from the present invention. In Grabovac, the rings 90 are in wiping engagement with the bearing surface G in the arm A (col. 9, lines 3-4) in order to behave as wicks to move that lubricant to the surface G (col. 9, lines 12-15). In contrast, the present invention uses the oil storage piece 25 as a absorbent which releases the oil in controlled measure (see paragraph [0020] of the specification). Since Fig. 9 of Grabovac shows that the rings 90 are in direct contact with the bearing surface G, through holes of the kind used in the present invention are unnecessary and in fact would prevent the proper functioning of the embodiment as taught by Grabovac. Examienr, respectfully disagrees.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
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In response to applicant's argument that present invention works differently, the fact that the inventor has recognized another advantage which would flow naturally from following the suggestion of the prior art cannot be the basis for patentability when the differences would otherwise be obvious. See Ex parte Obiaya, 227 USPQ 58, 60 (Bd. Pat. App. & Inter. 1985).
Providing an absorbent material to either wick the oil or store the oil, does not destroy or indivertibly disadvantage prior art invention. In fact, teaching reference, Junichi, also appears to disclose a pad member 11, Fig. 5 to facilitate oil retention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HADI SHAKERI whose telephone number is (571)272-4495. The fax phone number for forwarding unofficial documents for discussion purposes only is (571) 273-4495. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F.
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/Hadi Shakeri/
February 6, 2026 Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723