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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on February 24, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-2 are rejected ejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yunoue et al. (US 2013/0071212).
Regarding claim 1, Yunoue discloses an electric work machine comprising:
an electric motor (18);
a battery unit (31) configured to store electric power for driving the electric motor;
an electric component (inverter 19 and auxiliary fan 40) configured to be supplied with the electric power from the battery unit; and
a fan (30);
wherein the electric component (19/40), viewed from above (see Figs. 4 and 12), is positioned between the fan (30) and the battery unit (31),
the electric component (19/40) is positioned above the electric motor (18; see Figs. 3 and 12);
the electric component includes a first electric component (19) and a second electric component (e.g., auxiliary fan 40);
the first electric component (19) and the second electric component (40), viewed from above, are positioned so as not to overlap the battery unit (31; see Fig. 12 showing the electric components 19 and 40 offset laterally from the battery).
Regarding claim 2, Yunoue further discloses that the electric motor (18) is positioned on a side including the fan with respect to the battery unit (31; as shown in Fig. 4, fan is to the front and right side of the excavator while battery is more toward the left and the rear; the motor is located more forward and to the right).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ito et al. (US 2025/0019929).
Regarding claim 20, Ito discloses an electric work machine, comprising:
an electric motor (91) configured to be driven by electric power supplied from a battery unit (90),
a hydraulic pump (P) configured to be driven by the electric motor thereby to discharge a hydraulic oil;
a heat exchanger (97) configured to cool the hydraulic oil and opposes a fan (CU); and
an electric component (92) configured to receive the power supplied from the battery unit,
wherein the electric work machine is, as viewed from above (see Fig. 4), positioned so that the electric component (92) cooled by an air blown by the fan (CU) is displaced from the heat exchanger (97, see Figs. 7 and 9),
wherein an entirety of the fan (CU) is positioned above the entirety of the electric motor (91, see Figs. 9, 10, and 14 showing the entirety of the fan unit above the entirely of the motor).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-19 are allowed.
Claims 4-9 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 prior art does not disclose or fairly suggest (in combination with all the other recited elements and limitations) the recited intersection of the fan’s rotary shaft/axis with a first wall that holds the first electric component along with a second wall unit that is positioned along the rotary shaft/axis and holds the second electric components; nor that an electric work machines pair of heat exchangers for its battery and hydraulic oil are positioned relative to a fan, wherein a partition plate is positioned between the two heat exchangers and the battery with the partition plate positioned across a direction that the two heat exchangers are displaced from each other.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed February 24, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Particularly, independent claim 1 has been amended to recite that the electric components do not overlap when viewed from above, while eliminating the relative height positioning limitation added in the previous amendment. The examiner has recharacterized the elements that disclose the broadly claimed “electric components” to include the inverter along with the auxiliary fan. Therefore, the examiner maintains that the Yunoue prior art reference discloses a work machine that includes a pair of electric components (e.g., the inverter and an auxiliary fan) that do not overlap when viewed from above. Lastly, the applicant has amended claim 20 to include that the entire fan is disposed above the entire electric motor. As discussed in more detail above, the Ito prior art reference discloses a work machine having this structural relationship.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVE CLEMMONS whose telephone number is (313)446-4842. The examiner can normally be reached on 8-4:30 EST Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, J Allen Shriver can be reached on 303-297-4337. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEVE CLEMMONS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618
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