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 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. 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 1 – 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as anticipated by Ogasaka (JP 2022063637) or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Nakatani et al. (JP 2012166611) . With respect to claim 1, Ogasaka teaches a vehicle body rear structure comprising a rear wheel (Fig.1, Item 2) disposed on a vehicle side portion; a rear side frame (Figs.1 and 2, Item 5) that is disposed substantially along a vehicle forward/rearward direction and that extends to a vehicle-rear-side than the rear wheel; and a collapsing member /muffler (Fig.2, Item 11) (muffler will inherently collapse when impacted) that is disposed at the vehicle-rear-side of the rear wheel (Fig.2, Item 2) so that at least a part of the collapsing member /muffler overlaps the rear wheel in the forward/rearward direction, wherein the collapsing member is fixed to the rear side frame (Fig.2, Item 5) . Or, in the alternative, Ogasaka fails to particularly disclose wherein the muffler is a collapsing member and fixed to the rear side frame. Nevertheless, Nakatani et al. teach a muffler (Figs.1 and 2, Item 30) being a collapsing member (Figs.5 and 6, Item 30; Text relating to these figures) and fixed (Fig.1, Items 60) to the rear side frame (Fig.1, Item 2 or 3). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the Nakatani et al. teachings with the Ogasaka design because it would provide for the muffler to be employed as a collapsing member that would help absorb and dissipate the energy created by an impact, in this manner protecting a fuel tank and/or battery cells to be dangerously deform or broken. With respect to claim 2, Nakatani et al. teach wherein the collapsing member is a silencer (Fig.2, Item 30) for exhaust silencing. With respect to claim 3, Ogasaka teaches wherein the collapsing member (Fig.2, Item 11) is fixed to the rear side frame (Fig.2, Item 5) at a position in front side than an intermediate position between the rear wheel (Fig.2, Item 2) and a rear end portion (Fig.2, Item 6) of the rear side frame (Fig.2, Item 5) . With respect to claim 4 , Nakatani et al. teach wherein the collapsing member (Figs.1 and 2, Item 30) is fixed (Figs.1 and 2, Items 60) to a lower surface of the rear side frame at below the rear side frame (Fig.2, Item 2) . Conclusion The attached hereto PTO Form 892 lists prior art made of record that the Examiner considered it pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Contact Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDGARDO SAN MARTIN whose telephone number is (571)272-2074 . The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00 - 5:00 M - F . Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration t ool. To schedule an interview, a pplicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Shawki S. Ismail can be reached on 571-272- 3985. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /Edgardo San Martin/ Edgardo San Martín Primary Examiner Art Unit 2837 DATE \@ "MMMM d, yyyy" March 27, 2026