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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of invention I to claims 1-14 in the reply filed on 4/9/26 is acknowledged.
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 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 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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bu et al. (CN113726259, “Bu”, using machine translation) in view of Kanie (JP2018093664, “Kanie”, using machine translation).
Re claim 1, Bu discloses a wheel driving apparatus comprising:
a wheel 10 configured to rotate a vehicle (fig 1, [0034]);
a motor housing provided inside the wheel 10 and having a cylindrical shape (figs 1-2 & below, [0039], motor housing includes 21 & portion supporting 10 & 30), the motor housing defining an open surface (figs 1-2 & below, open side of motor housing, similar to applicant);
a motor inserted into the motor housing (figs 1-2, [0034], motor includes 50 & 30), and configured to provide a rotational force to the wheel 10 (figs 1-2, [0034], inherent since discloses motor connected to 10);
an inverter cover 22 connected to the motor and covering the open surface of the motor housing (figs 1 & below, [0036-0037], [0037] & [0042], 22 covers 60; discloses 60 has two power lines 61f from external power source & MOS transistors 61a for outputting 3 phases to stator through phase wires 61c; 60 is an inverter since the wheel is employed in electric vehicle, the external power source is inherently a battery, as indicated by two power lines 61f -plus/minus of battery- & outputs three phases through 61a); and
an electrolytic capacitor 63 protruding from an inside of the inverter cover 22 in a direction opposite to the inverter cover 22 (figs 1-2 & below, [0036], discloses ckt board 61 & heat sink 62 are in direct contact w/ 70 indicating electrical components 61a, 63 & 64 are facing 51 in fig 1), at least a part of the electrolytic capacitor 63 being accommodated in the motor (figs 1-2 & below, 63 radially inside of motor).
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Bu discloses claim 1 except for:
a robot wheel driving apparatus to move a robot; and
an aluminum electrolytic capacitor.
With respect to a robot wheel driving apparatus to move a robot: if the body of a claim fully and intrinsically sets forth all of the limitations of the claimed invention, and the preamble merely states, for example, the purpose or intended use of the invention, rather than any distinct definition of any of the claimed invention’s limitations, then the preamble is not considered a limitation and is of no significance to claim construction (see MPEP 2111.02, II.); and it has been held that a recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus satisfying the claimed structural limitations. Ex parte Masham, 2 USPQ2d 1647(1987). Additionally Bu discloses the wheel is for an electric vehicle ([0028]) and would be capable of moving a self-driving electric vehicle, which is considered a robot.
Kanie discloses aluminum electrolytic capacitors have a large overall capacitance ([0030]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the electrolytic capacitors of Bu to be aluminum electrolytic capacitors, as disclosed by Kanie, in order to provide electrolytic capacitors with large overall capacitance, as taught by Kanie.
Re claim 2, Bu in view of Kanie disclose claim 1 as discussed above and further discloses a printed circuit board (PCB) 61 provided inside the inverter cover 22 and facing the motor (Bu, figs 1-2 & above for claim 1, 61 faces 51 of motor),
wherein the aluminum electrolytic capacitor 63 is disposed on a first surface of the PCB 61 (Bu, figs 1-2 & above for claim 1, 1st surface is surface of 61 facing 51; Kanie discloses aluminum electrolytic capacitor), the first surface facing the motor and disposed between lateral surfaces of the PCB 61 (Bu, figs 1-2 & above for claim 1).
Re claim 3, Bu in view of Kanie disclose claim 1 as discussed above and further discloses the aluminum electrolytic capacitor 63 protrudes toward an empty space within the motor (Bu, figs 1-2 & above for claim 1, empty space is space between 61 & 51; ) and disposed at a predetermined distance from a center of the motor in a radial direction (Bu, fig 2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-14 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 main reason for indicating claim 4 as allowable is the inclusion of the limitations, inter alia, of:
“The robot wheel driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein the motor 40 includes:
a stator 60 disposed in the motor housing 50, and
a rotor 70 disposed at an outside of the stator, separated from the stator by an air gap, and configured to rotate with respect to the stator, and
wherein the rotor comprises a fan 724, 725 configured to reduce a temperature of the aluminum electrolytic capacitor 90.”
The closest prior art over Bu et al. (CN113726259), Sung et al. (US20230093934) and Masuda (WO2025023198), either alone or in combination, do not disclose the above limitations.
Bu discloses the motor includes a stator 50, a rotor 30 and motor housing holds the rotor 30 (fig 1, motor housing includes 20 & portion holding 30; 30 is a plurality of magnets fixed to 20).
Both Sung and Masuda disclose the housing holding the rotor magnet includes a fan (Sung, figs 2-4, fan 420, magnet 500, rotor frame 400; Masuda, figs 1 & 6, fan 30, magnet 5, rotor frame 11).
Although Bu could be configured with a fan similar to Sung or Masuda, then the housing of Bu would be considered the rotor and there would be no motor housing that has an opening and the motor inserted into the housing.
Claim 5 (and its dependent claim 6), claim 7 (and its dependent claims 8-12) and claim 13 (and its dependent claim 14) are allowable in the same manner as discussed above, since they each include the limitations of claim 4.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-5715. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 8:30-5pm EST.
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/ERIC JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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