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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4, 7-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 10-20220035826 in view of JP 2003245288 and KR 10-20120130565.
‘826 teaches an electric toothbrush comprising: a head unit (100); and a handle unit (200) detachably combined with the head unit and supplying a driving voltage to the head unit in response to a user's manipulation, wherein the handle unit includes: an insertion member (230) including a base (230) portion and one or more protrusion portions (231a, b) protruding from the base portion; and a plurality of connection terminals (311, 312) having a portion positioned to protrude outward from the insertion member, and electrically connected to the head unit when the head unit and the handle unit are combined, and wherein the head unit includes: a receiving member (161) including an inlet part recessed to a depth into which the insertion member is inserted, a separation preventing part (135a, b) protruding from an inner wall surface of the inlet part and located to overlap with the protrusion portion when the insertion member is inserted into the inlet part; and an electrode assembly (131, 132) installed adjacent to the receiving member inside the head unit, and when the handle unit and the head unit are combined, passing through the plurality of insertion parts and electrically connected to ends of the plurality of connection terminals located inside the head unit.
‘826 teaches all the essential elements of the claimed invention however fails to teach that the insertion member is rotated at a predetermined angle and also fails to teach a plurality of insertion parts formed to pass through a bottom surface of the inlet part.
‘288 teaches a toothbrush with a pair of protrusion (4b) formed to protrude from the handle (3) and are rotated after being inserted into a cutout part (4a) in a head unit (1), thereby connecting the handle to the head. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the snap connection of ‘826 with the rotating twist lock of ‘288 since both attachment means are equivalent structures known in the art and substituting one known element for another would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
‘565 teaches a plug and socket assembly wherein a connection terminal (114) extends through an insertion part (121) of a socket and is electrically connected to an electrode assembly (126) positioned within the socket. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify ‘826 so that there are a plurality of insertion parts formed to pass through a bottom surface of the inlet as taught by ‘565 as an alternative means to securely connect the electrodes and connection terminals.
With regards to claim 2, the handle unit includes: a handle housing combined with the insertion member; a battery (310) installed in the handle housing; a main circuit board (350) on which a signal supply unit for generating a driving voltage using a voltage of the battery is mounted; and a connection module including a contact block (370) made of a non-conductive material, and a contact terminal (311, 312) made of a conductive material and installed to surround the contact block, one side of the contact terminal being in contact with the main circuit board, and the other side being in contact with the connection terminal.
With regards to claim 3, the head unit includes: a head housing including a head portion having one opened side and a combining portion communicating with the head portion; an auxiliary circuit board (131, 132) installed inside the head housing; a head cover (110) closing an opened area of the head portion; bristles (111) combined with the head cover; and first and second electrodes (131, 132) positioned to correspond to the head portion on the auxiliary circuit board to generate an electric field, wherein the electrode assembly is positioned adjacent to a part of the combining portion combined with the handle unit, and is combined with the auxiliary circuit board.
With regards to claim 4, the electrode assembly includes: an insulating member (150) made of a non-conductive material and having a through-hole (121, 122) into which a portion of the auxiliary circuit board is inserted; and a conductive member made of a conductive material, having one side installed near the through-hole of the insulating member and electrically connected to the auxiliary circuit board, and having the other side positioned adjacent to the receiving member and electrically connected to the plurality of connection terminals when the handle unit and the head unit are combined with each other.
With regards to claim 7, at least one bar-shaped (131, 132) extension is formed in the auxiliary circuit board to be inserted into a through-hole (121, 122) of the insulating member.
With regards to claim 8, the first electrode and the second electrode are located to be spaced apart from each other along a length direction of the auxiliary circuit board (figure 3).
With regards to claim 11, ‘826 teaches all the essential elements of the claimed invention however fails to teach a sealing member between the handle and the head. ‘288 teaches a sealing member (1c) between a handle and a head (paragraph 0024). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify ‘826 with a sealing member as taught by ‘288 to prevent water from getting inside the handle.
With regards to claim 12, the plurality of connection terminals include: a first connection terminal (311); and one or more second connection terminals (312) spaced apart from the first connection terminal.
With regards to claim 13, ‘826 teaches all the essential elements of the claimed invention however fails to teach a first insertion part formed to pass through a bottom surface of the inlet part, and allowing the first connection terminal to be electrically connected to the electrode assembly; and at least one second insertion part formed to pass through the bottom surface of the inlet part, formed in an arc shape so that the second connection terminal inserted therein moves from one end to the other end when the handle unit and the head unit rotate relative to each other, and allowing the second connection terminal to be electrically connected to the electrode assembly. ‘565 teaches a first and second insertion part (121) of a socket receives a first and second connection terminal (114), in an arc shape so that rotated in a first direction the connection terminals are secured in the insertion parts.
Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 10-20220035826 in view of JP 2003245288 and KR 10-20120130565.
‘826 teaches a combination structure of an electric toothbrush comprising: a head unit (100); and a handle unit (200) detachably combined with the head unit, wherein: the handle unit includes: an insertion member (230) including a plurality of protrusion portions (231a, b); and a first connection terminal (311) and a second connection terminals (312) passing through the insertion member and exposed to outside; and the head unit includes: a receiving member (161) positioned at a combining portion with the handle unit, wherein the receiving member includes: a plurality of separation preventing parts (135a, b); wherein in an initial state where the insertion member is inserted into the receiving member, the second connection terminal is located in the first region, and the protrusion portions are respectively inserted into the separation preventing parts.
‘826 teaches all the essential elements of the claimed invention however fails to teach a pair of second connection terminals, a first insertion part and a pair of second insertion parts and lastly rotating the handle unit to move the second connection terminals from a first region to a second region.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify ‘826 so that there are a pair of second connection terminals since duplicating parts for a multiple effect is a modification that has been considered to be within the level of one of ordinary skill in the art.
Further, ‘288 teaches a toothbrush with a pair of protrusion (4b) formed to protrude from the handle (3) and are rotated after being inserted into a cutout part (4a) in a head unit (1), thereby connecting the handle to the head. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the snap connection of ‘826 with the rotating twist lock of ‘288 since both attachment means are equivalent structures known in the art and substituting one known element for another would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
‘565 teaches a plug and socket assembly wherein a connection terminal (114) extends through an insertion part (121) of a socket and is electrically connected to an electrode assembly (126) positioned within the socket. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify ‘826 so that there are insertion parts that correspond to the connection terminals formed to pass through a bottom surface of the inlet as taught by ‘565 as an alternative means to securely connect the electrodes and connection terminals.
Claim(s) 9 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘826, ‘288 and ‘565 further in view of KR 20-0277091.
‘826, ‘288, ‘565 teach all the essential elements of the claimed invention however fail to teach a light emitting element and that the head is transparent.
‘091 teaches a toothbrush with a light emitting element (12) molded into the head that is formed of a transparent material (claim 1). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify ‘826 so that there is a light and that the head is transparent as taught by ‘091 to have a toothbrush with a sterilizing function.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6 and 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 5 includes the limitation that the conductive member includes a gripping part gripping a portion of the insulating member where the through-hole is formed; a pressing part formed by bending a portion of the gripping part that contacts the auxiliary circuit board, and pressing the auxiliary circuit board; and a contact part extending from the gripping part and coming into contact with the connection terminal.
Claim 14 includes the limitation that the second insertion part includes: a first region where the one or more second connection terminals are positioned when the insertion member is inserted into the inlet part of the receiving member; a second region positioned to face a middle portion of the contact part formed to protrude toward the plurality of connection terminals, and providing a region where the at least one second connection terminal moved from the first region is finally positioned when the insertion member is inserted into the inlet part of the receiving member and then rotated at a certain angle; and a position fixing protrusion protruding from a portion of the second insertion part where the second region is located, wherein when an external force equal to or greater than a threshold is applied in a state where the second connection terminal is located in the second region, the position fixing protrusion enables the second connection terminal to be separated from the second region, and wherein when an external force equal to or greater than a threshold is not applied, the second connection terminal is continuously positioned in the second region.
None of the prior art teach these limitations nor would it have been obvious to modify the prior art to achieve the claimed invention since there is no motivation or teaching to do so.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAY LYNN KARLS whose telephone number is (571)272-1268. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th (6am-5pm).
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/SHAY KARLS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723