DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/15/2026 has been entered. It should be noted that claim 11 has been amended, and claims 23-31 are new.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 11-13, 16, 18, 22, 25-26, and 29-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nagamachi 10,190,686.
Nagamachi discloses, regarding claim 11, an elastic member 50 comprising: a protrusion portion 51 on an outer side of the elastic member 50; a recessed portion 52 on an inner side of the elastic member 50, wherein a pair of the protrusion portion 51 and the recessed portion 52 are repeatedly formed in a longitudinal direction (clearly shown in Fig. 3); and an outer groove 70 defined in the protrusion portion 51 along an outer circumference of the elastic member 50, wherein a thickness (see thickness of the distance between adjacent portions 53 in Fig. 5) of the elastic member 50 continuously increases throughout an entire region extending from an innermost point (see 81) of the recessed portion 52 toward to an adjacent outermost point (see 71) of the protrusion portion 51 (see how when the elastic member 50 is compressed, as shown in Fig. 5, the thickness of the distance between adjacent portions 53 continuously increases as you move radially outward from 81 to 71); Re claim 12, wherein: the protrusion portion 51 has a pair of outer protrusion portions 71 disposed on both sides of the outer groove 70; and the pair of the outer protrusion portions 71 are configured to deform and move away from each other with respect to the outer groove 70 during elastic compression (clearly shown in Fig. 5); Re claim 13, wherein an inner groove 80 is defined in the recessed portion 52 along an inner circumference of the elastic member 50, and wherein the outer groove 70 and the inner groove 80 are configured to deform during an elastic compression (clearly shown in Fig. 5); Re claim 16, wherein at least one of an elastic force, a compression distance and a bending order is adjusted by a recess depth and a recess size of at least one of the outer groove 70 and the inner groove 80 (substantially broad, this is clearly the case); Re claim 18, wherein the elastic member 50 is a bellows type elastic member 50, and the protrusion portion 51 and the recessed portion 52 are formed along a circumference of the elastic member 50 to seal a side surface of the elastic member 50; Re claim 25, wherein the elastic member 50 is formed of at least one soft plastic material selected from the group consisting of polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polycarbonate (PC), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyketone (POK), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyoxypropylene (POP), elastomer, and polyolefin elastomer (POE) (see col. 5, lines 19-24); Re claim 26, wherein the recessed portion 52 is configured to bend before a bending-deformation of the protrusion portion 51 during elastic compression (It should be noted that while features of an apparatus may be recited either structurally or functionally, claims directed to an apparatus must be distinguished from the prior art in terms of structure rather than function, because apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does (Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Bausch & Lomb Inc., 909 F.2d 1464, 1469, 15 USPQ2d 1525, 1528 (Fed. Cir. 1990)). Thus, if a prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use as recited in the preamble, or elsewhere in a claim, then it meets the claim.); Re claim 29, wherein the innermost point of the recessed portion 52 is closest to a longitudinal axis of the elastic member 50, and the adjacent outermost point of the protrusion portion 51 is farthest from the longitudinal axis (clearly shown in Fig. 3); Re claim 30, wherein a maximum thickness (maximum thickness = the distance between points 71 in Fig. 5) of the elastic member 50 is located at the adjacent outermost point of the protrusion portion 51, and a minimum thickness (between 81) of the elastic member 50 is located at a valley of the recessed portion 52 (clearly shown in Fig. 5); Re claim 31, wherein the adjacent outermost point of the protrusion portion 51 is directly adjacent to the innermost point of the recessed portion 52 (this is clearly the case, see Figs. 3-5).
Nagamachi discloses, regarding claim 22, an elastic member 50 comprising: a protrusion portion 51 on an outer side of the elastic member 50; a recessed portion 52 on an inner side of the elastic member 50, wherein a pair of the protrusion portion 51 and the recessed portion 52 are repeatedly formed in a longitudinal direction (clearly shown in Fig. 3); an outer groove 70 defined in the protrusion portion 51 along an outer circumference of the elastic member 50; and an inner groove 80 defined in the recessed portion 52 along an inner circumference of the elastic member 50, wherein the outer groove 70 and the inner groove 80 are configured to deform during an elastic compression (clearly shown in Fig. 5), wherein the recessed portion 52 has a pair of inner protrusion portions 81 disposed on both sides of the inner groove, and wherein the pair of inner protrusion portions 81 deform and move away from each other with respect to the inner groove 80 during the elastic compression (clearly shown in Fig. 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23-24 and 27-28 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Peter J Bertheaud whose telephone number is (571)272-3476. The examiner can normally be reached 9am - 5pm M-F.
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PJB
/PETER J BERTHEAUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746