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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 10-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Murakami et al. (US 2016/0152450).
Murakami et al. show at least two sorting vehicles 11 connected to one another in sequence via wire harness structure C, DP and D wherein D has an elastic deformation portion located at a junction of two adjacent vehicle bodies 11. See Figure 7.
Re claim 2, a spiral structure is shown in Figure 7.
Re claim 3, shown is elastic deformation portion D and two connecting portions DP which form two straight line segments.
Re claim 4, see Figure 8 for the connection of the wire harness to a power source of the vehicles 11.
Re claim 10, shown is a track assembly R.
Re claim 11, shown is a spiral structure for the portion D.
Re claim 12, as per claim 3 rejection.
Re claim 13, as per claim 4 rejection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 and 14-18 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 made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R BIDWELL whose telephone number is (571)272-6910. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 to 4.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gene Crawford, can be reached at telephone number (571)272-6911. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES R BIDWELL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651 01/28/2026
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