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)(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.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by McIntosh (US 2,075,952). McIntosh discloses an expansion anchor comprising: an anchor bolt (40); an expansion sleeve (20) around the bolt; a wedge body (30) in a front region of the anchor bolt for expanding the sleeve; the expansion sleeve has a front face facing the wedge body and an expansion slit (23) originating at the front face of the expansion sleeve; the slit including a stem and an adjoining head (24) which is wider than the stem; the stem being located between the head and the front face; the head is off center relative to the stem (Fig. 9 and 10); and the head is elongated perpendicular to the stem. And the sleeve has a non-consistent wall thickness because it tapers towards the from face (first column, paragraph beginning line 52).
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McIntosh (US 2,075,952) in view of Schaffer (US 5,716,177). McIntosh discloses an expansion anchor including an expansion sleeve as described above but, does not disclose the expansion slit to include a tail to defining a through slit. Schaffer discloses an expansion anchor similar to McIntosh including an expansion sleeve (1) with an expansion slit (4) but Schaffer further teaches the expansion slit to have a tail (4a) extending from end-to-end (Fig. 3). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the expansion slit of McIntosh with a tail as disclosed in Schaffer in order to facilitate the manufacture of the sleeve as discussed in Schaffer (column 3, lines 32-36).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-12 are allowable. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art does not disclose the off-center head at an end of the stem. There would be no reason to change the location of the head disclosed in McIntosh to an end of the stem.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are now moot with the indication of allowable subject matter.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FLEMMING SAETHER whose telephone number is (571)272-7071. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 - 7:00 eastern.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant 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, Christine Mills can be reached at 571-272-8322. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FLEMMING SAETHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3675
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