DETAILED ACTION
This is on the merits of Application No. 18/289327, filed on 11/02/2023. Claims 1-16 are pending. 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
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, 5-6, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2020141435 to Sato et al (cited in applicant’s IDS).
Sato discloses:
(Claim 1) A drive unit (Figs. 1 and 5) comprising: - an electric motor (10) which drives a motor shaft (10a), - a planetary gearbox (15) having a ring gear (18), wherein the planetary gearbox has at least one first gear stage and wherein the first gear stage has at least one planet gear (19), and - an electromagnetic brake (7) having an excitation coil (74a), wherein the electromagnetic brake is arranged between the electric motor and the planetary gear (see Fig. 5) and is configured to brake the motor shaft, and wherein the excitation coil is at least in part accommodated in a recess of the ring gear (see Fig. 5, stator and ring gear are integral, thus excitation coil is accommodated in a recess of the ring gear).
The electromagnetic brake brakes the sun gear, indirectly braking the motor shaft, as the sun gear is mounted directly to the motor shaft.
(Claim 5) wherein the excitation coil is accommodated in the recess such that the excitation coil is completely accommodated in the recess when viewed in the axial direction (see Fig. 5).
(Claim 6) wherein the motor shaft has a sun gear (17) of the first gear stage of the planetary gearbox.
(Claim 14) wherein the drive unit is a wheel drive (Fig. 1, drives gear wheel 41)
Sato does not disclose:
(Claim 1) The electromagnetic brake configured to brake the motor shaft directly.
(Claim 6) wherein the motor shaft forms the sun gear.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified, with a reasonable expectation of success, the structure of Sato to brake the motor shaft directly since it has been held that forming in one piece an article which has formerly been formed in two pieces and put together involves only routine skill in the art. One of ordinary skill could make the sun gear integral to the motor shaft, thus having the electromagnetic brake braking the motor shaft directly, and produce predictable results.
Sato further discloses:
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 and 7-13, and 15-16 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY HANNON whose telephone number is (571)270-1943. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ernesto Suarez can be reached at (571) 270-5565. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TIMOTHY HANNON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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