DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to Applicant’s December 1, 2025, submission. Claims 1-20 are pending in the current application.
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 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Askan (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0293354 A1) in view of Bellino et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,464, hereinafter “Bellino”).
Specifically, Askan discloses a circuit breaker (Abstract), comprising: a housing (1; FIG. 1), a plurality of connection terminals (2a, 2b, 3a, 3b; FIG. 1), a plurality of separable electrical contacts (C1, C2; FIG. 1, reproduced and annotated below) connected between the plurality of connection terminals (2a, 3a; FIG. 1), at least one power switch (S1) connected in series with the plurality of separable electrical contacts (C1, C2), the at least one power switch (S1) comprising: a body (inherently disclosed), an electrode (E1; FIG. 1), but does not disclose the claimed heat dissipation plate (HDP), as recited in Claim 16, and (ii) the at least one power switch (S1) is connected in series with the plurality of separable electrical contacts (C1, C2; FIG. 1), as recited in Claim 18.
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Askan does not disclose the claimed heat dissipation plate, material, and conductive plate, as recited in Claims 16, 17, and 18, respectively.
However, Bellino discloses (i) a heat dissipation plate (HDP; FIG. 3, a portion of which is reproduced and annotated below) thermally connected to the body (28, 30) and the electrode (18; FIG. 3), as recited in Claim 16, (ii) that the heat dissipation plate (HDP) comprises metal (col. 2, ll. 9-10), as recited in Claim 17, and (iii) a conductive plate (18A; FIG. 3) connected to the heat dissipation plate (HDP), as recited in Claim 18.
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Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Bellino with those of Askan to maximize cooling efficiency.
Claims 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Askan and Bellino in view of Chen (U.S. Pat. No. 9,634,661 B1).
The combination of Askan and Bellino discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention but does not disclose the claimed sensor.
However, Chen discloses an optical sensor (21, 22, 25) configured to detect an on or off state of the switching mechanism (FIGS. 9 and 10), wherein the electronic control circuit is configured to turn off the at least one power switch in response to the optical sensor (21, 22, 25; FIGS. 4 and 6) detecting the switching mechanism is in the off state (col. 2, ll. 38-45), as recited in Claim 19, and (ii) that the optical sensor (21, 22, 25) is an obstruction-based optical sensor (21, 22, 25; FIGS. 9 and 10), as recited in Claim 20.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Chen with those of Askan and Bellino to provide instantaneous switching movement via positional detection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-16 are allowable for at least reasons discussed by Applicant in the December 1, 2025, submission.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is (313) 446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached 12-9 ESTPM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Luebke, can be reached at (571) 272-2009. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2833