DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 6/30/2023 and 8/1/2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 9 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The preamble of claim 1 should read -- “A male connector connectable to a female connector, the female connector comprising an elastic valve body, the male body comprising:” – in order to more accurately reflect that the elastic valve body belongs to the female connector.
The same change should be made to claim 9.
On line 41 of claim 9, “one or more” should read “the one or more” to correct a minor antecedent basis issue.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In regard to claim 1, the limitation “the housing body comprises one or more second locking portions configured to lock the female connector in a state in which the one or more first locking portions lock the female connector in the second configuration” renders the claim indefinite.
The first issue is that the claim recites that the first locking portions lock the female connector in the second configuration which implies that the second configuration is somehow associated with a state of the female connector. This contradicts the previous limitations of the claim which recite that the first and second configuration are states in which the opening of the flow passage is closed and exposed, respectively.
The second issue is that the function of the second locking portions appears to be the same as the function of the first locking portions in regard to the second configuration. That is both sets of locking portions are recited as locking the female connector. It appears that it is more accurate to recite that the second locking portions lock the female connector in a state in which the valve body is in the second configuration, and wherein the first locking portions are also locked to the female connector in the state in which the valve body is in the second configuration. See par. [0095] of the pg-publication and Fig. 14 which seem to support this interpretation. The allowability below is indicated with this interpretation in mind.
Independent claims 8 and 9 each include similar limitations and are rejected for similar reasons. In claim 9, the one or more second locking claws are analogous to the first locking portions of claim 1 and the one or more first locking claws are analogous to the second locking portion of claim 1.
The dependent claims are rejected by virtue of their dependencies on the rejected independent claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 will be considered allowable upon resolution of the 112 rejections.
The closest prior art to the claimed limitations can be considered (US 2019/0184152 to Kakinoki).
In regard to claim 1, Kakinoki discloses a male connector (1a) connectable to a female connector (2a) that comprises an elastic valve body (70) (the female connector and elastic valve body are functionally recited), comprising: a housing (20a) defining a hollow portion; a flow passage tubular member (40) extending in the hollow portion and having an opening (42) formed at a first end side in an extending direction; and a valve body (50a) positioned in the hollow portion and configured to close the opening of the flow passage tubular member (see at least Fig. 4), wherein: the housing comprises: a housing body (body of 20a), and a movable body (30a) configured to move in the extending direction with respect to the housing body to deform or move the valve body such that a configuration is changed between a first configuration (see Fig. 4) in which the opening of the flow passage tubular member is closed by the valve body, and a second configuration (see Fig. 5) in which the opening of the flow passage tubular member is exposed from the valve body, the movable body comprises one or more first locking portions (37a) configured to lock the female connector in a state in which the valve body is in contact with the elastic valve body of the female connector in the first configuration (see at least Fig. 4 and par. [0054]), and the housing body comprises one or more second locking portions (22) configured to lock to the concave portions (31) of the movable body (30a).
Kakinoki does not disclose that the second locking portions (22) lock the female connector in a state in which the valve body is in the second configuration, and wherein the first locking portions are also locked to the female connector in the state in which the valve body is in the second configuration. See par. [0058]-[0060] of Kakinoki. The second locking portions (22) are released or displaced to an allowing position to allow the movable body (30a) to move the valve body (50a) to the second configuration. There is no locking interaction between the second locking portions (22) and the female connector in the second configuration. There is no motivation and/or teaching reference to cure the deficiencies of Kakinoki. Claims 8 and 9 include similar limitations and would be indicated as allowable for similar reasons.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THEODORE J STIGELL whose telephone number is (571)272-8759. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5:30 EST.
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THEODORE J. STIGELL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3783
/THEODORE J STIGELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3783
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