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 § 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(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over applicant’s admitted prior art (“AAPA”). AAPA discloses a bolt for a firearm, the bolt comprising: an elongate body, a muzzle end of the elongate body defining one or more bolt lugs; and a cam pin operably coupled to and extending from the bolt.
AAPA does not disclose a bolt wherein the cam pin is disposed on the bolt at a position farther from the one or more bolt lugs than a standard cam pin and bolt configuration of a Technical Data Package (TDP) corresponding to a type of the firearm. However, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the dimension discussed above since it has previously been held that where the only difference between the prior art and the claims was a recitation of relative dimensions of the claimed device and a device having the claimed relative dimensions would not perform differently than the prior art device, the claimed device was not patentably distinct from the prior art device. See MPEP 2144.04(IV)(A). All remaining limitations are either disclosed by AAPA and/or are obvious modifications.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REGINALD S TILLMAN, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-7010. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 830-530.
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/REGINALD S TILLMAN, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3641
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