DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1,4-8 and 10-12 are pending. Claims 2,3 and 9 have been canceled.
This action is in response to the amendment filed 3/16/2026.
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 .
The indicated allowability of the pending claims is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to Keiji. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages filed 3/16/2026, with respect to the rejections in the prior action have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejections of the prior pending claims have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to pending claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Since applicant’s amendments necessitated the new rejections, this action is made as a Non-Final action.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 3/16/2026. These drawings are accepted.
Specification
Applicant’s argument overcome the prior objections.
Claim Objections
Applicant’s argument overcome the prior objections.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
(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(s) 1, 4 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Keiji (JP2005-138677A).
Regarding claim 1, Keiji discloses a valve device (1,4) for a fuel tank 6 comprising: a housing (10,1,16) including a peripheral wall portion (10 and 1) and a partition wall (11), in which a valve chamber (the chamber within 10 surrounding float 5) that is configured to communicate with an inside of the fuel tank and that is provided below the partition wall, and a ventilation chamber (chamber between 2 and 11) that is configured to communicate with an outside of the fuel tank and that is provided above the partition wall, are provided within the peripheral wall portion, and an opening 13 through which the valve chamber is to communicate with the ventilation chamber, is located in the partition wall; and a float valve 5 that is accommodated in the valve chamber so as to be able to rise and descend to open and close the opening, and that rises to close the opening when refueling the fuel tank from a refueling nozzle, wherein the housing includes a float valve support portion 3 that supports the float valve, a bottom most end surface (the bottom surface of the right wall of 1 above numeral 33 in Fig. 2) of a part of the peripheral wall portion which continuously extends from the housing toward a lower side, and a top most end surface (the top surface of 30) of a part of the peripheral wall portion which continuously extends from the float valve support portion toward an upper side, are positioned above the float valve support portion,
a full tank regulation opening (at 33) that opens in an axial direction and that is configured to allow the inside of the fuel tank and an inside of the valve chamber to communicate with each other, is located at a gap (the space between 1 and 30), the bottom most end surface of the part of the peripheral wall portion is separated from the top most end surface of the part of the peripheral wall portion in a radial direction so as to form the gap, the full tank regulation opening enables continuous refueling from the refueling nozzle when the full tank regulation opening is not immersed, and stops the continuous refueling when the full tank regulation opening is immersed (as shown in Figures 3,4) and the full tank regulation opening has an arc shape when the housing is viewed in the axial direction (since the opening is on the surface of 10 which is cylindrical, then the opening would follow the cylindrical shape of the wall 10 and therefore the opening would have a radius shape which is considered to have an arc shape).
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Regarding claim 4, Keiji discloses that the housing includes a housing main body 16 including the partition wall, and a lower cap 10 attached below the housing main body, and the full tank regulation opening is provided in the lower cap.
Regarding claim 11, Keiji discloses when a fuel liquid level reaches only a bottom most end surface of the full tank regulation opening, an air flow is blocked to increase pressure in the fuel tank, thereby a full tank is regulated (as shown in Figure 4).
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8,10 and 12 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. Claims 5-8, and 12 noted as being dependent from claim 10.
None of the prior art of record discloses or renders as obvious, “the peripheral wall portion includes an inner wall portion and an outer wall portion disposed outside the inner wall portion, and has a double-wall structure when the housing is viewed from a cross section in the radial direction, and the full tank regulation opening is provided between the inner wall portion and the outer wall portion”, in combination with the rest of the limitations in claim 1, from which claim 10 depends.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Craig Price, whose telephone number is (571)272-2712 or via facsimile (571)273-2712. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday (8:00AM-4:30PM EST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Craig Schneider, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-3607, Kenneth Rinehart can be reached at 571-272-4881. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CRAIG J PRICE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
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