DETAILED ACTION1
REJECTIONS UNDER 35 USC 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112:
(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.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112 (b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites a base that refers to a support structure holding a rotary table and numerous machine components. It also recites a base loading mechanism that is arranged on the base, wherein the base loading mechanism comprises a base material reel, a first material channel, and a second material channel that is arranged on a side of the first material channel. The base in the base loading mechanism refers to the first component of the microswitch being assembled and is completely different from the base of the apparatus. But the phrase base material is potentially confusing as to which base’s material is being referred to. Claim 1 should be amended to use different words to refer to the base of the apparatus as compared to the base of the microswitch to prevent confusion. Claims 2-8 are rejected based on their dependence.
REJECTIONS UNDER 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 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious2 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 111739747 to Hu in view of www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHpnQJEe9ao (Encapsulation of stamped part from the strip, published 2011 by Arburgofficial (hereafter Arburg).
Claim 1 recites a microswitch automatic assembly apparatus. Hu relates to such an assembly apparatus. See Hu pg. 1, ll. 14-15. Hu teaches the apparatus (100) has a base (10)…with a material carrying rotary table (20a)…and a plurality of workpiece carriers (30)… provided at equal intervals on a periphery. See Hu pg. 3, ll. 48-60 & Fig. 1. Claim 1 also recites that an installation disc is provided on the material carrying rotary table. The specification explains that the disc is a central region that does not rotate. Hu teaches a fixed central disc (20b) within the rotating table (20a). See Hu pg. 4, ll. 2-7 and Fig. 1.
Claim 1 further recites four mechanisms: a base loading mechanism…a support installation mechanism…a swing rod installation mechanism…and a tension spring installation mechanism. The base, support, swing rod, and tension spring are the four core components of the microswitch. Hu teaches that four feeding mechanisms (40, 50, 60, 70) ring the rotary table (20a). See Hu Fig. 1. These feed mechanisms supply and place four parts, the lever, bracket, spring, and moving plate into jigs (30). See Hu pg. 4, ll. 9-15. Separately, a conveyor (81) supplies plastic [housing] parts from an unillustrated supply. See Hu pg. 5, ll. 44-46. A piece housing mechanism (80) then mounts the hardwear from the jig into the plastic housing to form the final miscroswitch. See Hu pg. 4, ll. 9-15.
For the purpose of the rejection, the plastic housing is considered the base, the support bracket,3 is the support, the spring is the tension spring, and either the lever or the moving plate could be defined to be the swing rod. Claim 1 recites that the four recited mechanism[s] are sequentially arrayed around the table in in the order: base loading mechanism…a support installation mechanism…a swing rod installation mechanism…and a tension spring installation mechanism. In Hu, conveyor (81) intersects with the table at the housing mechanism (80). This conveyor (81) considered the second material channel of the base loading mechanism and therefore will serve as the starting point for the same sequence. In Hu, however, the sequential order would instead then be bracket, spring, moving plate. In other words, the swing rod element (the moving plate) is out of sequence. Yet Hu teaches that all of these elements are merely placed into a jig by their respecting installation mechanism[s], not into the base. The order the parts are placed into the jig could therefore be changed. There are a finite number of ordered combinations, as such it would have been obvious to try to modify Hu to place either the lever or the moving plate sequentially after the bracket and before the spring.
Turning now to the recited structures of the four mechanisms, clam 1 recites the base loading mechanism [has]…a base material reel, a first material channel, and a second material channel that is arranged on a side of the first material channel. Hu teaches that the components from the jig are installed into the plastic base at a hardware housing mechanism (80). The act of placing the components into the housing is a loading action. Thus, mechanism (80) is deemed to teach the base loading mechanism. Figures 1 and 7 of Hu show a first conveyor (81) and a second conveyor (82) converging at mechanism (80) with the ends of each adjacent, but laterally offset. Thus, mechanism (80) has a second material channel (82) that is arranged on a side of [a] first material channel (81). Hu does not show a base material reel. Rather, the source of the plastic housings is not discussed or illustrated. Yet one of ordinary skill would know that some source must exist and would have looked to the prior art for feed mechanism of such plastic housings. Arburg teaches that plastic parts may be formed on reels of plastic and then further manipulated. See Arburg timestamps 0:15 and 0:25. It is obvious to apply a known technique to a known product or method, ready for improvement, to yield predictable results. See MPEP 2143(D). In this case, it would have been obvious to include a reel of stamped plastic, as shown in Arburg, feeding into conveyor (81) as a source.
Next, Hu teaches a support installation mechanism (50) [with]…a support material tray (51) that is provided on the base (10), a support material channel (52) that is connected to the support material tray, and a support assembly mechanical arm in the form of the linear driver (541), which lies within the broadest reasonable interpretation of a mechanical arm. See Hu pg. 4, ll. 32-52 and Fig. 4. Hu further teaches a tension spring installation mechanism (60)…[having] a tension spring pre-installation platform (61), See Hu pg. 5, ll. 10-22 and Fig. 5. The mechanism also has a oblique component (63) that sets the spring to a specific angle. In doing so it both sets and detects the angle and therefore is a tension spring position detection platform to its right, and therefore sequentially…along the rotation direction is a pushing component (64) that fixes (i.e. installs) the spring in the jig and therefore is a tension spring installation platform. To the right of the pusher, and therefore again downstream, is a clamping component that places the spring into tension and therefore may be considered an elasticity detection platform since failure would mean the spring is not elastic.
Claim 1 also recites [a] swing rod installation mechanism [with]…a swing rod material reel, a swing rod material channel, and a swing rod assembly mechanical arm. The moving plate feed mechanism (70) is equivalent to the swing rod installation mechanism. It contains a channel (72) and a clamping arm (76). The term reel is interpreted to require a circular element that feed material along its periphery with an extending tangential path outward. Hu teaches a circular vibrating plate (71) that feeds the plates to the channel at a tangential path. As such, the vibrating plate is deemed to teach the reel.
ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
Claim 2-8 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
CONCLUSION
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Moshe Wilensky whose telephone number is 571-270-3257. Mr. Wilensky’s supervisor, Sunil Singh can be reached at 571-272-3460. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Examiner interviews are available via telephone or video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. Applicant may also use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MOSHE WILENSKY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3726
1 The following conventions are used in this office action. All direct claim quotations are presented in italics. All non-italic reference numerals presented with italicized claim language are from the cited prior art reference. All citations to “specification” are to the applicant’s published specification unless otherwise indicated. The use of the phrase “et al.” following a reference is used solely to refer to subsequent modifying references, and not to other listed inventors of the cited reference.
2 Hereafter all uses of the word “obvious” should be construed to mean “obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed.”
3 The attached translation uses both the terms support and bracket to apparently refer to the same component because element (50) is referred to as both the “bracket feeding mechanism” and the “support feeding mechanism.” Compare Hu Pg. 3, ln. 52 to pg. 4, ln. 32. The term bracket will be used exclusively going forward to refer to this element.
Prosecution Insights