DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species A in the reply filed on 9/4/26 is acknowledged. Applicant’s arguments that all pending claims read on Species A and is persuasive. Therefore, the Election of Species requirement is withdrawn, and claims 1-20 will be examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 or 103
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(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) 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over RICE (US 2023/0392642).
With respect to claim 15, RICE discloses a fastener 400, comprising: a nut, comprising: a nut body 410 comprising a threaded through hole 426 extending along a longitudinal axis, and a flange 412 extending away from the nut body and comprising an upper surface and a lower surface; and a retainer ring 422 integrally formed with the nut comprising a retention feature 430, comprising: a contact surface extending away from the nut body, and an annular lip 432 perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and extending away from the nut body. See especially Figs. 4A-E and pars. [0057-0064].
RICE may fail to explicitly teach the retainer ring 422 integrally formed with the nut as claimed (emphasis added). However, RICE does teach the clasp 420 (includes retainer ring 422) and is mounted and mated to the nut body [0058]. Therefore, it would be considered an obvious expedient o provide for the connection to be integral with one another as a form of mating one part to another.
With respect to claim 16, RICE teaches wherein the nut and retainer ring are made of a metal, hard plastic, or hard rubber material [0045], [0058], [0061].
With respect to claim 17, RICE teaches wherein the contact surface is angled with respect to the longitudinal axis and configured to deflect a component being attached to the fastener. See especially Fig. 4E, [0058], [0061, [0064].
With respect to claim 18, RICE teaches wherein the contact surface locates the fastener within an opening of the component and distributes a load on one or more portions of the opening [0060-0061].
With respect to claim 19, RICE teaches wherein the annular lip axially retains a portion of a component attached to the fastener with respect to the longitudinal axis. See especially Fig. 4E, [0058], [0061, [0064].
With respect to claim 20, RICE teaches wherein the component is laterally retained with respect to the nut body. See especially Fig. 4E, [0058], [0061, [0064].
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) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ARCHER (US 2018/0231049).
With respect to claim 11, ARCHER discloses a fastener, comprising: a nut (Figs. 1-2), comprising: a nut body 18 comprising a threaded through hole 26 extending along a longitudinal axis, a flange 22 extending away from the nut body and comprising an upper surface and a lower surface, and an annular notch 48 comprising a notch diameter and a notch thickness, the annular notch being spaced axially from the flange with respect to the longitudinal axis; and a retainer ring 14 arranged in the annular notch, comprising: a washer portion 12 comprising an inner diameter, an outer diameter, and a thickness, and a retention feature 16 coupled to and depending away from the washer portion and axially away from the flange. See especially Figs. 1-5, and pars. [0050-0075], [0132-0149].
However, the annular notch is not arranged in the nut body as claimed. The annular notch of ARCHER is shown about the nut body (See Fig. 2). It would be considered an obvious expedient to provide for the notch on either side (in the nut body or about/around the nut body) in order to hold the retainer ring thereinbetween.
With respect to claim 12, ARCHER teaches wherein the retention feature further comprises a curved portion and an end surface that is parallel to the flange. See Fig. 5, feature 16, [0143].
With respect to claim 13, ARCHER teaches wherein the retention feature is configured to temporarily support a component being secured to the fastener. See Figs. 2, 4, 5, feature 16..
With respect to claim 14, ARCHER teaches wherein the retention feature is configured to support a component to prevent inadvertent axial movement of the component toward the flange with respect to the longitudinal axis and inadvertent lateral movement of the component with respect to the nut. See Figs. 2, 4, 5, feature 16.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZAKIYA W BATES whose telephone number is (571)272-7039. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Doug Hutton can be reached at 5712724137. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZAKIYA W BATES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3674 10/2/2026
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