DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claims filed on 01/05/2026.
Claims 1-4 are currently pending and have been examined below. Claims 5 and 10-14 are cancelled. Claims 6-9 and 15-16 are withdrawn.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/05/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pellegrini (EP 1767389).
Claim 1
(Pellegrini discloses) A sliding-out type door assembly (figures 1-5) for a vehicle (1st par. under the description discloses invention directed to vehicles), the sliding-out type door assembly comprising:
a door (1.1 and 1.2; figures 1-2) coupled to a vehicle body (not shown although it would be inherent to have the vehicle doors of Pellegrini to be mounted to a vehicle body once fully assembled) of the vehicle;
a housing (13; figure 5) in which the door is slidably installed in a front-rear direction of the vehicle (Annotated figure 5 below);
a mounting bracket (Annotated figure 5 below) disposed in the front-rear direction of the vehicle and slidably fastened in the front-rear direction of the vehicle by a predetermined length (length along the front-rear direction; Annotated figure 5 below), the mounting bracket comprising a plurality of forward and rearward adjustment long holes in the front-rear direction of the vehicle (shown in Annotated figure 5 below);
a step adjustment bracket (Annotated figure 5 below) fastened to each of the mounting bracket and the housing (Annotated figure 5 below);
forward and rearward adjustment bolts passing through the plurality of forward and rearward adjustment long holes and fastened to the vehicle body (forward and rearward adjustment bolts not shown but it would be inherent to have bolts passing through each of the forward and rearward adjustment long holes to mount the assembly of figure 5 to the vehicle body);
a fastening part (Annotated figure 5 below) extending to be bent inward from an end portion of the mounting bracket in a width direction of the vehicle (Annotated figure 5 below);
extensions (Partial Annotated figure 5 below; this is also interpreted as the left and right extensions along the ends of the assembly) protruding to an opposite side of the housing (the side of the housing not shown in figure 5) on a portion of the step adjustment bracket that is bent to overlap an end portion of the housing (note that ‘on’ was interpreted as --Used to indicate position above-- such that the recitation “extensions…on a portion of the step adjustment bracket” were interpreted as the extensions are located above the portion of the step adjustment bracket shown in Partial Annotated figure 5 below);
fine adjustment nuts provided on the extensions (Partial Annotated figure 5 below; figure 5 only shows one end of the assembly, but figure 1 shows a symmetrical left and right assembly of the sliding-out type door as such Pellegrini teaches at least two fine adjustment nuts and fine adjustment bolts on the extensions at both ends of the assembly); and
fine adjustment bolts (Partial Annotated figure 5 below) screw-coupled to the fine adjustment nuts and having lower end portions in contact with the fastening part (Partial Annotated figure 5 below; note that the extensions are also part of the fastening part),
wherein:
the fine adjustment bolts are configured parallel to horizontal adjustment bolts (Annotated figure 5 below) which fasten the housing and the step adjustment bracket (Annotated figure 5 below), and
the fine adjustment bolts adjust a position of the mounting bracket in an axial direction of the fine adjustment bolts by adjusting a degree of fastening of the fine adjustment bolts to the fine adjustment nuts (Partial Annotated figure 5 below; the degree of fastening [tightness] of the bolts can be adjusted to adjust the position of the mounting bracket along the axial direction).
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Annotated figure 5
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Partial Annotated figure 5
Claim 2
(Pellegrini discloses) The sliding-out type door assembly of claim 1, wherein:
an upper portion of the step adjustment bracket (Partial Annotated figure 5 above) is bent to overlap the end portion of the housing (Partial Annotated figure 5 above);
a plurality of horizontal adjustment long holes (the horizontal long holes to which the horizontal adjustment bolts pass through; Annotated figure 5 above) is provided in the width direction of the vehicle; and
the horizontal adjustment bolts pass through the horizontal adjustment long holes and are fastened to the housing (Annotated figure 5 above).
Claim 3
(Pellegrini discloses) The sliding-out type door assembly of claim 2, further comprising:
a transfer frame (6.1; figure 5) disposed in the width direction of the vehicle and coupled to the end portion of the housing, wherein the transfer frame comprises a roller (7.1) installed on the transfer frame and configured to move in the width direction of the vehicle (figure 5); and
a fastening plate (5.1) inserted into the transfer frame in the width direction of the vehicle and fastened to lower end portions of the horizontal adjustment bolts (figure 5).
Claim 4
(Pellegrini discloses) The sliding-out type door assembly of claim 1, further comprising:
vertical adjustment long holes (the vertical holes of the step adjustment bracket to which the vertical adjustment bolts pass through; the vertical adjustment bolts are shown in Annotated figure 5 above) provided in a height direction of the vehicle in a lower end portion of the step adjustment bracket (Annotated figure 5 above; the lower end portion of the step adjustment bracket is shown in Partial Annotated figure 5 above); and
vertical adjustment bolts (Annotated figure 5 above) passing through the vertical adjustment long holes and fastened to mounting holes (the holes of the fastening part to which the vertical adjustment bolts pass through; the vertical adjustment bolts and fastening part are shown in Annotated figure 5 above) provided in the fastening part.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments directed to the claim objection and 112(b) rejection were considered and the objection and rejection are now withdrawn.
Note that the responses below were directed to applicant’s arguments set forth on pages 2-4 of the Remarks section.
Applicant's arguments filed on 01/05/2026 have been fully considered. Regarding “Applicant respectfully asserts that the two bolts of the Pellegrini must be loosened, the position of the target must be adjusted, and then the bolts must be tightened again to maintain the adjusted position. This causes inconvenience”, referring to applicant’s figure 9, the bolts 25 must also be loosened or tightened such that the position of the mounting bracket can be adjusted as such since the invention of Pellegrini discloses similarities to applicant’s invention, this argument was found unpersuasive.
Regarding “Additionally, in Pellegrini, there is a disadvantage in that the position of the position adjustment target may change slightly during the process of tightening the bolt again after adjusting the position of the position adjustment target, requiring readjustment”, examiner notes that this is also true to applicant’s invention since the adjustment of the ‘position adjustment target’ is tied to the loosening or tightening of the adjustment bolts.
Furthermore, claim 1 merely recites “the fine adjustment bolts adjust a position of the mounting bracket in an axial direction of the fine adjustment bolts by adjusting a degree of fastening of the fine adjustment bolts to the fine adjustment nuts” and none of recitations of the claim require that no slight change in the position of the mounting bracket can occur when tightening the fastening bolt.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PATRICK B PONCIANO whose telephone number is (571)272-9910. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30-4:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Cahn can be reached at (571) 270-5616. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PATRICK B. PONCIANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3634
/MARCUS MENEZES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3634