DETAILED ACTION
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 § 102
2. 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; or
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
3. Claims 1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 11-12, 15-16 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by TANOUE et al. (US 20210151020 A1).
Regarding claims 1-2, 5-6, 8, 11-12, 15-16 and 18, TANOUE discloses a keyboard device (Figs. 1 and 2), comprising: a coil (61 Fig. 2) generating a magnetic field (para. 0051); a displacement member (52 Fig. 2) having an outer surface and displaced at a position facing the coil during key depression (para. 0033); and a conductor provided on the displacement member (para. 0032-0032: The adjustment weight 50 is formed from … a conductive body; the adjustment weight 50 is a structure that consists of a rotatable part 51 and a load part 52 formed as a single body; a “conductor”, e.g., iron or ferrite, is provided on the displacement member; note: since the instant claim does not require explicitly that said “conductor” is an additional covering member which is joined to or coated on the displacement member, with the BRI to the claims, the exterior or outer surfaces of TANOUE’s load part 52 read on “a conductor provided on the displacement member”), wherein the conductor comprises: a facing portion covering the outer surface of the displacement member to face the coil during key depression; and a front surface portion connected to the facing portion and covering an outer surface of the displacement member which is directed to a front side in a displacement direction of the displacement member; wherein the conductor comprises: a rear surface portion connected to the facing portion and covering an outer surface of the displacement member which is directed to a rear side in the displacement direction; and a pair of side surface portions connected to the rear surface portion and the facing portion and covering a pair of outer surfaces of the displacement member which are directed in a direction orthogonal to the displacement direction; wherein a height of the front surface portion rising from the facing portion is substantially constant (i.e., the 3-D shape of the load part 52 is fixed); wherein the conductor comprises a curved portion (e.g., the 3-D edges of the load part 52) that curves (in acute, obtuse or right angles) and connects the facing portion and the front surface portion; wherein an upper edge of the front surface portion of the conductor is formed in a straight line shape (see annotated Fig. 2 below).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, TANOUE discloses: wherein the displacement member is rotated to be displaced during key depression (para. 0035, 0040).
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 3-4, 7, 13-14 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TANOUE et al. in view of ISHII (US 20220277719 A1).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, TANOUE is silent on: wherein the facing portion and the front surface portion are formed by joining a metal plate to the displacement member, and the conductor is not provided on the pair of outer surfaces of the displacement member which are directed in the direction orthogonal to the displacement direction.
ISHII discloses a keyboard device (Figs. 1 and 2), comprising: a coil (61 Fig. 2) generating a magnetic field (para. 0037, 0041); a displacement member (55) having an outer surface and displaced at a position facing the coil during key depression (Fig. 2); and a conductor (51) provided on the displacement member (para. 0051), wherein the conductor (51) is formed by a patterning process in which a conductive film covering the entire surfaces of the displacement member (55) is selectively removed (para. 0051).
TANOUE and ISHII are in the same field of endeavor (see the Abstracts of TANOUE and ISHII). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply ISHII’s teaching of the conductive film to TANOUE’s displacement member (TANOUE, load part 52) to form a dedicated conductor/detector covering the outer surfaces of the displacement member. Doing so would allow for selecting a desired material of the conductive film that provides optimum sensitivity of magnetic coupling between the passive conductor/detector and the active coil circuit. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of such a combination were predictable for effectively converting mechanical movement to electrical energy since the use of that known technique provides the rationale to arrive at a conclusion of obviousness. See KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
The combination of TANOUE and ISHII is silent on: the conductor is not provided on the pair of outer surfaces of the displacement member which are directed in the direction orthogonal to the displacement direction.
However, because the claims of the instant application do not specify the particular function or benefit of the claimed improvement, it is deemed that the limitation in question relates to minor adjustment of the shape of ISHII’s conductive film, which is considered to be mere design choices of shape of the conductive film coating TANOUE’s displacement member. Since ISHII teaches general condition of the conductive film (“… selectively removed”, see ISHII, para. 0051), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of TANOUE and ISHII to arrive the claimed invention (e.g., selectively removing sections of the conductive film), which the skilled person would conceive and apply such modification without needing inventive skill but depending on practical considerations and according to the dictates of the circumstances. It has been held that an obvious matter of engineering design choice is not patentably advanced.
Regarding claims 4 and 14, the combination of TANOUE and ISHII renders the claimed invention obvious (see e.g. ISHII, para. 0126).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, the combination of TANOUE and ISHII renders the claimed invention obvious (see discussion for claim 3 above).
6. Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TANOUE et al. in view of Komatsu (US 20100326260 A1).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, TANOUE is silent on: wherein the displacement member is linearly moved to be displaced during key depression.
Komatsu discloses a keyboard device (Fig. 2), comprising: a coil (41) generating a magnetic field (para. 0071); a displacement member (42) having an outer surface and displaced at a position facing the coil during key depression (para. 0072); wherein the displacement member is linearly moved to be displaced during key depression (para. 0076).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TANOUE to arrive the claimed invention by incorporating Komatsu’s mechanism of linearly moving the displacement member. Doing so would allow for the output signal from such a linear detector to be a linear function of the actual or achieved position of the key depression mechanism itself thus converting the mechanical movement of the displacement member into an immediate electrical energy in a cost-effective way.
Contact Information
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANCHUN QIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5981. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM EST M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dedei Hammond can be reached at (571)270-7938. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JIANCHUN QIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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