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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the drawings have reduced line quality, and thus do not meet the reproducibility requirements of 37 CFR 1.84(L). Note that the drawings must be viewed in the USPTO Patent Center in order to see this problem (see example below). It is likely that the drawings contain grayscale elements, which cause image degradation in the USPTO electronic filing system. Drawings must be entirely bi-tonal, containing only black or white color values.
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Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In the Title, the word “vihecle” should be changed to --vehicle--.
Page 1, line 11, “belonging” should be changed to --belongings--.
Page 1, line 12, an article is missing before “vehicle.”
Page 4, line 11, “belonging” should be changed to --belongings--.
Page 5, line 11, article missing before “one piece part.”
Page 7, line 4, article missing before “one piece part.”
Page 8, lines 18-19, the phrase “In the unlocked position, the action portion 57 of the button 50 is pushed by the action-receiving portion 46 of the lock member 40…” This appears to be reversed. It is actually the action-receiving portion 46 that is pushed by the action portion 57.
Page 10, lines 10-12 states that “The extending portion 64 does not bend until the retaining portion 65 passes through the assembling groove 98 and contacts the bottom surface 82 of the button support portion 80.” This sentence seems to indicate that the extending portion 64 will bend once it contacts the bottom surface 82. However, Fig. 5B indicates that no bending occurs when the extending portion 64 contacts the bottom surface 82. According to Fig. 5A, the bottom surface 99 of the assembling groove and the side surface 66 of the retaining portion 64 appear to have a relationship where the retaining portion 64 will not bend at all as it is inserted within the assembling groove. Paragraph 0056 appears to be more accurate, when it says “it is not necessary to bend the extending portions 64.” Thus, it is suggested that the phrase in paragraph 10 should be changed to “extending portion 64 does not bend as the retaining portion 65 passes through the assembling groove 98 and contacts the bottom surface 82 of the button support portion 80.”
Page 11, line 24, the phrase “the stopper 86 is a portion that is not assembled to the support member 15 and does not move” is confusing. This sounds as though the stopper 86 is not connected to the support member 15, which is incorrect. It appears that the intent is to state that the stopper 86 is “integral with” or “integrated into” the support member 15, rather than being a separate part that is assembled to the support member. The language should be changed to make this more clear.
Page 12, line 17, “stoper-receiving” should be changed to --stopper-receiving--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: In lines 9-10, the phrase “a biasing member that exerts a force on the lock member such that the lock member can swing toward the locked position” is phrased awkwardly. It appears that the phrase intends to mean --such that the lock member [[can]] is biased to swing toward the locked position--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ahn et al. (US 2021/0291710, hereinafter Ahn).
With regard to claim 1, Ahn discloses a storage device for a vehicle comprising:
a storage box (12) capable of storing an object,
a lid (15) capable of opening and closing an opening of the storage box, and
a lock mechanism (Figs. 5 and 6) capable of locking the lid,
wherein the lock mechanism includes
a lock member (23) provided swingably and capable of being positioned in a locked position (Fig. 5) at which the lock member contacts the lid and can lock the lid, and an unlocked position (Fig. 6) at which locking is released;
a biasing member (unlabeled, clearly visible in Figs. 5 and 6, and also mentioned in paragraph 0016: “a torsion spring configured to elastically support the locking hook may be installed at a rotation center of the locking hook”) that exerts a force on the lock member such that the lock member can swing toward the locked position;
a button (21) having an action portion (21b) for pushing the lock member against the force of the biasing member, and capable of releasing the locking of the lid (see Fig. 6); and
a support member (11) that supports both the lock member and the button,
the support member (11) having a stopper (note specifically labeled, but shown in the annotated Fig. provided below) for restricting a position of the lock member such that the lock member can remain in the locked position,
the stopper being integrated with the support member (the stopper is at least connected to the support member so that they form an integrated unit—Note that this limitation is being read broadly, i.e. without inferring that the two elements are made from the same piece of injection-molded plastic), and
the button being spaced apart from the lock member when the lock member is in the locked position (the button 21 is laterally spaced from the lock member 23, which can be seen in Fig. 7).
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With regard to claim 2, Ahn teaches that the lock member includes:
a lid-side swing portion (15a) that extends from a shaft (25), which serves as a swing center, in a direction radially outward of the shaft and that can contact the lid; and
a button-side swing portion (unlabeled, see annotated Fig. above, note that element 24 is also part of the “button-side swing portion”) that extends from the shaft in a direction substantially opposite to the direction in which the lid-side swing portion extends, and that has an action-receiving portion (24) pushed by the action portion of the button, and
the button-side swing portion has a stopper-receiving portion (24b) that receives the stopper.
With regard to claim 4, Ahn teaches that the button includes a main body (21a) slidable relative to the support member, and an arm (21b) extending downward from the main body, and the action portion of the button is located at a distal end of the arm (see Figs. 5 and 6).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 5-12 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.
With regard to claim 3, Ahn fails to teach or suggest that, when viewed in a radial direction of the shaft, the action-receiving portion of the button-side swing portion is located radially outward of the stopper-receiving portion. Ahn teaches the opposite, i.e. that the stopper-receiving portion is radially farther away that the action-receiving portion (see annotated Fig. below).
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With regard to claims 5-8, Ahn teaches that the support member includes a pair of rails that can guide a movement of the button (see first annotated Fig. below), where the rails include a side wall and that can guide the slide portion in a front-rear direction, and a rail upper wall that extends, in a direction toward the other rail, from an upper end of the rail side wall (see first annotated Fig. below), and that the button includes a pair of slide portions that are slidable relative to the pair of rails respectively (see second annotated Fig. below).
However, Ahn fails to teach or suggest a pair of retaining portions that protrude, in directions away from each other, from ends of the pair of slide portions respectively, and are configured to prevent the button from coming off the pair of rails, or that each of the rail upper walls includes an assembling groove through which the retaining portion can pass when the button is assembled to the pair of rails.
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT E FULLER whose telephone number is (571)272-6300. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30AM - 5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tara Schimpf can be reached at 571-270-7741. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT E FULLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3676