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 under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the motor, the power source, the chuck as recited in claim 20 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
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.
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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tian et al.(CN 114794716 A) hereinafter Tian.
Regarding Claim 20 Tian teaches a rotary tool comprising: a motor (210), a power source (215) electrically coupled to the motor (210), a chuck (212-213) coupled to the motor (210) and having a longitudinal bore therein (Fig 1), and a cleaning attachment (10), the cleaning attachment comprising: a housing (10), a plurality of bristles (110) coupled to the housing (10), and a drive shaft (2111) extending from the housing (10) in an axial direction, the drive shaft (2111) being coupled to the housing (10), whereby rotation of the drive shaft (2111) causes rotation of the housing (10); the housing (10) comprising: a reservoir (100) configured to contain a fluid, a valve (120) for dispensing the fluid from the reservoir (100), and at least one resilient element (122) surrounding an axis defined by the drive shaft (2111) (Fig 1); wherein the drive shaft (2111) is disposed within the longitudinal bore of the chuck (212-213) so that rotation of the chuck causes rotation of the housing (10) (Fig 1).
Reasons for Allowance.
Regarding Claim 1-19 are allowed. Regarding Claims 1-19 Tian et al.(CN 114794716 A) teaches a cleaning attachment for a rotary tool, the cleaning attachment comprising: a housing (10), a plurality of bristles (110) coupled to the housing (10), and a drive shaft (2111) extending from the housing (10) in an axial direction (Fig 1), the drive shaft (2111) being coupled to the housing (10), whereby rotation of the drive shaft (2111) causes rotation of the housing (10); the housing comprising: a reservoir (100) configured to contain a fluid (Fig 1), a valve (120) for dispensing the fluid from the reservoir (100), and at least one resilient element (122) surrounding an axis defined by the drive shaft (2111) (Fig 1-2).
However, Tian remains silent regarding wherein translation of the drive shaft along the axial direction causes compression of the resilient element, and wherein compression of the resilient element causes the valve to open to dispense fluid from the reservoir.
Hay (US 6,287,037 B1) does disclose a translating shaft (31) that causes compression of a resilient element (22) to open a valve structure (37). However, the shaft (31) of Hay is not rotatable and the rotation of the drive shaft doesn’t cause rotation of the housing. Furthermore, one cannot combine Tian with Hay since making the shaft of Tian non-rotatable would destroy the invention of Tian for its intended purpose.
Similarly, Del pozo Mattei (US 5,960,503), Walton (US 3,638,264) and Zieger (US 2023/0058414 A1) all teach similar devices that are pertinent to the claimed invention but they all fail to teach the above missing limitations.
Conclusion
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/ABIY TEKA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745