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 .
The present application is a CIP of Application No. 17/865,856, which is now U.S. Patent No. 11,834,132.
Drawings
The drawings were received on November 2, 2023. These drawings are acceptable.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 2, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curtis (US 7,950,340) in view of Zsido et al. (US 7,434,531) and Castillo (US 5,860,384).
Curtis discloses a pontoon boat, as shown in Figures 1-2, which is comprised of a pair of outer pontoons, each defined as Part #8, a center pontoon, defined as Part #6, a deck, defined as Part #4, that is supported above said pontoons, and a propulsion system, defined as Part #9, in the form of an outboard motor with a rearwardly facing propeller and a fixed angle propeller shaft, as shown in Figure 1.
Curtis, as set forth above, discloses all of the features claimed except for the use of at least one wake panel and at least one hydrofoil.
Zsido et al. discloses a device for adjusting a boat wake, as shown in Figures 1-4, which is comprised of at least one plate, defined as Part #54, that is supported off a stern end, defined as Part #28, of a boat, defined as Part #24, with a mount, defined as Part #50, and is movable to a lowered position with a slidable actuator cylinder, defined as Part #60, for selectively engaging a body of water in order to alter a wake that is trailing from said boat during propulsion of said boat.
Castillo discloses a wake control apparatus for a boat, as shown in Figures 1-8, which is comprised of at least one hydrofoil, defined as Part #76, as shown in Figure 8, that is engageable with a body of water for drawing a stern end of said boat, defined as Part #10, in a downward direction with a downward force during propulsion of said boat, as demonstrated in Figure 6.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art, to utilize at least one wake adjusting panel or plate on a stern end of a boat, as taught by Zsido et al., and at least one hydrofoil for generating a downward force on a stern end of a boat, as taught by Castillo, in combination with the pontoon boat as disclosed by Curtis for the purpose of providing a pontoon boat having two outer pontoons and a center pontoon with means to alter a wake that is trailing from said boat during propulsion of said boat, and means to generate a downward force on a stern of said boat during propulsion of said boat.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 16 is allowed.
Claims 4-14 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LARS A OLSON whose telephone number is (571) 272-6685. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 8:00am - 4:00pm.
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March 5, 2026
/LARS A OLSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3615B