Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 15, 2026
Application No. 18/500,778

PISTON PUSHING TOOL

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Nov 02, 2023
Examiner
NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
Art Unit
3661
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
Shifukang Industrial.Co., LTD.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
90%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 2m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 90% — above average
90%
Career Allow Rate
1025 granted / 1132 resolved
+38.5% vs TC avg
Minimal +4% lift
Without
With
+3.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Fast prosecutor
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
19 currently pending
Career history
1151
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.3%
-36.7% vs TC avg
§103
35.4%
-4.6% vs TC avg
§102
43.7%
+3.7% vs TC avg
§112
5.6%
-34.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1132 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . DETAIL ACTION Notice to Applicant(s) This application has been examined. Claims 1-10 are pending. The prior art submitted on November 02, 2023 has been considered. Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. § 119, which have been placed of record in the file. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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) A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, nowwitstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made. Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (2006/0208407) in view of Lewis (11,512,749). With respect to claim 1, Wang discloses a tool which includes two arm members being connected to each other, and being relatively movable to be close to each other or to be far away from each other (see at least figure 2, items 10 and 20); and two push members connected to the two arm members respectively, wherein the two push members being movable with the two arm members (see at least figure 2, item 16 and 26) Wang does not explicitly disclose that the two push members configured to be inserted between two objects which at least one of them being a piston. However Lewis suggest a brake piston pushing tool in which there are 2 members 111, 112 as shown in at least figures 1 and 4. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teaching of Lewis into the system of Wang with a reasonable expectation of success in order to provide the system with the enhanced capacity of flipping the two members 16 and 26 facing out in order make the tool as the piston pushing tool. With respect to claim 2, Wang further discloses a first pivot, wherein the first pivot is disposed through the two arm members and connects the two arm members to each other (see at least figure 1, item 12). With respect to claim 3, Wang discloses that each of the two arm members includes a head portion, a body portion and an operation portion connected to one another in sequence, the first pivot is disposed through the body portions of the two arm members, the two push members are connected to the head portions of the two arm members respectively, and when the operation portions of the two arm members move to be close to each other, the head portions of the two arm members move to be far away from each other (see at least figure 2, items 10, 15). With respect to claim 4, Wang discloses a driving mechanism (see at least figure 2, item 30). Wang does not explicitly disclose first base, a second base and a threaded rod, the first base is rotatably connected to one of the two arm members, the second base is rotatably connected to the other of the two arm members, the threaded rod is disposed through the first base and the second base and is screwed to at least one of the first base and the second base so that the two arm members can be driven to move by turning the threaded rod. However, such limitations are taught in at least figure 4 of the Lewis reference. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teaching of Lewis into the system of Wang with a reasonable expectation of success in order to provide the system with the enhanced capacity of replacing the driving mechanism of the Wang by the driving mechanism of Lewis in order to using the threaded rod to piston push the 2 object using in the brake piston-push tool. With respect to claims 5 and 6, Lewis disclose the limitations of this claim in at least figures 1 and 4. With respect to claim 7, Wang discloses that each of the two arm members is a plate member, and each of the two push members is a plate member (see at least figure 1, items 10, 20, 16 and 26). With respect to claim 8, Wang discloses that the two push members are rotatably connected to the two arm members, respectively (see at least figure 2, items 10, 20, 16, 26). With respect to claim 9, Wang discloses two second pivots, wherein each of the two push members includes a push portion and a first connection portion connected to each other, each of the two arm members includes a second connection portion, the two second pivots are disposed through the first connection portions of the two push members and the second connection portions of the two arm members, respectively, the two push members are rotatable about the two second pivots, respectively (see at least figure 2). Claim 10 is 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 Claims 1-9 are rejected. Claim 10 is objected. The following references are cited as being of general interest: Liou (6,212,977), Kang (6,574,846) and Tseng (2021/0071725). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAN QUANG NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-6966. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Thursday from 7:00am to 5:30pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Nolan, can be reached at 570-270-7016. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal. Should you have questions about access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). 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. January 28, 2026 /TAN Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 02, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 28, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Mar 25, 2026
Response Filed

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
90%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+3.5%)
2y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1132 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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