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 § 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 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.
Claim(s) 58, 60, and 61 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Clarke et al. (US 2020/0298077).
Regarding claim 58, Clarke et al. discloses an iron-type club head having a body and strike plate. The body is made of a first material having a first density and includes a heel portion, toe portion, part of the sole portion, top portion, part of a front portion, a rear portion, a rear wall, face opening, and toe port. The strike plate includes a strike face 155 covering the face opening and a plurality of grooves parallel to each other. Clarke et al. also discloses a toe cavity 663 having a toe weight 662 (See Paragraph 0070 and 0198) made of a second material with a second density and a filler material (See Paragraph 0071 and 0177). In some embodiments, the rear wall is made of the insert or filler wherein the insert or filler has a variable thickness for weight reduction and recesses therein (See paragraph 0143 and 0144 and Figures 14-16, 21, 22, and 26). The body material of the club head having a density greater than the filler material (See paragraph 0175, 0178, 0179, 0180) wherein the density can be lower than 3.0 g/cc. In addition, the toe weight has a density greater than the density of the body material (See Paragraph 0070) being that the weight is made of tungsten. In reference to the ratio of the minimum thickness of the rear wall and the minimum thickness of the face, applicant does not disclose why the ratio is critical in order to attain the invention. Clarke notes that the structure of the rear wall is for allocating mass toward the sole and rear for improving CG, spin, and ball speed (See Paragraph 0116). Clarke discloses the thickness of the face 155 being 0.03 to 0.1 inch (See Paragraph 0162) and a rear thickness of 0.03 inch to 0.1 inch (See Paragraph 0116) notes that the rear thickness can vary. Being that the thickness can vary, a rear wall thickness of 0.03 and face thickness of 0.1 would meet the ratio of the applicant. One having ordinary skill in the art would have found the ratio of the rear wall and face to be an obvious choice of design. The thicknesses produced by Clarke would perform equally as well since is reallocates mass within the club head.
Regarding claim 60, Clarke discloses the internal weight cavity closer to the toe than the heel and closer to the sole than the topline (See Figure 21).
Regarding claim 61, Clarke discloses the internal weight cavity and the internal weight elongated in a toe-heel direction (See Figure 21).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 75-77 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The primary reason for the allowance of claim 75 is due to the primary beam coupled to the interior surface of the rear wall. The prior art fails to show or suggest this feature in combination with the remaining limitations of claim 75.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Claims 59 and 62-74 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 ALVIN A HUNTER whose telephone number is (571)272-4411. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 7:30AM to 4:00PM Eastern Time.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Eugene Kim, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-4463. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALVIN A HUNTER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3711