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 § 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) s 1-8 and 11 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hungerford (US-2015/0197168).
As to claims 1-8 and 11, Hungerford teaches a bracket comprising a body 460 comprising a pivot hole, for bolt 540 (see figure 50, paragraph 0201), a dimple (see paragraph 0201), and a coined region, i.e. the entire surface of the bracket 460 is considered “coined”, as additionally it is noted this is a product by process limitation, and the reference discloses the same final product.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Claims 9 and 10 recite the features of claim 1 in combination with a seat adjustment mechanism comprising a four bar link. While the recited features can be found in Hungerford (US-2015/0197168), this does not suggest combination with a four bar link seat adjustment mechanism. A bracket for this type of seat adjustment mechanism can be found in, e.g. Ventura (US-2008/0224519) figure 1, element 66. However the prior art fails to suggest the claimed features in combination with this kind of bracket. No rationale can be provided for finding the combination obvious without relying on impermissible hindsight.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER E VERAA whose telephone number is (571)272-2329. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8:30am-5pm EST.
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/CeV/Examiner, Art Unit 3636
/DAVID R DUNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3636
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