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 .
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/19/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 3 remain pending in the present application.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jankura US 2020/0363008 (hereinafter Jankura) in view of Liu US 2010/0019109 (hereinafter Liu).
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Re. Cl. 1, Jankura discloses: A tripod (100, Fig. 1) comprising a hub (120, Fig. 1) defining a center bore (128, shown in Fig. 2 where 132 penetrates) with a set of leg mounts (126, Fig. 2) arranged in a radial pattern about the center bore (see Fig. 2), a center column (130, Fig. 2) configured to translate within the center bore (see Fig. 1-2), a head (140, Fig. 1) mounted to the center column (see Fig. 1-2), a set of legs (110, Fig. 1) and a set of leg position control assemblies (122, 126, Fig. 4) integrated into the leg and/or coupled to a corresponding leg mount in the set of leg mounts configured to enable deployment of each leg of the tripod into a predefined leg position (see Fig. 2 and 4 for instance), wherein each leg position control assembly comprises a leg-locking tab (122, Fig. 4) and to seat within a receptacle in a closed position (see Fig. 4) such that the outer surface of the leg-locking tab seats approximately flush with the outer face of the leg without the leg position assemblies protruding in the closed position (see Fig. 4, the tab 122 is approximately flush with the rest of the assembly) so that when collapsed (see Fig. 4), with the center column fully retracted from the hub (see Fig. 4), the head nests on the leg mounts (see Fig. 4 and Paragraphs 0008 and 0052) and the tripod maintains a substantially uniform effective diameter when collapsed without extraneous knobs or protrusions snagging on other equipment or bag flaps/openings (Paragraph 0008, Lines 16-23).
Re. Cl. 3, Jankura discloses: each leg position control assembly is configured to enable rotation of a leg relative to its corresponding leg mount from a collapsed position (see Fig. 4) toward a first extended position defined by a first angle of the leg extending outward from a central axis of the tripod (see Fig. 2).
Re. Cls. 1 and 3, Jankura does not explicitly disclose the leg-locking tab with an outer surface configured to transiently insert into a series of notches corresponding to a series of leg positions to lock legs of the tripod in the series of leg positions and pivots about a pivot axis to deploy outward from the receptacle in an open position (Cl. 1) or the leg position control assembly configured to constrain further rotation of the leg away from the central axis at the first leg position, enable rotation of the leg from the first extended position to additional extended positions defined by additional angles exceeding the first angle of the leg extending outward from the central axis, and constrain further rotation of the leg away from the central axis at the additional extended positions (Cl. 3). Liu discloses a tripod (Fig. 4) comprising a hub (10, Fig. 4) defining a center bore (13, Fig. 5) with a set of leg mounts (14, Fig. 5) arranged in a radial pattern about the center bore (see Fig. 5), a center column (120, Fig. 4-5) configured to translate within the center bore (Paragraph 0016), a set of legs (20, Fig. 4) and a set of leg position control assemblies (see Fig. 9) integrated into the leg and/or coupled to a corresponding leg mount in the set of leg mounts configured to enable deployment of each leg of the tripod into a predefined leg position (see Fig. 9, using 30 and 10-11); wherein each position control assembly comprise a leg-locking tab (30, Fig. 8) with an outer surface (see Fig. 8, outer surface of 30) configured to transiently insert into a series of notches corresponding to a series of leg positions to locate legs of the tripod in the series of leg positions (see annotated figure 8, in the series of notches shown as created by 10, 11 as seen; further as discussed above in claim 3, Liu discloses the use of more than one projection, thus having a series of notches created by the multiple projections 11) and to seat within a receptacle in a closed position (see Fig. 8-9, set within receptacle 28) such that the outer surface of the leg-locking tab seats approximately flush with the outer face of the leg without the leg position assembles protruding in the closed position so that the tripod maintains a substantially uniform effective diameter when collapsed without extraneous knobs or protrusions snagging on other equipment or bag flaps/openings in the closed position (see Fig. 8, as shown the outer surface of 30 is “approximately” flush with the outer surface of the leg; as can be seen in Fig. 8, the exterior of (30) is “approximately” flush with the leg since any lateral distance between the two points is considerably small, thus being “approximately” flush which would maintain the tripod in a “substantially” uniform effective diameter when collapsed and reduce the tendency of snagging as claimed in the claimed intended use) and pivots about a pivot axis (see Fig. 8-9, created by 50) to deploy outward from the receptacle in the open position (see Fig. 8-9, by pressing 30 so that it pivots about 50 against the force of spring 68); the leg position control assembly configured to constrain further rotation of the leg away from the central axis at the first leg position (see Fig. 8, by having 31 press into that projection 11), enable rotation of the leg from the first extended position to additional extended positions defined by additional angles exceeding the first angle of the leg extending outward from the central axis (Paragraph 0015, Lines 7-10; by having multiple projections 11, the legs would be able to rotate to different larger angles than when engaging the first projection 11), and constrain further rotation of the leg away from the central axis at the additional extended positions (see Fig. 8-9, by having the lock 30 engage the subsequent projections 11 as discussed in Paragraph 0015).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the Jankura device to include the multiple notches corresponding to different extended configurations as disclosed by Liu with reasonable expectation of success since Liu states that such a modification enables the legs to be rotated about 180 degrees between a first, second and third positions (Paragraph 0015, Lines 22-27). Such a modification would enable the user to hold the legs at these particular positions and thus not collapse or accidently pivot during use.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 has been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Li US 2019/00003635, Liang US 2024/0377019, Kallas US 2015/0233522, Chang US 11815220, Li US 9188843 and Weidler US 4317552 disclose other known tripod leg locking configurations presented to the Applicant for their consideration.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER E GARFT whose telephone number is (571)270-1171. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Terrell McKinnon can be reached at (571)272-4797. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER GARFT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3632