CTNF 18/534,016 CTNF 79348 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Election/Restrictions The Examiner acknowledges Applicant’s elections from identified species groups without traverse. However, due to the Examiner’s ability to search and consider all of species within the identified species groups without serious search and/or examination burden, the Examiner is withdrawing the restriction requirement set forth in Requirement for Restriction/Election mailed on 17 December 2025. In view of the above noted withdrawal of the restriction requirement, applicant is advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once a restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01. Drawings 06-22 AIA The drawings are objected to because the instant Fig. 3 employs empty boxes with only reference numbers, and should be labeled with their representative structure in order to more easily identify the structure quickly that is utilized in the invention without having to read through the specification. For example, reference box S2, as shown in instant Fig. 3 should be labeled - - A sensor signal waveform is measured using the at least one sensor probe 8 - -. Please note that a reference number is not a label . See 37 C.F.R. 1.83(a) . Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance. 06-22-01 The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they fail to show all the details of the rotating shaft and other aspects, as described in the specification, since there are missing/blanked-out portions in instant Fig. 1. The Examiner suggests amending instant Fig. 1 with the clearly detailed elements in Fig. 1 depicted in the submitted foreign priority document DE 2022 214 213.6. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-01 AIA The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a): (a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention. The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112: The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention. 07-31-02 AIA Claim s 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention. Instant independent claims 1 and 17 recite the limitations: “determine/determining a spectrum of the load acting on the at least one rotating component from the measured sensor signal waveform, and estimate/estimating the at least one property of the rotating system from the determined spectrum.” The instant filed specification fails to provide sufficient disclosure in regards to the estimation of “at least one property of the rotating system from the determined spectrum to make and/or use the instant claimed invention. Based on the instant filed specification, the “at least one property of the rotating system” can be any one of: bending, unbalance, misalignment, radial displacement, axial displacement, density, viscosity or flow type. The instant filed specification only employs aforementioned “properties” of the rotating system in paragraphs 0003, 0004, 0022 and 0043, thus fails to directly provide support of enablement in regards to the estimation of these properties based on the measurement signals by at least one sensor which is employed to determine the spectrum of the load acting on the at least one component. Applying the Wands factors (see In re Wands, 858 F.2d 731, 737, 8 USPQ2d 1400, 1404 (Fed. Cir. 1988 and MPEP 2164.01(a)), Wands factor (F), being the amount of direction provided by the inventor, it is clear the instant disclosure fails to provide any directions in regards to estimation of any one of the aforementioned properties of the rotating system from the determined spectrum. There are no details provided or instructions of any determined spectrum, or any specific aspects of any particular spectrum (i.e. position and/or magnitude of a peak) in which one of ordinary skill in the art would determine any of the aforementioned properties of the rotating system. For example, what spectrum and associated aspects would allow one of ordinary skill in the art to estimate the viscosity property of the rotating system, which would have to be differentiated from estimating the density property of the rotating system. Wands factor (G), being the existence of working examples, the instant disclosure fails to disclose any details or existence of any working examples of any particular spectrum and associated aspects of the spectrum to estimate any one of the aforementioned properties of the rotating system or the differences in any spectrums or associated aspects of the spectrums to clearly estimate a particular one of aforementioned properties of the rotating system, as opposed to another one of the aforementioned properties of the rotating system. Wands factor (H), being the quantity of experimentation needed to make and/or use the invention based on the content of the disclosure, the instant filed specification fails to provide any details and/or explanation in regards to any particular spectrums and/or aspects of the particular spectrums that would directly lead to the estimation of any particular one of the aforementioned properties of the rotating system, and, as such, would require an undue amount of experimentation for one of ordinary skill in the art to not only generate an inordinate amount of measurements to obtain the spectrums, and subsequently analyze the generated spectrums and any aspects of them to estimate and differentiate between all of the aforementioned properties, thus failing to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and/or use the instant claimed invention. Claims 2-16 are similarly rejected due to their dependency from instant independent claims 1 . 07-30-02 AIA The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. 07-34-01 Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. 07-34-08 Regarding claim 2, the phrase "preferably" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitation(s) following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d). Regarding claims 8 and 15, the recited limitation “flow type” is not defined by the instant filed specification. It is unclear as to what exactly constitutes a “flow type” in regards to the claimed property of a fluid, thus rendering the claims indefinite. Conclusion Due to the presence of rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(a), a thorough search and consideration of the claimed invention in regards to the prior art by the Examiner could not be reasonably made, and, the absence of any prior art rejection of the claimed invention is not an indication of allowable subject matter. 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant is invited to review PTO form 892 accompanying this Office Action listing Prior Art relevant to the instant invention cited by the Examiner . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Primary Examiner John Fitzgerald whose telephone number is (571) 272-2843. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM E.S.T. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor John Breene, can be reached at telephone number (571) 272-4107. 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. The central fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JOHN FITZGERALD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855 Application/Control Number: 18/534,016 Page 2 Art Unit: 2855 Application/Control Number: 18/534,016 Page 3 Art Unit: 2855 Application/Control Number: 18/534,016 Page 4 Art Unit: 2855
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