DETAILED ACTION
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) 1-3 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wilde et al. (US Pub No. 2004/0229726 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Wilde et al. discloses
a housing (comprising 2 and the entire vehicle frame that the shifter, transmission are housed in);
a rotation lever (i.e. 40, comprising 41, 42, 3 per [0025]) to set a transmission position to one of Park (P), Reverse (R), Neutral (N), or Drive (D) positions (see Fig. 4);
a solenoid (44) disposed in the housing and configured to be interfered with the rotation of the rotation lever, wherein the solenoid includes a plunger (45) that moves between a first side (i.e. upwards in Fig. 4) and a second side (i.e. downwards in Fig. 4) with respect to the solenoid; and
a fixing means (comprising 42) included in the rotation lever and configured to interfere with the solenoid,
wherein the fixing means includes interfering members (i.e. 47, 48), which are formed to be engageable with the plunger when the plunger protrudes to one of the first side or the second side of the solenoid (i.e. to the first side), and inclined members (i.e. 51, 52), which are inclined from the interfering members to press the plunger toward the other of the first side or the second side of the solenoid (i.e. toward the second side when the lever is rotated clockwise, starting at a point where 45 is within 48, see Fig. 4).
Wilde et al. does not disclose an inner shaft in the Fig. 4 embodiment.
Wilde et al. discloses an inner shaft (24, Fig. 3 embodiment) configured to be rotatable within a predetermined angular range with respect to the housing (i.e. its allowable range, also see [0018]), for the purpose of providing for a wide range of shift lane configurations ([0018]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date to modify the invention of Wilde et al. (Fig. 4) by including the inner shaft as
disclosed by Wilde et al. (Fig. 3), for the purpose of providing for a wide range of shift
lane configurations. By this modification, it is noted that the rotation lever would in turn
be rotatable along with the inner shaft (as in shown in Fig. 3, where 3/21 and 24 rotate
together about 25).
Regarding Claim 2, Wilde et al. discloses
wherein the fixing means comprises a first fixing part (41), which is provided on one side of the fixing means (i.e. the lower side in Fig. 4) to selectively interfere with the plunger of the solenoid when the plunger is protruded to the first side (i.e. upper side in Fig. 4) of the solenoid.
Regarding Claim 3, Wilde et al. discloses
the first fixing part comprises:
a first interfering member (47, Fig. 4), which is configured to interfere with the rotation of the rotation lever from the P position to one of the R, N, or D positions when the plunger is protruded to the first side (i.e. upper side) of the solenoid; and
a first inclined member (51), which is inclined with respect to the first interfering member and configured to press the plunger toward the second side of the solenoid when the rotation lever rotates to the P position from any other positions (i.e. when the lever rotates to the P position from the R position, 45 contacts 51 and is pressed downwards. It is noted that the claim does not require this to be the case when the lever rotates from every position to P).
Regarding Claim 8, Wilde et al. discloses
the first inclined member (51) is formed as an inclined surface (Fig. 4) having an angle with respect to a direction of movement of the plunger (i.e. the longitudinal direction of 45) but does not disclose it to be 50° to 65°.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date to modify the invention of Wilde et al. (Fig. 4) by making the angle of
the inclined surface to be 50° to 65° since it has been held that where the general
conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or working
ranges involves only routine skill in the art and for the purpose of adjusting the
securing/detent force.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-7 and 9-20 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: None of the prior art of record shows a second fixing part (Claims 4-7 and 9-17) or an elastic member and movement of the inner shaft with respect to the housing/rotation lever (Claims 18-20) as claimed, in combination with the remaining elements.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/PRASAD V GOKHALE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653 February 27, 2026