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.
Claims 11-12, 14-15, 17-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Song et al. (CN 106705821 A; IDS dated 09/01/2023 Foreign Patent Cite No. 2; see machine translation; hereinafter Song).
With regards to claim 11, Song discloses a method for measuring orthogonality of an orthogonal axis system of an instrument (abstract), comprising:
placing the instrument on a bearing surface (10; FIG. 1), flatness of the bearing surface being less than a first preset threshold (see FIG. 1);
making perpendicularity between a first rotary axis (vertical axis along 2) and the bearing surface smaller than a second preset threshold value (see FIG. 1);
intercepting a second rotary axis (horizontal axis along 5) along an interception plane (via 7) to obtain a first virtual cross section of the second rotary axis ([0024]), the interception plane passing through a specific point of the bearing surface and being orthogonal to the bearing surface and a projection of the second rotary axis on the bearing surface, and measuring the first virtual cross section to obtain a geometric center of the first virtual cross section as a first position ([0024-0025]);
rotating a second rotary device to enable the second rotary axis to rotate with a preset angular degree, the preset angular degree being an odd multiple of 180°, using the interception plane to intercept the second rotary axis to obtain a second virtual cross section of the second rotary axis, and measuring the second virtual cross section to obtain a geometric center of the second virtual cross section as a second position ([0026]; FIG. 1); and
determining whether the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis meets requirements based on the first position and the second position ([0026]);
wherein:
the instrument comprises a first rotary device (2) having the first rotary axis (axis of 2) and the second rotary device (including 5) having the second rotary axis (along 5; [0024]);
the second rotary device (including 5) is provided on the first rotary device (2) and is rotatable around the first rotary device ([0024]); and
the orthogonal axis system is formed by the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis ([0026]).
With regards to claim 12, Song discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein: the first position is obtained by measuring spatial coordinates of a plurality of first measurement points located at an edge of the first virtual cross section (along ball 6; FIG. 1) and based on the spatial coordinates of the plurality of first measurement points; and the second position is obtained by measuring spatial coordinates of a plurality of second measurement points located at an edge of the second virtual cross section (along ball 4; FIG. 1) and based on the spatial coordinates of the plurality of second measurement points ([0024-0026]).
With regards to claim 14, Song discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein: a distance between the first position and the second position is set as a first distance; and the first distance determines whether the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis meets requirements ([0026]).
With regards to claim 15, Song discloses method according to claim 14, wherein: if the first distance is less than a preset value, the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis meets requirements; if the first distance is not less than the preset value, the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis does not meet requirements; and the preset value is related to the specific point ([0026]).
With regards to claim 17, Song discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein the first virtual cross section and the second virtual cross section are both elliptical, or the first virtual cross section and the second virtual cross section are both circular ([0025-0026]).
With regards to claim 18, Song discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein a radial circular run-out of the second rotary axis is measured before obtaining the first virtual cross section ([0025-0026]).
With regards to claim 20, Song discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein the specific point is located within the projection ([0025-0026]; FIG. 1).
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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (CN 106705821 A; IDS dated 09/01/2023 Foreign Patent Cite No. 2; see machine translation; hereinafter Song).
With regards to claim 13, Song teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein: the plurality of first measurement points are located at an outer periphery of the first virtual cross section (along ball 6; FIG. 1); the plurality of second measurement points are located at the outer periphery of the second virtual cross section (along ball 4; FIG. 1; [0026])).
However, Song is silent regarding wherein a number of the plurality of first measurement points is not less than 5; and a number of the plurality of second measurement points is not less than 5.
It has been held that "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." Smith v. Nichols, 88 U.S. 112, 118-19 (1874) (a change in form, proportions, or degree "will not sustain a patent"). In re Williams, 36 F.2d 436, 438 (CCPA 1929) ("It is a settled principle of law that a mere carrying forward of an original patented conception involving only change of form, proportions, or degree, or the substitution of equivalents doing the same thing as the original invention, by substantially the same means, is not such an invention as will sustain a patent, even though the changes of the kind may produce better results than prior inventions.") In this particular case, Song teaches a generic condition of the number of measurements along the ball 4, 6 ([0024]; FIG. 1) and finding the optimum number of measurement would be routine to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to find the optimum number of measurement as taught by Song including the number of measurements as claimed with reasonable expectation of measuring the axis of the pitch rotation as originally intended.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16 and 19 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:
The prior arts on record fail to anticipate and/or suggest the combination of the claimed invention. Specifically, the prior arts fail to teach, inter alia, the combination of the limitation of “wherein: spatial coordinates of an arbitrary point on an axial line of the first rotary axis are obtained as a third position; a distance between the first position and the second position is set as a first distance; a distance from the third position to the interception plane is set as a second distance; a mismatch angle is obtained based on the first distance and the second distance; if the mismatch angle is less than a preset angle, the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis meets requirements; and if the mismatch angle is not less than the preset angle, the orthogonality between the first rotary axis and the second rotary axis does not meet requirements” as required by claim 16 and “wherein, if the radial circular run-out is greater than a third preset threshold value, the second rotary axis is machined to enable the radial circular run-out of the second rotary axis to be not greater than the third preset threshold value” as required by claim 19.
The closest prior art, Song (see above), teaches the method as required by claim 11. However, Song only teaches measurement for orthogonality with two measurements in two position without the need of a third position measurement ([0026]). Song does not teach using the method of using the measurement for subsequent processing. Thus, Song does not teach the claimed invention. Due to the complex structure required in conjunction with the claimed method, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further combine additional prior art to the teaching of Song as such combination would have been impermissible hindsight.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG X.L NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-1585. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/QXN/Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/STEPHEN D MEIER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2853