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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the claimed “control section configured to perform. . .” (claim 1, lines 9-22) must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
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 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 Objections
Claims 1-7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase(s) “configured to” (claim 1, lines 5-6, line 10) are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2111.04 and/or 2173.05(d). The office hereby notes the phrase(s) do not limit a claim to a particular structure but rather makes it optional and does not denote how features are structurally associated.
Going further, it has been held that the recitation that an element is” configured to”, operable to and/or can" perform a function is not a positive limitation but only requires the ability to so perform. It does not constitute a limitation in any patentable sense. In re Hutchison, 69 USPQ 138. Appropriate correction is required.
Similar to the above also occurrence in claims 2-6 (see claim 2, line 4, claim 3, line 3, claim 4, line 2, claim 5, line 4, claim 5, line 3-4, and claim 6, line 3, respectively), recites “configured to” phrase(s).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Toshiaki (WO 2021/005667) in view of Nishiyama (20140353995).
Toshiaki discloses the claimed component mounting machine for mounting components on a board, the component mounting machine comprising:
a head 16;
multiple nozzle holders 16a provided in the head 16;
multiple nozzles 6 configured to be respectively attached and detached to and from the multiple nozzle holders and configured to pick up the components 4 (see Fig. 1);
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a control section 32 (see Fig. 1).
Regarding to the phrases:” configured to perform a first mounting process of attaching the nozzles respectively to the multiple nozzle holders in a first combination and mounting the components on the board, acquire first abnormality information indicating the number of times of abnormalities detected by the abnormality detection section for each nozzle holder in the first mounting process, perform a second mounting process of attaching the nozzles respectively to the multiple nozzle holders in a second combination different from the first combination and mounting the components on the board, acquire second abnormality information indicating the number of times of abnormalities detected by the abnormality detection section in the second mounting process for each nozzle holder, and specify a portion where abnormality occurs by comparing the first abnormality information with the second abnormality information”. The office hereby notes the phrase(s) do not limit a claim to a particular structure but rather makes it optional and does not denote how features are structurally associated. Since no further structure limitation existed in the above.
The Toshiaki appears to be in silent regarding to “an abnormality detection section configured to detect abnormality related to pick- up of the component by each of the nozzles attached to the multiple nozzle holders”. Regarding to this, the Nishiyama discloses such (see detection means 27 of the Nishiyama for the teaching of the claimed an abnormality detection section. Therefore, an ordinary having skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to employ the Nishiyama teachings as mentioned above onto the invention of Toshiaki in order to facilitate the mounting process. The motivation for the combination can be found in either reference since the references are in same endeavor field invention.
Note the phrase: configured to detect abnormality related to pick- up of the component by each of the nozzles attached to the multiple nozzle holders” has not been considered because there is no further structure limitation existed thereto.
As applied to claims 2-6, appears to meet by the combination teaching as set forth above, since there is no inventive features existed in these claims when departing from the Toshiaki as modified by the Nishiyama and common general knowledge without exercising any inventive skills.
As applied to claim 7, refer to Toshiaki for the discloses of the multiple nozzle holders 6 are disposed on the same circumference with respect to the head 16 (see Fig. 1 of the Toshiaki), respectively.
Note that the phrase: “the control section is configured to determine the second combination such that positional relationships between the nozzles respectively attached to the multiple nozzle holders in the first combination do not change” is functionally intended use does not further limit the claimed machine.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MINH N TRINH whose telephone number is (571)272-4569. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH ~5:00-3:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas J Hong can be reached at 571-272-0993. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MINH N TRINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3729
Mt 10/13/26
