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 Objection
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: last line, -- of – should be inserted after “direction”. Appropriate correction is required.
35 USC 102 Rejections
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Endo 9054431.
Regarding claim 1, Endo (front page) discloses a connecting terminal comprising: a wire barrel section 13; an insulation barrel section 15; and a transition section 14, wherein the wire barrel section is configured to be crimped to a core wire exposed from a coating portion of a wire that includes the core wire and the coating portion coating the core wire, the insulation barrel section is configured to be crimped to the coating portion, the transition section connects the wire barrel section and the insulation barrel section to each other and includes at least one protrusion 42 (unnumbered on transition section 14) on a face that opposes the wire when the wire is crimped by the wire barrel section and the insulation barrel section, and the protrusion is longer in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the connecting terminal than in the longitudinal direction of the connecting terminal.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Endo discloses the transition section 14 is inclined so as to gradually approach the wire while extending from the insulation barrel section 15 toward the wire barrel section 13.
Regarding claim 3, Endo discloses the at least one protrusion 42 includes a plurality of protrusions.
Regarding claim 4, Endo discloses, among the plurality of protrusions 42, at least two protrusions are disposed in the same plane which is perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the connecting terminal.
Regarding claim 7, Endo discloses a wire (see Abstract) with a connecting terminal, comprising: the connecting terminal according to claim 1; and the wire crimped by the connecting terminal.
Regarding claim 8, Endo discloses the core wire is a single-core wire.
Regarding claim 9, Endo discloses the at least one protrusion 42 abuts on the core wire or the coating portion.
Regarding claim 10, Endo discloses the protrusion 42 further has an uneven shape in a direction in which the protrusion is elongated. Endo is further applied as above.
35 USC 103 Rejections
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) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Endo.
It is deemed to have been an obvious matter of design to provide at least one protrusion 42 at a different position from each other protrusion in a longitudinal direction the connecting terminal, since serrations 21 are disposed in this manner.
Claim(s) 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Endo as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of JP 2018-14313.
JP ‘313 (Figures 4 and 7) discloses three or more of the protrusions 80A-C are disposed in the same plane which is perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the connecting terminal, and a diameter of an imaginary circle passing through vertices of the three or more protrusions is equal to or smaller than a diameter of the wire, and to arrange three protrusions of Endo in this way thus would have been obvious, to better engage the core wire.
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/GARY F PAUMEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834