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 . Claims 1-10 are pending in the current application.
Claim Objections
Regarding Claim 1, the 6th to the last line, and Claim 5, the 3rd to the last line, the language “the other” should be changed to “an other” or similar language.
Regarding Claim 5, line 4, the language “the outer” should be changed to “an outer” or similar language.
Regarding Claim 7, line 5, the language “the outer” should be changed to “an outer” or similar language.
Regarding Claim 7, the 3rd to the last line, the language “the other” should be changed to “an other” or similar language.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schneider Electric (French Pat. No. FR 3123142 A1, hereinafter “Schneider”) in view of Zhejiang Zhongyihao Technology Co Ltd. (Chinese Pat. No. CN 113130268 A, hereinafter “Zhejiang”).
Specifically, regarding Claim 1, Schneider discloses a solid-state circuit breaker (¶ [0046]) comprising: a mounting side plate (4), an operating handle (14) disposed on the mounting side plate (4; all elements of the circuit breaker are shown mounted on the side wall of the plate 4; FIG. 1) and being rotatable relative to the mounting side plate (4) to switch between a closing state and an opening state (¶¶ [0095], [0097]), a mechanical switch (10; FIG. 2) connected to the operating handle (14), wherein in a case that the operating handle (14) is rotated by a first angle from the closing state along a rotation direction of the operating handle (14) switched from the closing state to the opening state (¶¶ [0078], [0095], [0097]), the operating handle (14) drives the mechanical switch (10) to open (¶ [0095]), an actuating assembly (12) disposed on the mounting side plate (4; FIG. 1), wherein an end of the actuating assembly (12) abuts against the operating handle (14; FIGS. 1 and 2), and the actuating assembly (12) is rotatable relative to the mounting side plate (4) under driving of the operating handle (14; FIG. 1, ¶¶ [0095], [0097]), and wherein in a case that the operating handle (14) is rotated by a second angle from the closing state along the rotation direction of the operating handle (14) switched from the closing state to the opening state (FIG. 1), the operating handle (14) drives the actuating assembly (12) to rotate (¶¶ [0038, [0076]), the first angle is greater than the second angle (¶¶ [0076]-[0080]).
Thus, as discussed at, e.g., ¶¶ [0078]-[0080], during rotation of the handle 14 to open the mechanical contacts 10, the mechanical sensor 34 is first triggered by the actuating assembly 12 when the handle 14 is in a first angular position and the mechanical contacts 10 are then opened when the handle 14 reaches a further angular position, the latter angle being larger than the former angle.
Schneider does not disclose the claimed microswitch. However, Zhejiang discloses a microswitch (35; FIG. 2, p. 2, the last complete paragraph of the attached machine translation), triggered by an actuating assembly (20, 21, 23), abutting against [an] other end of the actuating assembly (20, 21, 23) away from the operating handle (20; FIG. 2). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Zhejiang with those of Schneider to effectively reduce device cost and realize a flexible selection of modularization.
Claims 2, 3, and 6, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Schneider and Zhejiang in view of Domenico (European Pat. No. EP 1487002 A2, hereinafter “Domenico”).
The combination of Schneider and Zhejiang discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention but does not disclose the claimed part and cam.
However, Domenico discloses that the (i) actuating assembly (15, 16, 19) comprises a linkage part (42) and a cam (16) disposed at an end of the linkage part (42) near the microswitch (121; FIG. 22), the linkage part (42) abuts against the operating handle (20), and the cam (16) abuts against the microswitch (at 21; FIG. 22), as recited in Claim 2, (ii) solid-state circuit breaker further comprises a rotating shaft (54), and the linkage part (42) and the cam (16) are rotatably connected to the mounting side plate (a side wall of 2) through the rotating shaft (54; FIG. 3), as recited in Claim 3, and (iii) that the linkage part (42) comprises a linkage rod (42 itself) comprising a first side (an end portion of 42 adjacent 20; FIG. 20) and a second side (an end portion of 42 adjacent 16; FIG. 20) disposed opposite to each other (FIG. 20), an abutting portion (a circumferential end of 42) is disposed on the first side (FIG. 20), the abutting portion abuts against the operating handle (20; FIG. 20), the cam (16) is disposed at an end of the linkage rod near the microswitch (121) and is located on the second side (FIG. 20), as recited in Claim 6.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Domenico with those of Schneider to provide a compact and reliable remote actuation device with sufficient speed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, and 7-10, 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 prior art fails to teach, disclose, or suggest, either alone or in combination, a solid-state circuit breaker comprising the claimed cam disposed at an end of a first linkage rod of a pair of linkage rods close to a microswitch and is located on a side of the first linkage rod away from a second linkage rod of the pair of linkage rods, as recited in Claim 4, and (ii) that the cam comprises a first arc surface, a second arc surface and a pair of transition surfaces, and a diameter of the first arc surface is greater than a diameter of the second arc surface, as recited in Claim 8.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is 313-446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 1030am - 9pm.
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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Luebke, can be reached at (571) 272-2009. The 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.
/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2833