Directed 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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 and 12-19 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:
Regarding claims 3 and 12 directed to a card tray assembly and an electronic device, respectively, Chien and Ryo fail to disclose, teach or suggest the limitations that read, “wherein the card tray assembly further comprises a card holder, the card holder is provided with a first locking portion, the card tray is provided with a second locking portion, and in the case that the telescopic positioning member is at the second position, the first locking portion fits with the second locking portion in a limiting manner”, in combination and within the context of all the limitations of respective claims 1 and 10.
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Chien and Ryo fail to disclose, teach or suggest the limitations that read, “wherein the telescopic positioning member is provided with a third locking portion, the card tray is provided with a fourth locking portion, and in the case that the telescopic positioning member is at the second position, the third locking portion fits with the fourth locking portion in a limiting manner”, in combination and within the context of all the limitations of respective claims 1 and 10.
Claims 4 and 13 depend on claims 3 and 12 and inherit all the limitations of claims 3 and 12; therefore, they are objected due to their dependency on claims 3 and 12.
Similarly, claims 6-9 and 15-19 depend on claims 5 and 14 and inherit all the limitations of claims 5 and 14; therefore, they are objected due to their dependency on claims 5 and 14.
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 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.
Claims 1-2 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 7008245 B1 (Hsu-Pin Chien, hereinafter Chien) JP2012146489(A) (Ryo et al., hereinafter Ryo).
Regarding claim 1, Chien discloses a [card tray] assembly, comprising:
a positioning cylinder (Fig. 1, “driven sleeve 42”), wherein the positioning cylinder is provided with a first fitting slot (“first embedding groove 411”), a second fitting slot (“second embedding groove 421”), and a first guide slope (“first continuous chute 401” reads on first guide slope), and an inner surface of the first fitting slot is connected to an inner surface of the second fitting slot via the first guide slope (Col. 3, lines 4-20 and Fig. 1, “driven sleeve 42”);
a [card tray], wherein the card tray is provided with an action portion (Col. 3, lines 24-28 and Fig. 1, “L-shaped link arm 402”); and
a telescopic assembly, wherein the telescopic assembly comprises a telescopic positioning member (Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41”) and an elastic member (Figs. 1, “resilient element 44”), the telescopic positioning member is movably disposed at the positioning cylinder (Figs. 1 and 6-7, “driven shaft 41” is movably disposed at the “driven sleeve 42”), the telescopic positioning member is at least partially located in the positioning cylinder (Fig. 6), the telescopic positioning member is provided with a positioning protrusion (“driven shaft 41” having protruding portions shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 6-7), one end of the elastic member is connected to the telescopic positioning member (Col. 2, lines 60-67 and Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41” connected to “resilient element 44”), and the other end of the elastic member is a fixed end (Fig. 4, opposite end of “resilient element 44” towards the edge of shell 5); wherein
under fitting between the positioning protrusion and the first guide slope, the action portion and the elastic member drive the telescopic positioning member to rotate between a first position and a second position, wherein in a case that the telescopic positioning member is at the first position, the positioning protrusion fits with the first fitting slot in a limiting manner, and the [card tray] is in an extended state (Fig. 6 and col. 3, lines 43-56); and in a case that the telescopic positioning member is at the second position, the positioning protrusion fits with the second fitting slot in a limiting manner, and the [card tray] is in a retracted state (Fig. 7 and col. 3, lines 43-56).
Although the assembly in Chien can be considered as a card tray assembly that receives a card, Chien does not specifically recites a card tray.
In related art concerning a card connector with take-out function, Ryo explicitly discloses a card tray assembly (Figs. 1-6, housing 2 more explicitly discloses a “card tray 1”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Ryo’s teachings of a card tray “assembly” with the card connector disclosed by Chien because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that card trays, specifically ejectable card trays facilitate the safe handling of card insertion and removal while providing protection and decreasing stress on the internal components of an electronic device/apparatus.
Regarding claim 10, Chien discloses an electronic device (Col. 1, line 6, “card connector” is an electronic device), comprising a housing (“housing 20”) and a [card tray] assembly (Figs. 1-2 and 4), wherein the housing is provided with a card tray hole (Figs. 2 and 4, Please see the opening for inserting “card 8”), the card tray assembly is disposed at the card tray hole (Fig. 1), wherein the card tray assembly comprises:
a positioning cylinder (Fig. 1, “driven sleeve 42”), wherein the positioning cylinder is provided with a first fitting slot (“first embedding groove 411”), a second fitting slot (“second embedding groove 421”), and a first guide slope (“first continuous chute 401” reads on first guide slope), and an inner surface of the first fitting slot is connected to an inner surface of the second fitting slot via the first guide slope (Col. 3, lines 4-20 and Fig. 1, “driven sleeve 42”);
a [card tray], wherein the card tray is provided with an action portion (Col. 3, lines 24-28 and Fig. 1, “L-shaped link arm 402”); and
a telescopic assembly, wherein the telescopic assembly comprises a telescopic positioning member (Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41”) and an elastic member (Figs. 1, “resilient element 44”), the telescopic positioning member is movably disposed at the positioning cylinder (Figs. 1 and 6-7, “driven shaft 41” is movably disposed at the “driven sleeve 42”), the telescopic positioning member is at least partially located in the positioning cylinder (Fig. 6), the telescopic positioning member is provided with a positioning protrusion (“driven shaft 41” having protruding portions shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 6-7), one end of the elastic member is connected to the telescopic positioning member (Col. 2, lines 60-67 and Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41” connected to “resilient element 44”), and the other end of the elastic member is a fixed end (Fig. 4, opposite end of “resilient element 44” towards the edge of shell 5; Col. 2, lines 60-67 and Col. 3, lines 1-3; Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41”, “resilient element 44” and Figs. 6-7); wherein
under fitting between the positioning protrusion and the first guide slope, the action portion and the elastic member drive the telescopic positioning member to rotate between a first position and a second position, wherein in a case that the telescopic positioning member is at the first position, the positioning protrusion fits with the first fitting slot in a limiting manner, and the [card tray] is in an extended state (Fig. 6 and col. 3, lines 43-56); and in a case that the telescopic positioning member is at the second position, the positioning protrusion fits with the second fitting slot in a limiting manner, and the card tray is in a retracted state ((Fig. 7 and col. 3, lines 43-56).
Although the assembly in Chien can be considered as a card tray assembly that receives a card, Chien does not specifically recites a card tray.
Ryo explicitly discloses a card tray assembly (Figs. 1-6, housing 2 more explicitly discloses a “card tray 1”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Ryo’s teachings of a card tray “assembly” with the card connector disclosed by Chien because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that card trays, specifically ejectable card trays facilitate the safe handling of card insertion and removal while providing protection and decreasing stress on the internal components of an electronic device/apparatus.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Chien and Ryo disclose all the limitations of claims 1 and 10, respectively. Chien further discloses wherein the telescopic assembly further comprises a telescopic drive member (Figs. 1 and 3, “driving rod 40”), the telescopic drive member is movably disposed at the positioning cylinder (Figs. 1 and 3, “driven sleeve 42”), the telescopic drive member is at least partially located in the positioning cylinder (Fig. 1, “driving rod 40” is at least partially enveloped by “driven sleeve 42”), the action portion faces an end surface of the telescopic drive member (Figs. 1 and 4, “fixing groove 404” reads on action portion), and the telescopic drive member is provided with a second guide slope (Fig. 1, “first continuous chute 401”); and
under fitting between the positioning protrusion and the first guide slope and between the positioning protrusion and the second guide slope (col. 3, lines 21-42, “driving rod 40 drives the driven shaft 41 to rotate” where the “driving rod 40” rotatably drives the shaft 41), the action portion (“driven shaft 41”) and the elastic member (“resilient element 44”) drive the telescopic positioning member (Fig. 1, “driven shaft 41”) to rotate between the first position (col. 3, lines 34-38, Fig. 3B) and the second position (col. 3, lines 39-42, Figs. 3C).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20040047134 A1 relates to tray-style flash memory drive.
US 7575452 B2 relates to slider unit card connector.
US 5899763 A relates to data processing medium connector with locking means.
US 6059588 A relates to ejector mechanism for a card connector.
US 6319029 B1 relates to card connector having IC card ejection mechanism.
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/Angelica M. Perez/
Primary Examiner AU 2649