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 . This Office Action is responsive to the Applicant' s communication filed April 1, 2024. In view of this communication, claims 1-7 are now pending in the application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 1, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 16, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claims 5-7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 5, Line 1: “according to according to” should be “according to”
Claim 6, Line 1: “according to according to” should be “according to”
Claim 7, Line 1: “according to according to” should be “according to”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The term “small sections” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “small sections” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For the purpose of examination, “small sections” is being interpreted as “contact surfaces”.
Claims 2-7 are rejected due to their dependence on claim 1.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jöckel et al. (US 12374968 B2, hereafter referred to as Jöckel).
Regarding Claim 1, Jöckel discloses (see Figures 1-2, and 4-5) an electrical rotating device (1, C6L51) comprising:
a hollow cylindrical stator (2, C6L27-28) provided with a stator core (3, C6L38) and a stator coil (5, C6L33);
a rotor (17, C6L28) provided rotatably inside the stator (2, C6L27-28); a case (9, C7L14) that houses the stator (2, C6L27-28) and the rotor; and
a hollow cylindrical partition wall (11, C7L3) that is made of electrically conductive metal (Abstract: “The can has at least one section of average electrical conductivity in a range from 1 S/m to 10000 S/m in an axial and/or a tangential direction.”) and partitions an interior space of the case (9, C7L14) into an inner space (Annotated Figure 2) with respect to the stator (2, C6L27-28) and an accommodation space (8, C7L5) in which a coil end (4, C6L33-34) of the stator coil (5, C6L33) is accommodated and liquid coolant is circulated (C10L36-40: “In other words: said can 11 (=stator can) is used not only for encapsulating the interior space 8 of the stator 2 in order to separate different cooling media (such as oil and air), but also forms part of an earthing system of a dynamo-electric machine 1.”),
wherein at least a portion of the partition wall (11, C7L3) close to the stator core (3, C6L38) is divided into a plurality of small sections by forming a plurality of slits or contact surfaces (Annotated Figures 4-5).
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Regarding Claim 3/1, Jöckel has been discussed above.
Additionally, Jöckel discloses (see Figure 4) that the portion of the partition wall (11, C7L3) close to the stator core (3, C6L38) is configured of a plurality of annular members (29, C9L10) that are aligned in an axial direction (16, C6L50) of a rotary shaft (15, C6L65) of the rotor (17, C6L28) and made in contact with each other to segment the plurality of small sections in the axial direction (C9L7-17: “In order to achieve a good shielding effect of the can 11 and at the same time to keep the losses of eddy currents low, inhomogeneous conductivity of the conductive layer may be advantageous by, for example, only strips 29 according to FIGS. 4 and 5 being applied. Said strips 29 can be designed so as to be full of gaps at a predeterminable distance 30 in order to minimize the eddy current losses. For a good shielding effect, the strips 29, however, can also be designed so as to overlap. So that the eddy current losses then do not become too great, an insulation layer is provided in between.”).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bode et al. (DE 102009052932 A1) discloses relevant prior art in Figure 1.
Kikuchi et al. (JP 3896882 B2) discloses relevant prior art in Figures 1-15.
Kaneko et al. (US 6933633 B2) discloses relevant prior art in Figures 1, 10, and 23A.
Egami et al. (JP 2003052155 A) discloses relevant prior art in Figures 1-6.
Handa et al. (WO 2012086227 A1) discloses relevant prior art in Figures 1, 5-8, and 12.
Conclusion
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/C.F.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2834
/ALEXANDER A SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834