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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Examiner’s Comments
The below non-final office action is in response to the notice of withdrawal from issue mailed 4/8/2026. The pending claims are those made of record by the authorized Examiner Amendment mailed 2/27/2026, i.e. claims 1-3, 5-15, 17-21 are pending; wherein the Examiner Amendment combined 14 + 16 and cancelled previously pending claim 16.
Applicant’s amendment has remedied all matters pertaining to indefiniteness in the previous office action and the rejections made under the second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 in the previous office action are hereby withdrawn.
The Examiner notes that the office action below may reference support found in the cited prior art by indicating element numbers, figures or by pointing out a specific paragraph (PAR) number in which support can be found. The PAR number referenced corresponds to paragraph number beginning in the "Detailed Description" of the disclosure unless otherwise noted.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5-6, 9, 18, 21, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 4,042,157 to Weiler.
With regard to claim 1, Weiler discloses a vehicle closure member system, comprising: a swing gate (12); a hinge assembly mounted to the swing gate (upper and lower 18/20); an accessory receiver bracket assembly (46) positioned to at least partially surround the hinge assembly; and the accessory receiver bracket assembly including a first receiver bracket section(44), a second receiver bracket section(48), and a fastener (nut 58) that secures the first receiver bracket section and the second receiver bracket section together.
With regard to claim 2, wherein the first receiver bracket section (44) is arranged at an upper section (top of upper hinge assembly - see fig. 3) of the hinge assembly, and the second receiver bracket section (48) is arranged at a lower section (bottom of upper hinge assembly - see fig. 3) of the hinge assembly.
With regard to claim 3, wherein the upper section and the lower section (top and bottom of 20) are part of a hinge bracket of the hinge assembly, and further wherein the hinge bracket is mounted to the swing gate (12) of the vehicle closure member system.
With regard to claim 5, wherein the first receiver bracket section (44) and the second receiver bracket section (48) each include a body portion (52 of 44 - first bracket section; threaded shaft of 48 -second bracket section) and a hook portion (56 of 44 - first bracket section; 60 of 48 - second bracket section). (See fig. 3)
With regard to claim 6, Weiler discloses the vehicle closure member system as recited in claim 5, wherein the hook portion (56) of the first receiver bracket section (44) is configured to hook onto a hinge bracket of the hinge assembly. (See fig. 3)
With regard to claim 9, Weiler discloses the vehicle closure member system as recited in claim 6, wherein the hook portion (56) of the first receiver bracket section (44) is received within a recess of an interior surface of the hinge bracket. (See fig. 3)
With regard to claim 21, wherein the hinge assembly (18, 20) includes a body-side hinge bracket (18) and a door-side hinge bracket (20) that is pivotably connected to the body-side hinge bracket.
With regard to claim 18 a vehicle closure member system, comprising: a closure member (12); a first hinge assembly (upper 18/20 of fig. 1, 3) mounted to the closure member (12); a second hinge assembly (lower 18/20 of fig. 1, 3) mounted to the closure member; a first accessory receiver bracket assembly (upper 46) removably mountable to the first hinge assembly; a second accessory receiver bracket assembly (lower 46) removably mountable to the second hinge assembly; and an accessory (30) mounted to each of the first accessory receiver bracket assembly and the second accessory receiver bracket assembly.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-13, are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but appear to be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 14-15, 17, 19-20, are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to attachment (PTO-892) for notice of references cited and recommended for consideration based on their disclosure of limitations of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brian Nash whose telephone number is 571-272-4465. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan Newhouse can be reached at 571-272-4544. The official fax number for this Group is: 571-273-8300; Inventor Assistance Center is 800-786-9199.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system; see www.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/BRIAN D NASH/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3734
9/2/2026
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