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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the inclusion of the following unclear and inexact term(s): "interlaced", see pp 3 and 9 of the written description. The rotating seat 520 and the control handle 500 are described as each having a rotating shaft, wherein the rotating shafts are “interlaced with each other” such that there is movement “in two interlaced dimensional directions”. The plain meaning of the term “interlaced” describes at least two elements that are crossed intricately together, or interwoven; wherein the elements are structurally capable of being interwoven, i.e. bendable or deformable. The written description fails to explicitly recite a novel meaning for the term “interlaced”; and the drawing figures 2-3 illustrate the vertical shaft of the rotating seat (provided by the mounting seat 510) and the horizontal shaft of the control handle 500 (connecting it to the rotating seat 520) as being distinct elements that are spaced apart from each other. Consequently, the written description does not define the structure and structural cooperative relationship for the rotating seat and control handle with full, clear, concise, and exact terms as required by 37 CFR 1.71 (see MPEP 608.01).
Appropriate correction is required.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: the description mistakenly recites "the two control handles 500" on pg. 9-line 7.
Appropriate correction is required.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following: the reference character “420” has been mistakenly used to designate the "clamping block", on pg. 10 line 30 of the written description.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION. —The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 4 is 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.
Where applicant acts as his or her own lexicographer to specifically define a term of a claim contrary to its ordinary meaning, the written description must clearly redefine the claim term and set forth the uncommon definition so as to put one reasonably skilled in the art on notice that the applicant intended to so redefine that claim term. Process Control Corp. v. HydReclaim Corp., 190 F.3d 1350, 1357, 52 USPQ2d 1029, 1033 (Fed. Cir. 1999). The term “interlaced” in claim 4 is used by the claim to set forth the structural relationship between “the rotating shafts of the rotating seat and the control handle,” while the accepted meaning is “structures configured to be interwoven or crossed intricately together.” The term is indefinite because the specification does not clearly redefine the term.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 7-8 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo (US 2022/0022651).
Claims 1 and 10- Guo discloses a base frame assembly, and a chair (¶ [0002]) comprising the base frame assembly, the base frame assembly comprising:
a frame body;
a lifting connecting structure (11) arranged on the frame body (fig. 2), wherein the lifting connecting structure is used for driving the frame body to lift up or down (¶ [0019, [0027]);
a translation connecting structure (1) arranged on the frame body (figs. 1, 3), wherein the translation connecting structure is used for driving the frame body to move back and forth and/or move left and right (¶ [0019], [0028]);
a backrest connecting structure (10) arranged on the frame body (figs. 2, 4) and used for connecting with a backrest, wherein the backrest connecting structure is used for driving the backrest to rotate relative to the frame body (¶ [0019], [0026]); and
a control handle (2) movably arranged on the frame body (figs. 1-2), wherein the lifting connecting structure (11), the translation connecting structure (1) and the backrest connecting structure (10) are all connected with the control handle (¶ [0019]); and the control handle is movable and/or rotatable in at least three different directions, to respectively drive the lifting connecting structure (¶ [0027]), the translation connecting structure (¶ [0028]), and the backrest connecting structure (¶ [0026]) through different motion trajectories.
Guo explains that the control handle (2) is pulled backward to adjust the backrest recline, pulled upward to adjust the seat lift position, and pulled forward to adjust the seat translation.
Claim 2- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lifting connecting structure (11) comprises a pneumatic rod connecting part (213) arranged on the frame body (figs. 2, 5), the pneumatic rod connecting part is connected with a pneumatic rod component (“head of gas spring”) to drive the frame body to lift up or down (¶ 27); the pneumatic rod connecting part (213) is connected with a pull rope (8), one end of the pull rope is connected with a pneumatic rod (“gas spring”) to control operation of the pneumatic rod, and the other end of the pull rope is connected with the control handle (handle groove 201).
Claim 3- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 2, wherein the frame body (underframe body 3) comprises a hidden rack (206), the control handle (2) is movably connected to the hidden rack; the pull rope (8) extends from the pneumatic rod connecting part (“head of gas spring”) into the hidden rack and is connected with the control handle, and the hidden rack is used for shielding the pull rope to prevent the pull rope from being exposed (figs. 1-2 & 5 show the fixing block 206 is concealed by the frame and coupled to the handle by the pull rope 8).
Claim 4 (as best understood)- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 3, wherein the frame body (underframe body 3) is provided with a mounting seat (handle base 205), a rotating seat (203) is rotatably connected to the mounting seat (Abstract, ¶ 26), the control handle (2) is hinged to an end of the rotating seat (203), and a rotating shaft of the rotating seat (provided by the mounting seat 205) and a rotating shaft (202) of the control handle relative to the rotating seat are perpendicular with each other (figs. 3 & 5 show that the rotating seat shaft provided by base 205 is vertical relative to the rotating seat 203 and the control handle shaft 202 is horizontal relative to the rotating seat 203); and the pull rope (8) passes through the mounting seat (205) and the rotating seat (203) and is connected with the control handle (fig. 5); and the translation connecting structure (1) is connected with the rotating seat (fig. 3, ¶ 28).
Claim 5- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 1, wherein the translation connecting structure (1) comprises a rotating seat (203) connected with the control handle (via handle portion 201), the control handle is able to drive the rotating seat to rotate (¶ 28); the translation connecting structure comprises a cushion connecting part (102) and a sliding block (106), the sliding block is connected with the cushion connecting part (¶ 28); and a side part (204) of the rotating seat is connected with the sliding block and is able to drive the sliding block to slide relative to the frame body.
Claim 7- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 1, wherein the backrest connecting structure (10) comprises a connecting shaft (211), the connecting shaft is used for connecting the backrest and driving the backrest to rotate relative to the frame body (¶ 26); an end of the connecting shaft is connected with a toothed part (210), an engaging block (209) is slidably arranged in the frame body (figs. 2, 4), the engaging block is able to be engaged with the toothed part to prevent the toothed part from rotating, and the engaging block (209) is connected with a pull rope (7) and is connected with the control handle through the pull rope (fig. 4).
Claim 8- Guo discloses the base frame assembly according to claim 7, wherein a driving torsion spring (404) is arranged in the frame body (fig. 2), the driving torsion spring is used for connecting to the backrest and driving the backrest to rotate relative to the frame body (¶ 22, 29); a handle (4) and an elastic force adjusting structure (fig. 6) are arranged in the frame body (fig. 2), and the handle is rotatable to adjust an elastic force applied to the backrest by the driving torsion spring through the elastic force adjusting structure (¶ 29).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 9 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/T.A./Examiner, Art Unit 3636
/DAVID R DUNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3636