DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on 4.11.24 In view of this communication, claims 1-16 are now pending in this application.
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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Invention I : Claims 1-10,13-14 in the reply filed on 4.29.26 is acknowledged.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Claim Objections
Claims below are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 3 recites “a pair of second terminals” and further down “a second terminal” wherein underlined should be corrected to “the”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The following title is suggested: Actuator with hollow portion having wiring member.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 13-14 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.
Claim 13 recites the limitations “a connection member” , “a wiring member” which is not clear if they are same as “a first connection member” , “a first wiring member” recited in claim 1. In order to further prosecution, examiner is interpreting them to be same. Further claims 13,14 also recite new limitations “a driver substrate”, “a driver-side connecting portion”, “an interface substrate” “an interface-side connecting portion” and it is not clear from claim recitation how these new limitations are structurally related to claim 1.
Claim 14 is rejected due to their dependency on Claim 13.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-2, 9-10, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wei (CN208397619U English translation).
Regarding Claim 1, Wei discloses (Figs 1-2) an actuator [Para 0004] comprising:
a hollow portion (3h); and
a first connection member (20) to which a first wiring member (40) to be inserted (Fig 2) into the hollow portion is connectable [0029],
wherein the first wiring member (40) includes a first wiring (40 has multiple wires) to be inserted into the hollow portion (3h), and a first connected portion (40 end portion that connects to 20) that is provided at one end portion of the first wiring and is connectable (Fig 2) to the first connection member, and
the first connection member (20) is connectable to the first wiring member (40) such that the first wiring extends from the first connected portion obliquely (Fig 2) with respect to an axial direction (AA) and inward (Fig 2) in a radial (R) direction.
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Regarding Claim 2, Wei discloses the actuator according to claim 1. Wei further discloses further comprising: a second connection member (10) to which a second wiring member (30) is connected, wherein the second wiring member includes a second wiring (30 has multiple wires) , and a second connected portion (30 end portion that connects to 10) that is provided at an end portion of the second wiring and connected (Fig 2) to the second connection member , and the second connection member (10) is connectable to the second wiring member (30) such that the second wiring extends from the second connected portion obliquely (Fig 2) with respect to the axial direction (AA) and outward (Fig 2) in the radial (R) direction.
Regarding Claim 9, Wei discloses the actuator according to claim 1. Wei further discloses
wherein the hollow portion (3h) is provided inside a rotary shaft (3).
Regarding Claim 10, Wei discloses the actuator according to claim 9. Wei further discloses
wherein the first wiring member (40) is provided to extend and penetrate the hollow portion (3h) in an axial direction (AA) of the hollow portion.
Regarding Claim 13, Wei discloses the actuator according to claim 1. Wei further discloses
further comprising: a driver substrate (10 is driver circuit) including a driver-side connecting portion (10 portion that connects to 20); and an interface substrate (20 is signal circuit) on which a connection member (20), to which a wiring member (40) is connectable, is mounted, wherein the interface substrate (10) includes an interface-side connecting portion (10 portion connecting to 30 end portion) connected to the driver-side connecting portion (30 end portion).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei in view of Takeuchi (US20120074820A1)
Regarding Claim 14, Wei discloses the actuator according to claim 13 but does not explicitly disclose wherein the driver-side connecting portion and the interface-side connecting portion are connected to each other via a relay wiring member (Para 0004 discloses actuator motor received signals but does not explicitly disclose relay wire)
Takeuchi discloses (Fig 3) a relay wiring member [Para 0058 discloses “The position detecting section 126 is connected to the rotation control circuit 127 via a signal line”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have formed actuator of Wei with relay member between drive circuit and interface in order to control the actuator based on sensor signal such as position sensor in order to accurately position actuator.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8 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:
Claim 3 recites “ The actuator according to claim 2, wherein the first connection member includes a pair of first terminals having different polarities, the second connection member includes a pair of second terminals having different polarities, and each of the first terminals of the pair is electrically connected to a second terminal having the same polarity out of the pair of the second terminals”. In Wei, there is no disclosure of the polarity of the terminals as well as the polarity based connection between first and second terminals. Therefore claim 3 is allowable. Claims 4-8 are allowable for their dependency on claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4814. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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/VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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