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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1−6 are rejected under 35 USC §103 as being unpatentable over US Patent No. 11,406,192 to Wu in view of US Patent No. 9,629,466 to Griggs, Jr. (“Griggs”) and US Patent No. 12,232,630 to Chen.
Regarding claim 1, Wu teaches a multifunctional sofa dismounting and mounting structure, comprising:
a seat frame (chassis 4),
two slots (first locking slots 5) are symmetrically mounted on both sides of the seat frame (fig. 2),
an insertion block (second locking slots 6) is movably mounted inside the two slots such that the insertion block is slidably fitted with an inner wall of the slot (col. 3 lines 30−39),
an inner armrest (rightmost portion of armrest in fig. 6 having second locking slots 6) is fixedly mounted on a side of the insertion block away from the slot (cf. figs. 2 and 6).
One of ordinary skill in the art would interpret the chair of Wu as being a recliner having a movable footplate (see annotated figures 1 and 2 below, with footplate inside dotted-line box, which one of ordinary skill in the art would interpret as rotating about the annotated dot-dash line).
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Alternatively, Griggs teaches a recliner having a foot plate (footrest 18 on scissor mechanisms) is movably mounted inside the seat frame 20 by slotting (figs. 6 and 20). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Wu to have a reclining footrest as taught by Griggs so that the user can relax and elevate their legs after a long day.
Wu teaches an outer armrest frame 32 threadedly connected to the inner armrest frame 32 by a plurality of steel pipes (col. 3 line 48 to col. 4 line 4; where seven steel pipes are shown connecting frames 32 in fig. 6). By contrast, Chen teaches an outer armrest frame 2 attached to an inner armrest frame 1, such that the outer armrest 2 is movably mounted on a side of the inner armrest 1 away from the insertion block, and a telescopic structure (by extendable and retractable assembly 3) is provided between the inner armrest and the outer armrest. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to replace the armrests of Wu with the armrests of Chen, because the armrests of Wu require a user to connect at least seven steel pipes with 14 fasteners in order to fix the outer and inner armrests in a fully deployed configuration, whereas the armrests of Chen merely require the user to expand the telescopic structure, which is a much simpler assembly procedure.
Regarding claim 2, Wu as modified teaches that a back frame 11 is fixedly mounted on a side of a top end of the seat frame away from the foot plate (Wu fig. 2),
two connecting blocks 5 are fixedly mounted on an outside of the back frame,
the two connecting blocks are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the back frame (Wu fig. 2),
a back ear (Wu 12, 13) is movably mounted on both sides of the back frame,
a connecting groove 6 is provided on a side of the back ear close to the back frame,
the back ear is arranged corresponding to the connecting block, and
the connecting block is slidably fitted with an inner wall of the connecting groove (fig. 1).
Regarding claim 3, Wu as modified teaches that the telescopic structure comprises a first two-part connecting bar (rightmost 7 and 8 in Chen fig. 10) and a second connecting bar (leftmost 7 and 8 in fig. 10). Although Chen teaches these as two-part bars, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to make each bar 7 and 8 as an integral one-part bar in order to give the armrest greater torsional rigidity and strength.
Additionally, Wu as modified teaches a first sliding groove (rightmost 9 in Chen fig. 10), a second sliding groove (leftmost 9 in fig. 10), a first sliding bar 6, a second sliding bar 6 and a tension spring 20; and
the first connecting bar is fixedly mounted on a side of the inner armrest,
the second connecting bar is fixedly mounted on a side of the outer armrest, and
the first connecting bar is arranged corresponding to the second connecting bar (Chen fig. 10).
Regarding claim 4, Wu as modified teaches that the first sliding groove is provided inside the first connecting bar,
the second sliding groove is provided inside the second connecting bar,
the first sliding groove is arranged corresponding to the second sliding groove (Chen fig. 10),
the first sliding bar is movable mounted on an end of the first connecting bar away from the first sliding groove by a bearing, and
the second sliding bar is movably mounted on an end of the second connecting bar away from the second sliding groove by a bearing (i.e. the parts are hinged together, where one of ordinary skill in the art would understand this structure as being a bearing; see Chen col. 6 lines 25−29).
Regarding claim 5, Wu as modified teaches that an end of the first sliding bar away from the first connecting bar is movably mounted inside the second sliding groove (with guide pin 10 of sliding bar),
the first connecting bar is slidably fitted with an inner wall of the second sliding groove (fig. 10),
an end of the second sliding bar away from the second connecting bar is movably mounted inside the first sliding groove, and
the second connecting bar is slidably fitted with an inner wall of the first sliding groove (Chen fig. 10).
Regarding claim 6, Wu as modified teaches that the tension spring is fixedly connected between the second connecting bar and the first sliding bar (at locations 21 in Chen fig. 10), and
totally four sets of telescopic structures are arranged in pairwise symmetry between the inner armrest and the outer armrest respectively located on both sides (where Chen fig. 2 shows two sets of telescopic structures for one armrest, where the other armrest would possess the other two sets of the four sets of telescopic structures.
Conclusion
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/M.B.K./Examiner, Art Unit 3642 /JOSHUA J MICHENER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3642