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 § 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claims 1-4, 8-16, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tracey et al., US 2013/0032654 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 14, the method described in these claims would inherently result from the use of invention as shown in figures 1-16. Tracey ‘654 shows a power supply device 10 comprising, an enclosure (14, 16), a device cable spool 40, a device cable 20, a method for adjusting a length of the device cable extending form the power supply device (see paragraph [0056], [0075]-[0077], which can detect a length and can be controlled by a controller 915, claims 8-9, 12), the method comprising a cable property (i.e., many different cable properties as such as, tension, length and current flow, claims 10-11 and 19) of the device cable (i.e., a tension as same as applicant with a threshold, see paragraph [0056], claims 2-4, and 15-16), and based at least in part of the cable property of the device cable 20, actuating a motor 78 in the power supply device 10 to change the length of the device cable 20 extending form the power supply device (see paragraph [0056]) with a processor (see paragraph [0079]-[0084], and a memory storying instructions (see paragraph [0106]); and user actuation of an input component 29 (see paragraph [0057], claim 13), see figures 1-16.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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 5 and 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tracey et al., US 2013/0032654 A1, in view of Ege, U.S. Patent No. 4427033.
As stated above, Tracey ‘654 discloses many different cable properties as such as, tension, length and current flow. Tracey ‘654 does not explicitly show a bending strain in the device cable.
Ege ‘033 discloses the concept of a cable property is a bending strain 4 in the device cable (i.e., using bending strain sensor, not shown, in column 3, lines 5-10, and column 5, liens 50-55).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the apparatus of Tracey ‘654 to include a bending strain suggested by Ege ‘033, in order to help protect the cable during winding and unwinding. Furthermore, since all of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 20 is allowed.
Claims 6-7 and 18 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:
The claims 6-7, 18, and 20 are patentable over the prior art of record because the teachings of the references taken as a whole do not show or render obvious the combination set forth in claim 20, including every structural element and functioning as recited in the claim by the applicant.
None of the references of the prior art teach or suggest the elements of the device as advanced above and such do not provide the necessary motivation, absent applicant's specification, for modifying the device in the manner required by the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANG K KIM whose telephone number is 571-272-6947. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 9 P.M or Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 7 P.M.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Victoria Augustine, can be reached on (313) 446-4858. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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SK
12/21/25
/SANG K KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654