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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
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.
Claims 1 and 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato et al. (JP 2016180448 A) in view of Liu et al. (US 2023/0114407 A1).
RE claim 1, Sato teaches a drive device A (Fig.1), comprising: a first electric motor 1L that drives a left wheel 42 (Fig.5) of a vehicle B; a second electric motor 1R that drives a right wheel 42 of the vehicle B; an oil reservoir 22 (22L, 22R), a partition wall 21 that is provided on a bottom face of the oil reservoir 22 and that sections the oil reservoir into a left oil reservoir 22R and a right oil reservoir 22R; wherein a through hole 64 that extends from the left oil reservoir to the right oil reservoir is provided in the partition wall 21, and a blocking unit 65 for blocking the through hole 64 when acceleration is applied to the vehicle B in a lateral direction (see translation page 3 for communication port 61 in partition wall 21 is closed when vehicle is turning), is provided
Sato does not teach a first oil pump for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the left oil reservoir and supplies sucked oil to the first electric motor; a second oil pump for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the right oil reservoir and supplies sucked oil to the second electric motor.
Liu teaches a first oil pump (oil pump 1) for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the left oil reservoir (oil pan) and supplies sucked oil to the first electric motor 4; a second oil pump (oil pump 2) for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the right oil reservoir (oil pan) and supplies sucked oil to the second electric motor 08 (Fig.1). therefore, a system has functions of cooling and lubricating the stator, the rotor, and the speed reducers on both sides, and it is ensured that temperature of the dual-drive motor and temperature of the speed reducer are maintained in a normal range, so that good performance of the assembly is ensured (¶ 7). In this way, it is ensured that the vehicle can run. Because the power assembly simplifies an oil path in a housing, a good lubrication effect is implemented, and running performance of the vehicle is improved (¶ 18).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sato by having a first oil pump for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the left oil reservoir and supplies sucked oil to the first electric motor; a second oil pump for sucking oil from an intake port that opens at a bottom face of the right oil reservoir and supplies sucked oil to the second electric motor, as taught by Liu, for the same reasons as discussed above.
RE claim 3/1, Sato in view of Liu has been discussed above. Sato further teaches the blocking unit 65 blocks the through hole 64 when acceleration is applied to the vehicle B in both the lateral direction and a front-rear direction (turning, see translation page 3 5-7th ¶).
RE claim 4/1, Sato in view of Liu has been discussed above. Sato further teaches the partition wall 21 is disposed at a middle of the oil reservoir 22 in the lateral direction (Fig.1).
RE claim 5/1, Sato in view of Liu has been discussed above. Sato further teaches the partition wall 21 extends along a front-rear direction of the vehicle B (Figs.1, 3, 5).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato in view of Liu as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Nakata et al. (US 2023/0137429 A1).
RE claim 2/1, Sato in view of Liu has been discussed above. Sato further teaches a first gear (23a, 24a, 25a) transmits a driving force of the first electric motor 1L to the left wheel 42; and a second gear (23a, 24a, 25a) that transmits a driving force of the second electric motor 1R to the right wheel 42.
Sato does not teach the first/second gear are immersed in oil.
Nakata suggests that immersing gear in the oils so that it is not always necessary to feed the fluid to the ring gear and the third gear meshing with the ring gear. When the fluid is fed to the first gear or the second gear as in the present embodiment, lubrication of all the gears of the transmission mechanism can be maintained, and the operation of the transmission mechanism can be performed smoothly (¶ 136).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sato in view of Liu by having the first/second gear are immersed in oil, as suggested by Nakata, for the same reasons as discussed above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-5532. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-6PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Seye Iwarere can be reached at (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS TRUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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