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DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Amendment
The Applicant originally submitted Claims 1-2 in the application. In the present response, the Applicant amended Claims 1-2. Accordingly, Claims 1-2 are currently pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks filled 04/28/2026, with respect to rejection of Claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further search and consideration, a new grounds of rejection has been set forth below necessitated by Applicant’s amendment to Claims 1-2.
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 of this title, 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 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Uchimi (JP2006042587) in view of Aisenbrey (US 2004/0174651).
For the purpose of citation, Examiner used machine translation of JP2006042587, said translation has been provided herewith to the Applicant.
Regarding Claim 1, Uchimi (In Fig 6) discloses a power-supply box (B) for a vehicle (automobile, ¶ 56, II. 1-2) comprising:
a circuit board (3) on which a part (3a) is mounted, the part (3a) producing heat when a power supply output (battery output) is supplied to the part (3a), (Fig 6);
a housing (1/2) that houses the circuit board (3), (Fig 6);
an input connector (terminal of 9 within insertion hole accommodating 8) to which the power supply output (battery output, ¶ 3, II. 1-5) is input (Fig 6); and
an output connector (4) for outputting electrical power (battery power) to a load (electrical device, ¶ 3, II. 1-5, ¶ 2, II. 1-4),
wherein the part (3a) is a relay (3a, ¶ 8, II. 1-5) for switching electrical connectivity between the input connector (terminal of 9 within insertion hole accommodating 8) and the output connector (4),
wherein the relay (3a) is mounted at the center of the circuit board (3), (Fig 6), and
wherein the input connector (terminal of 9 within insertion hole accommodating 8) and the output connector (4) are mounted on a periphery of the circuit board (3) on an outside from the relay (3a) to be exposed on side faces of the housing (1/2), (Fig 6), however Uchimi does not disclose wherein a heatsink that is thermally contacted with the part on the circuit board to radiate the heat of the part, wherein the heatsink is made of resin and a metal plating layer is formed on a surface of the heatsink.
Instead, Aisenbrey (In Figs 6-8) wherein a heatsink (80) that is thermally contacted with the part (78) on the circuit board (circuit board accommodating pins 104), (Fig 8) to radiate the heat of the part (80), wherein the heatsink (64) is made of resin (¶ 35, II. 1-5) and a metal plating layer (72) is formed on a surface of the heatsink (60), (¶ 50, II. 1-19), (Fig 6).
It would have been obvious to an ordinary skilled person in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Uchimi with Aisenbrey with a heatsink being thermally contacted with the part on the circuit board to radiate the heat of the part, and the heatsink being made of resin and a metal plating layer being formed on a surface of the heatsink to benefit from efficiently removing the heat from the integrated circuit device to maintain high-performance and prevent device failure (Aisenbrey, ¶ 6, II. 1-6).
Regarding Claim 2, Uchimi in view of Aisenbrey discloses the limitations of Claim 1, however Uchimi (In Fig 6) further discloses wherein the power-supply box (B) further comprising a fuse connector (4b/6b) mounted on the periphery of the circuit board (3) on the outside from the relay (3a) to be exposed on the side faces of the housing (1/2), a fuse (5) being attached to the fuse connector (4b/6b), (Fig 6), wherein the circuit board (3) is configured so that the power supply output (battery output, ¶ 3, II. 1-5) input to the input connector (terminal of 9 within insertion hole accommodating 8) is output, through the fuse (5), from the output connector (4) to the load (electrical device, ¶ 3, II. 1-5, ¶ 2, II. 1-4), (Fig 6).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMIR JALALI whose telephone number is (303)297-4308. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm, Mountain Time. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jayprakash Gandhi can be reached on 571-272-3740. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AMIR A JALALI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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