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 1-5, 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aujla (US 6,860,766), in view of Zheng (US 2005/0059270).
Regarding claim 1: Aujla a spring elastic-piece electrically-conductive structure (Fig. 7), comprising: a metal elastic piece 111, wherein one end of the metal elastic piece is bent relative to another end (see Fig. 10) of the metal elastic piece 111 to form an accommodation space having an opening (at 152; see Fig. 10).
Aujla does not explicitly teach a spring arranged inside the accommodation space, wherein two ends of the spring are connected to the metal elastic piece to support the opening.
Zheng teaches a spring 3 arranged inside an accommodation space 22 (see Fig. 1), wherein two ends of the spring are connected to a metal elastic piece 2 to support the opening (see Fig. 1 and Para. 0018-0019).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be able to modify the invention with a spring arranged inside the accommodation space, wherein two ends of the spring are connected to the metal elastic piece to support the opening as taught by Zheng into the spring elastic-piece electrically-conductive structure of Aujla in order to achieve the advantage of providing a biasing force to keep the contact in a position for mechanical and electrical contact with a mating connector.
Regarding claim 2: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and Aujla further teaches wherein the metal elastic piece 111 comprises: a first metal elastic piece 140; a second metal elastic piece 142, wherein one end of the second metal elastic piece is connected to the first metal elastic piece 140 (see Fig. 7), and is inclined relative to the first metal elastic piece (see Fig. 10); and a third metal elastic piece 144, wherein one end of the third metal elastic piece is connected to one end of the second metal elastic piece 142 away from the first metal elastic piece 140 (see Figs. 7 and 10), another end of the third metal elastic piece 144 is inclined relative to both the second metal elastic piece 142 and the first metal elastic piece 140 (see Fig. 10), and the opening (at 152; Fig. 10) is formed between the another end of the third metal elastic piece 144 and the first metal elastic piece 140 (see Fig. 10); the third metal elastic piece 144, the second metal elastic piece 142, and the first metal elastic piece 140 are enclosed to form the accommodation space (see Fig. 10); and the first metal elastic piece, the second metal elastic piece, and the third metal elastic piece are integrally formed (see Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 3: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 2 and Aujla further teaches wherein the first metal elastic piece 140 is a sector metal elastic piece (Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 4: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 3 and further teaches wherein a center of a circle of the sector metal elastic piece (at 140; Fig. 7 of Aujla) is located at a central axis of the spring to coincide (e.g. the spring 3 taught by Zheng would be located in an area under the sector metal piece of Aujla).
Regarding claim 5: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 2 and Aujla further teaches wherein an angle between the second metal elastic piece 142 and the first metal elastic piece 140 is an acute angle (see Fig. 10), and an angle between the second metal elastic piece 142 and the third metal elastic piece 144 is an obtuse angle (see Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 8: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 2 and Aujla further teaches wherein the metal elastic piece 111 further comprises: a fourth metal elastic piece (at 222; Fig. 10), wherein one end of the fourth metal elastic piece is connected to the third metal elastic piece 144, and another end of the fourth metal elastic piece is inclined toward the opening relative to the third metal elastic piece 144 (see Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 9: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and Aujla further teaches an electrical device 100, wherein the electrical device comprises the spring elastic-piece electrically-conductive structure 111 according to claim 1 (see Figs. 1-2).
Regarding claim 10: Aujla, in view of Zheng, teaches all the limitations of claim 9 and Aujla further teaches wherein the electrical device further comprises: a metal accommodation cylinder configured to accommodate a battery (Fig. 29); a tail cover 502 detachably connected to one end of an axial direction of the metal accommodation cylinder (Fig. 29); wherein the spring elastic-piece electrically-conductive structure 111 is arranged inside the tail cover, and electrically contacts or connects with the metal accommodation cylinder (Fig. 27); a circuit board 505, detachably arranged at another end of the axial direction of the metal accommodation cylinder (see Figs. 27-29), and electrically connected to the metal accommodation cylinder; and a positive-electrode electrically-conductive component 518, arranged on the circuit board (Fig. 27), and arranged opposite to the spring elastic-piece electrically-conductive structure (see Figs. 27-29).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-7 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see PTO-892 for pertinent prior art, the following references being of closest relevance:
Kiryu (US 2015/0038001) teaches a contact having a complex shape comprising multiple metal elastic pieces;
Haans (US 2011/0189902) teaches a contact having a complex shape comprising multiple metal elastic pieces;
Ryu (US 10,498,057) teaches a clip-type contactor having multiple metal elastic pieces and teaches charging a battery;
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OSCAR C JIMENEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-0272. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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/OSCAR C JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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