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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Japanese patent document 18,676,715 (hence ‘715), as provided by applicant.
In re claim 1, ‘715 teaches an electric work vehicle, comprising: a body (par. 2-3); a travel device to cause the body to travel (par. 25-35m “traveling body”); an operation mechanism to transmit power to a work device (par. 27-35, “traveling body”); a motor to rotate at least one of the travel device and the operation mechanism (motor 13 and 31); a battery to supply electric power to the motor (par. 1-5, “energy storage device”); an inverter to convert a direct current from the battery into an alternating current and supply the alternating current to the motor (“inverter”, 42); and an electrically-conductive cable electrically connected to the inverter and the motor to provide the alternating current to the motor (par. 55-65, “assist power generation motor cable” 46); the inverter including: an inverter module to convert the direct current into the alternating current (that’s what inverters do); a case to house the inverter module (par. 28-35, “inverter housing unit 34”); and a first connector projecting outwardly from a surface of the case and electrically connected to the electrically-conductive cable (par. 28-35, “assist power generation motor cable”, 46); the first connector being provided on the surface of the case that is on an opposite side to a side where the battery is located, so as to project toward the opposite side (fig. 3).
‘715 differs in that it doesn’t teach the battery and the inverter being adjacent to each other. Nonetheless, the examiner takes the position that placing them adjacent to each other would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention as an obvious matter of design choice.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EREZ GURARI whose telephone number is (571)270-1156. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00AM-6:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Marc Jimenez can be reached at (571) 272-4530. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/EREZ GURARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3615
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