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 .
Detailed Action
Claim Rejection - 35 U.S.C. 112(b)
1. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
2. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
(1) In claim 8, line 5, “a first contact surface” is vague. The phrase should read --a first contact surface of the upper housing part--.
Claim Rejection - 35 U.S.C. 103
1. 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.
2. Claims 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanimoto et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0104983, hereinafter “Tanimoto”) in view of Lauciello et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0170565, hereinafter “Lauciello”) and DE 10 2009 012 177.
Regarding claim 1, Tanimoto discloses a handheld work apparatus (1) comprising:
a housing (51);
a drive motor (52,53,54) arranged in the housing (51), wherein the drive motor (52,53,54) is an electric motor and has a stator (54) connected to the housing (51) and a rotor (53), and wherein a rotor shaft (52) of the rotor (53) is mounted relative to the housing (51) by a first bearing (57) and a second bearing (58) so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation (A, see Fig.2 as annotated below), and wherein the rotor shaft (52) extends in a direction of the axis of rotation (A) from an upper housing part (U, see the annotated Fig.2) of the housing (51) into a lower housing part (L) of the housing (51), and wherein the first bearing (57) is held by the upper housing part (U), and wherein the second bearing (58) is held by the lower housing part (L) substantially as claimed except Tanimoto’s housing (51) is not formed of two pieces comprising an upper housing part and a lower housing part.
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Lauciello shows a handheld work apparatus (100) comprising a housing (195) that can be formed of two housing parts (see paragraph [0101], lines 1-2) joined together by screws (see paragraph [0010], lines 4-5) and each having a receptacle for fastening a tube (110) to the housing (195, see Fig.3), and DE ‘177 shows a handheld work apparatus (1) comprising a housing (2) formed of an upper housing part (4) and a lower housing part (3).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify Tanimoto by having the housing (51) formed of two pieces comprising an upper housing part and a lower housing part in light of Lauciello and DE ‘177, since the collective teachings of Lauciello and DE ‘177 would have suggested and, thereby, rendered obvious to have Tanimoto’s housing formed of two pieces, namely an upper housing part and a lower housing part,7 to allow access to the drive motor.
Regarding claim 2, Tanimoto as modified has the upper housing part and the lower housing part having a separating plane running transversely to the axis of rotation (A) in a region of the stator (54).
Regarding claim 4, Tanimoto as modified has the upper housing part and/or the lower housing part of the housing (51) made of plastic (taught by Lauciello, see paragraph [0100], lines 1-3).
Regarding claim 6, Tanimoto as modified has the upper housing part and the lower housing part centered relative to one another via the stator (53).
Regarding claim 7, Tanimoto as modified has the stator (54) having a centering section (e.g., the outer periphery thereof) on its circumference (see Fig.2), and wherein the stator (54) directly contacts the lower housing part and/or the upper housing part via the centering section.
Regarding claim 9, to further modify Tanimoto by using a well-known and commercially available connecting means such as a screw for fastening the stator (54) to the lower housing part would have been obvious to one skilled in the art.
Regarding claim 10, Tanimoto as modified has the receptacle for fastening the tube (30) formed from the upper housing part and the lower housing part.
3. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanimoto et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0104983, hereinafter “Tanimoto”) in view of Lauciello et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0170565, hereinafter “Lauciello”) and DE 10 2009 012 177 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hurley (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0131815).
Regarding claim 3, Tanimoto’s handheld work apparatus (1) as modified shows all the claimed limitations except it does not explicitly mention the first bearing (57) and/or the second bearing (58) being pressed into the upper housing part or into the lower housing part, respectively.
Hurley shows a bearing (76, see Fig.5) is pressed into a housing (32, e.g., via a bore 88 in the housing 32, see paragraph [0030], lines 3-6).
Therefore, to further modify Tanimoto by mounting Tanimoto’s upper bearing (57) and lower bearing (58) to the upper housing part and the lower housing part, respectively, by Hurley’s pressing fitting method would have been obvious to one skilled in the art.
4. Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanimoto et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0104983, hereinafter “Tanimoto”) in view of Lauciello et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0170565, hereinafter “Lauciello”) and DE 10 2009 012 177 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of the Admitted Prior Art (APA) of Kehr et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0147217, hereinafter “Kehr”).
Regarding claim 5, Tanimoto’s handheld work apparatus (1) as modified above shows all the claimed structure except it fails to mention the stator (54) being pressed into the upper housing part or into the lower housing part.
Kehr’s APA shows it is notoriously old and well known in the art to mount a stator to a housing by having the stator pressed into the housing (see paragraph [0005], lines 1-2) or alternatively, the stator can be screwed into the housing (see paragraph [0005], lines 3-4).
Thus, to further modify Tanimoto by having the stator (54) mounted to the housing by pressing fitting as taught by Kehr’s APA would have been obvious to one skilled in the art.
Indication of Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 8 contains allowable subject matter. The most relevant prior art of record is U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0104983 to Tanimoto et al. (note the above rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103). However, the ‘983 reference fails to show the claimed centering section (17, see Fig.4 of this instant application) of the stator (6) having a length (a) measured in the direction of the axis of rotation (9) of the rotor (7), wherein the upper housing part (3) contacts the stator (6) on the centering section (17) via a first contact surface (26), wherein the upper housing part (3) overlaps the centering section (17) of the stator (6) with its first contact surface (26) in the direction of the axis of rotation (9) of the rotor in a first overlap section (14), and wherein a length (b) of the first overlap section (14) measured in the direction of the axis of rotation (9) corresponds to at least 20% of the length (a) of the stator (6).
Prior Art Citation
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0424897 shows a stator (10, see Fig.4) pressed into a housing (21, see paragraph [0061], lines 3-4).
Point of Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HWEI-SIU PAYER whose telephone number is (571)272-4511. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
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/HWEI-SIU C PAYER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3724
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