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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed December 12th, 2025 has been entered. Claims 1-6 remain pending in the application. Claims 1-2 are currently amended. Applicant’s amendments to claims have overcome the objections to claims and the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102 and 35 U.S.C. 103 previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed September 15th, 2025.
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 1-2 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawai (US 4,416,427) in view of Ochiai (US 2008/0290202).
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Figure 1. Annotated Figure 1 from Kawai
Regarding Claim 1, Kawai, Figures 1-5 and annotated Figure 1 above, teaches a spool 29 of a fishing spinning reel, the spool 29 comprising:
a spool body 29’ comprising an insertion hole 30’ through which a spool shaft 30 is inserted;
a thread 31’ inside the spool body 29’ and concentric with the insertion hole 30’ as viewed in an axial direction of the insertion hole 30’; and
a sound generator 180 separate from the spool body 29’,
wherein the sound generator 180 comprises:
an inner peripheral wall 6’’ in which a screwed thread 6’ screwed into the thread 31’ is concentric with the insertion hole 30’;
an outer peripheral wall 18’ disposed at an interval on a radially outer side of the inner peripheral wall 6’’ and in which a ratchet groove 17 for sound generation is concentric with the insertion hole 30’;
a bottom wall 18’’ connecting the inner peripheral wall 6’’ and the outer peripheral wall 18’; and
a recess 180’ surrounded by the inner peripheral wall 6’’, the outer peripheral wall 18’, and the bottom wall 18’’.
Kawai teaches all the elements of the fishing spinning reel except for the bottom wall being continuous with the inner peripheral wall and the outer peripheral wall.
However, Ochiai, Figures 1-6, teaches a bottom wall 9b connecting and continuous with the inner peripheral wall 9c and the outer peripheral wall 9a.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide Kawai with a sound generator having connecting and continuous walls, as taught by Ochiai, for the purpose of preventing liquid from entering into the interior of the spool (See Ochiai, Para. 0010, Ln. 2-3, Para. 0017, Ln. 1-10, Para. 0077, Ln. 7-10).
Regarding Claim 2, Kawai in view of Ochiai are advanced above.
Kawai further teaches wherein the spool body 29’ comprises a bearing 7 that supports the spool shaft 30, and
the bearing 7, the sound generator 180, and an outer diameter portion of the spool body 29’ are disposed in order from a central axis of the insertion hole 30’ toward a radially outer side 29’’ of the spool 29.
Regarding Claim 5, Kawai in view of Ochiai are advanced above.
Kawai further teaches wherein the sound generator 180 is detachable from the spool body 29’ by screwing the screwed thread 6’ with respect to the thread 31’ (the sound generator 180 is located around the bearing 7 and the bearing 7 is held in place by screwing 31’ and 6’ together; See Kawai, Col. 3, Ln. 47-48).
Regarding Claim 6, Kawai in view of Ochiai are advanced above.
Kawai further teaches wherein the thread 31’ is a male thread, and the screwed thread 6’ is a female thread (See Figure 1 above).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawai (US 4,416,427) in view of Ochiai (US 2008/0290202), as applied to claims 1-2 and 5-6 above, and further in view of Ikuta (US 7,878,438).
Regarding Claim 3, Kawai in view of Ochiai are advanced above.
Kawai in view of Ochiai teach all the elements of the spool except for the sound generator being formed of resin.
However, Ikuta, Figures 1-15, teaches wherein the sound generator 8 is formed of resin (See Ikuta, Col. 7, Ln. 23-27, Col. 8, Ln. 47-50).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide Kawai with a sound generator formed of resin, as taught by Ikuta, for the purpose of cost reduction (See Ikuta, Col. 3, Ln. 49-51).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawai (US 4,416,427) in view of Ochiai (US 2008/0290202) and Ikuta (US 7,878,438), as applied to claims 1-3 and 5-6 above, and further in view of Sabtu (US 2014/0263791).
Regarding Claim 4, Kawai in view of Ochiai and Ikuta are advanced above.
Kawai in view of Ikuta teach all the elements of the spool except for the resin being a fiber-reinforced resin containing fibers.
However, Sabtu, teaches wherein the resin is a fiber-reinforced resin containing fibers (glass fiber reinforced polyamide resin; See Sabtu, Para. 0050, Ln. 3-6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide Kawai in view of Ikuta with a fiber-reinforced resin, as taught by Sabtu, for the purpose of increasing stiffness of the resin (See Sabtu, Para. 0050, Ln. 3-6).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see Pg. 4-5, filed December 12th, 2025, have been fully considered.
Regarding the objections to the Claims, Applicant has submitted acceptable amendments. Therefore, the objections have been withdrawn.
Regarding the rejection of Claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 102, Applicant has amended the claim. The amendments are sufficient to overcome the previously set forth rejection. Therefore, this rejection has been withdrawn. However, a new ground of rejection has been set forth under 35 U.S.C. 103 based on the amended claim.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Kawai in view of Ochiai are utilized in the current rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 (See Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 above).
Regarding the rejections of Claims 2-6, the claims are dependents of rejected claim 1 and Applicant has provided no additional arguments. Therefore, these claims are also rejected based on the new ground of rejection presented above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) 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.
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/T.D.J./Examiner, Art Unit 3654
/ANNA M MOMPER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3619