DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Claims 8-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/19/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Toshiki, Translation of JP 2020-203441.
Regarding claim 1, Toshiki teaches a wiper unit comprising:
a wiping body (fig. 1, item 31) extending in a band shape (see fig. 1);
a housing (fig. 1, item 40) on which the wiping body is placed and which is provided so as to be movable in a predetermined direction (fig. 1, X direction);
a drive mechanism ([0033]-[0035], drive source, rack 55) that moves the housing in the predetermined direction (see fig. 1); and
a transmission mechanism (see fig. 1, note that there is necessarily a transmission mechanism between pinion 50 and conveying roller 31) that converts a moving force of the housing in the predetermined direction into a moving force for moving the wiping body (see fig. 1).
Regarding claim 2, Toshiki teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein the housing includes a conveying roller (fig. 1, item 31) that conveys the wiping body by rotation, the drive mechanism includes a rack gear (fig. 1, item 55) disposed along the predetermined direction and a pinion gear (fig. 1, item 50) meshing with the rack gear, and the transmission mechanism is capable of transmitting rotation of the pinion gear to the conveying roller (see fig. 1, note that there is necessarily a transmission mechanism between pinion 50 and conveying roller 31).
Regarding claim 4, Toshiki teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein the transmission mechanism transmits rotation to the conveying roller so as to convey the wiping body in one direction (see fig. 1).
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.
Claim(s) 3, 5, 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Toshiki in view of Nakamura et al. (2013/0120496).
Regarding claim 3, Toshiki teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 1. Toshiki does not disclose details of its transmission system, and thus it does not disclose wherein the transmission mechanism includes a relay portion capable of switching between a transmission state in which rotation of the pinion gear is transmitted to the conveying roller and a non-transmission state in which rotation of the pinion gear is not transmitted to the conveying roller. Nakamura teaches this (Nakamura, see figs. 11-18, Note relay portion 70-73 and pinion 85 configured to selectively rotate conveying roller 30). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to add the transmission mechanism disclosed by Nakamura to the device disclosed by Toshiki because doing so would amount to adding a known transmission device to known maintenance shuttle housing to obtain predictable results.
Regarding claim 5, Toshiki in view of Nakamura teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 4, wherein the transmission mechanism includes a planetary gear disposed at a transmission position at which rotation of the pinion gear is transmitted to the conveying roller when the pinion gear rotates in a first direction, and disposed at a non-transmission position at which the planetary gear does not mesh with the pinion gear when the pinion gear rotates in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and the relay portion is the planetary gear (Nakamura, see figs. 11-18, Note planetary gears 71, 72 selectively transmitting driving force).
Regarding claim 6, Toshiki in view of Nakamura teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 5, wherein the housing reciprocates between a standby position and a wiping position where a wiping operation is performed, the first direction is a rotation direction when the housing moves from the wiping position to the standby position, and the second direction is a rotation direction when the housing moves from the standby position to the wiping position (Toshiki, see fig. 1).
Regarding claim 7, Toshiki in view of Nakamura teaches the wiper unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein the rotation of the conveying roller is restricted when the wiping body is fed to a proximal end, and the wiper unit further comprises: a detection mechanism configured to detect that rotation of the conveying roller is restricted (Nakamura, [0093], Note that this claim could mean any number of things. Here, when the detection amount of rotation of the conveying roller is not changing, the conveying roller must be restricted as it is not rotating).
Conclusion
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/ALEJANDRO VALENCIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853