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 CORRESPONDENCE
This is the first Office Action on the merits of Application 18/701,880 filed on 10/16/24. Claims 1-10 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 4/16/24, 1/27/25 & 4/17/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1 & 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JPH01-62137U to Haruki (applicant cited reference).
Claim 1
Haruki discloses in Figs 1-3,
A vehicle, comprising: a seat (e.g. 1) on which an occupant is seated; a rail (e.g. 7) for sliding the seat; a first floor (e.g. 4) in which a plurality of protrusion portions (e.g. 10) protruding upward are formed; and a second floor (e.g. 2) provided above the first floor, wherein the rail is disposed below the second floor and across the plurality of protrusion portions of the first floor (see Fig. 2), and the seat is disposed above the second floor and is slidably connected to the rail.
Claim 2
The vehicle according to 1, wherein each of the plurality of protrusion portions extends in a vehicle width direction, and the plurality of protrusion portions are arranged in a vehicle front to rear direction (Fig 1 shows 10 extending perpendicular to the rails 7 and would be consistent with additional vehicle seats not shown).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JPH01-62137U to Haruki (applicant cited reference) in view of U.S. Patent 11,407,448 to Choi et al.
Claim 3
Haruki discloses a vehicle with a seat with a rail for sliding, a first floor with a plurality of protrusions, a second floor above the first and the rail being disposed under the second floor. Haruki however does not explicitly disclose that a plurality of seats are provided and two or more of the seats are disposed on the rail in a front to rear direction of the vehicle. Choi shows multiple seats (e.g. 8) and rails (e.g. 12/15) disposed in the front to rear direction (Fig. 1). Therefore it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the claims were effectively filed to include multiple seats on rails disposed in the front to rear direction, as taught by Choi, and modify the vehicle of Haruki for the benefit of securing multiple seats to transport multiple occupants.
Claim 4
The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the rail is disposed across three or more protrusion portions (see Choi, Fig 9, the multiple protrusions 45).
Claim 5
The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising: a rail support member (e.g. 12) that is disposed between the plurality of protrusion portions and supports the rail from below (see Choi Fig 3).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-10 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 HUAN LE whose telephone number is (571)270-3122. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jacob Scott can be reached on 571-270-3415. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HUAN LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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