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.
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, US 10096989 [Lee] in view of Liu et al, CN 112017881 [Liu].
Regarding claim 11, Lee discloses (fig.5) a switching device comprising:
a first contact (13):
a second contact (2) provided in parallel with the first contact (13);
a discharge switch (20) provided in parallel with the second contact (2) and energized only when discharge occurs; and
a fault detection circuit (control unit) [col.3, lines 37-39] to perform an operation of opening the first contact (13) when a fault is detected, where
the discharge switch (20) has a function of increasing resistance (21), and
the second contact (2) is opened when energized. and discharge that occurs when the second contact (2) is opened is driven to the discharge switch (20), whereby a current-carrying path is switched from the second contact (13) to a circuit having the discharge switch (20).
Lee fails to disclose wherein the first contact has a plurality of contact points, and the first contact has more contact points than the second contact.
Liu discloses (figs.5-7) a moving contact assembly (4) where a first contact (45, 46) has a plurality of contact points (43), and the first contact (45, 46) has more contact points (43) than a second contact (42).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the contact assembly of Lee with the teaching of the contact assembly of Liu, thereby providing upper and lower rows of contact groups; contact group closer to the arc-extinguishing chamber serves as the arc-initiating contact, while the other group of contacts serves as the current-carrying contacts, protecting the current-carrying contacts from arc erosion.
Regarding claim 12,Liu further discloses where the plurality of contact points (43) of the first contact (45, 46) are provided in parallel.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 1, the prior art fails to teach or show, alone or in combination, the claimed switching device, further comprising: a current-limiting resistor provided in parallel with the first contact and the second contact; and an opening operation circuit connected in series with the current-limiting resistor for maintaining opening of the second contact while the second contact is energized after being opened.
The prior art, either alone or in combination cannot reasonably be construed as adequately teaching the above limitations in combination with the remaining claim elements.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Takeda, Zhang et al, Creusot et al, Harinouchi et al, Merz et al, Pessina et al, Morgan et al and Chen et al are examples of switching devices configured similar to the present invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM A BOLTON whose telephone number is (571)270-5887. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 7:30AM - 5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee S Luebke can be reached at 571-272-2009. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM A BOLTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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