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 § 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) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Ichikawa (JP 2012154377 A).
Regarding claim 8, Ichikawa discloses a vehicle driveshaft cap (the vehicle driveshaft aspect is merely nomenclature or intended use since the body of the claim does not require a driveshaft per se; fig.6, cap 2 reads on this) comprising:
a conical shaped main body (fig.6, at least the portion with corrugation defines a main body 12 and is conical in shape) defining an internal space of the cap (seen in fig.6);
a first end that is closed (fig.6, end 10a);
a second end (fig.6, 11a) that includes an opening that leads to the internal space (seen in fig.6), the second end being a driveshaft receiving end (this is considered an intended use of simply defining what the end is capable of doing; this doesn’t actually positively require a driveshaft); and
a corrugated portion (fig.6, 12) that is compressible so that the cap moves between a non-compressed state and a compressed state (the portion is capable of both a compressed and non-compressed state).
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) 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ichikawa (JP 2012154377 A) in view of Steffan (USP 6854616).
Regarding claim 9, Ichikawa fails to disclose a plurality of perforations disposed at a midline of the cap to separate the cap into a first piece and a second piece as the cap compresses.
Steffan teaches, within the same field of protective caps, the concept or technique or structure of providing a plurality of perforations (fig.1, 108) disposed at a midline of the cap (the perforations and section 109 is at a midline of the cap) to separate the cap into a first piece and a second piece (the pieces could be defined in many ways, such as 101 and 109 or either side of 101 that engages 109).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the cap disclosed in Ichikawa to include the use of a midline section or strip having perforations as is done in Ichikawa with section 109 and tab 111, in order to provide the predictable result of facilitating the quick removal of the cap when needed. As understood by a person of ordinary skill, the combination would be capable of providing the separating during compression.
Regarding claim 10, the combination discloses a user operations tab (as taught by Steffan, tab 110 would read on this) provided on the main body at both the first and second pieces (evident based on the teaching, since the pieces could be defined arbitrarily).
Regarding claim 11, Ichikawa is silent to the cap being a one piece molded plastic member but does mention the cap could be made of resin.
Steffan also teaches the concept of making the cap out of an injection molded plastic thus reading on a one piece molded plastic member.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have made the cap in Ichikawa to be a one piece molded plastic member, as taught/suggested by Steffan in order to provide the predictable result of making the cap less complicated to manufacture and thus cheaper.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7, and 12-13 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art taken as a whole neither discloses nor renders obvious the claimed combination comprising the litany of structure and/or structural/functional limitations as disclosed in claims 1-7 , 12-13. While various references exist for various features of these claims, the precise combination of features provided by these claims raises them to the status of being Allowable. As such, any deviation from this scope would affect allowability. Further reasons will be provided upon a Notice of Allowance.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Contains other examples of caps and sealing covers.
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/THOMAS C DIAZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617