DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the application filed on June 5, 2024.
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 Objections
Claims 2 and 6-7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, line 4: "the first side of the mating portion" lacks antecedent basis and should be --a first side of a mating portion--.
Claim 6, line 1: "each terminal" is vague and does not specify whether the claim refers to the first, second, signal or grounding terminal of claim 1. The examiner suggests amending it to read --each first and second terminal--.
Claim 7, line 4: "the second contacting portion is of a convex rib" should be --each second contacting portion is of a convex rib-- because the claim states that there are plural second contacting portions.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 6-7, 10-15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hou, et al. (US-20230387634-A1).
With respect to Claim 1:
Hou discloses an electrical connector comprising:
a longitudinal insulating housing 100 having a base portion 101 and a tongue portion 103 extending forwardly from the base portion 101 (Fig. 1);
a row of first terminals 207 and a row of second terminals 209 located at two opposite sides of the tongue portion 103 respectively (Figs. 5-6; [0181]), each row of the first terminals 207 and the second terminals 209 comprising plural signal terminals 200b and plural grounding terminals 200a (Fig. 5: both rows of first terminals 207 and second terminals 209 comprise signal terminals 200b and grounding terminals 200a); and
a grounding member 300 located between the row of first terminals 207 and the row of second terminals 209 (Fig. 5; [0181]);
wherein the grounding member 300 comprises a main portion 301 and plural first contacting portions 307a protruding from the main portion 301 (Figs. 15-17; [0178]) and contacting with corresponding grounding terminals 200a of the first terminals 207 ([0178]), and the grounding member 300 is embedded in the insulating housing 100 by injection molding ([0151]).
With respect to Claim 6:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 1.
Hou wherein each first 207 and second terminal 209 comprises a flat portion 201 exposed to the tongue portion 103 (Fig. 5) and a tail portion 203 bending from the flat portion 201 and extending downwardly from the base portion 101 (Figs. 2 and 5), the first contacting portion 307a is of a convex rib extending forwardly (Figs. 16-17), and a rear end of the convex rib is near the base portion 101 and a front end of the convex rib is near a front end of the tongue portion 103 (Figs. 10-12).
With respect to Claim 7:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 6.
Hou also discloses wherein the grounding member 300 comprises plural second contacting portions 307b protruding from the main portion 301, the second contacting portions contact with corresponding grounding terminals 200a of the second terminals 209 ([0183]), and each second contacting portion 307b is of a convex rib (Fig. 16), and the grounding member 300 has a plurality of slots 305 at positions corresponding to the signal terminals 200b of the first terminals 207 or the second terminals 209 (Figs. 15-17; [0173]).
With respect to Claim 10:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 1.
Hou also discloses wherein the tongue portion 103 has plural openings 109 at a front end thereof (Fig. 5), and plural strip-connecting portions 201 are exposed to the openings 109 (Fig. 3; [0180]).
With respect to Claim 11:
Hou discloses an electrical connector comprising:
a longitudinal insulating housing 100 comprises a base portion 101 and a tongue portion 103 extending from the base portion 101 (Fig. 1), the tongue portion 103 having a first side (Fig. 1: top side) and a second side (Fig. 1: bottom side) opposite to the first side;
a row of first terminals 207 located on the first side of the tongue portion 103 (Fig. 1) and comprising plural signal terminals 200b and plural grounding terminals 200a (Fig. 5); and
a grounding member 300 retained in the insulating housing 100 (Fig. 10), the grounding member 300 comprising a main portion 301 and plural first contacting portions 307a protruding from the main portion 301 (Figs. 15-17; [0178]) and connecting with corresponding grounding terminals 200a of the row of first terminals 207 ([0178]);
wherein the grounding member 300 is embedded in the insulating housing 100 and the tongue portion 103 has plural mold-positioning grooves ([0151]: "the shielding member 300 may also be assembled into the insulative housing 100 by any other suitable process" which includes embedding into the insulating housing via grooves).
With respect to Claim 12:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 11.
Hou also discloses wherein the insulating housing 100 is injection molded around the grounding member 300 ([0151]).
With respect to Claim 13:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 11.
Hou also discloses wherein the first contacting portions 307a are in a form of a longwise rib (Fig. 16) and the longwise rib is united with the main portion 301 (Fig. 16) without any slits. (Although the shielding member 300 of Hou contains what may be considered slits, the claim states that the longwise rib is "united with the main portion without any slits," not that the main portion does not comprise slits. Given Figs. 15-17 of Hou, it is shown that the longwise ribs 307a/307b unite with the main body of 300 without interference with any slits.)
With respect to Claim 14:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 11.
Hou also discloses wherein the first contacting portions 307a are in a form of a longwise rib (Fig. 16), and the longwise rib is united with the mating portion 301 with two opposite long slits 305 (Fig. 16).
With respect to Claim 15:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 11.
Hou also discloses wherein the grounding member 300 has strip-cutting edges 304 exposed to a front end of the tongue portion 103 (Fig. 4).
With respect to Claim 17:
Hou discloses a method of making an electrical connector, comprising steps of:
providing a grounding member 300 with a strip 301a/301b/301c (Figs. 15-17);
injection molding an insulating housing 100 with the grounding member 300 to have a base portion 101 and a tongue portion 103 with terminal grooves 109 at opposite sides thereof (Fig. 5); and
inserting a first row of terminals 207 and a second row of terminals 209 into the terminal grooves ([0180]).
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 8-9 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hou, et al. (US-20230387634-A1) in view of Feng (US-20190173235-A1).
With respect to Claim 8:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 7.
Hou also discloses wherein the grounding member 300 is metallic ([0063]).
Hou does not explicitly disclose wherein the convex rib is formed by punching from the main portion.
However, punching is well known in the art. For example, Feng teaches a manufacturing method for an electrical connector, wherein an intermediate shielding sheet 3 comprises bending portions 332 that "can be directly formed by stamping" ([0058]).
Thus, Hou and Feng each disclose electrical connectors. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have recognized that the stamping/punching of Feng could be combined with the conductive member of Hou because it would form the contacting portions "without bending and machining" (Feng: [0058]). Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the modification.
With respect to Claim 9:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 1.
Hou also discloses wherein the grounding member 300 is metallic ([0063]), and opposite long sides of each first contacting portion 307a are separated from the main portion 301 and opposite ends of each first contacting portions 307a are united with the main portion 301 (Fig. 16).
Hou does not explicitly disclose wherein the first contacting portion is formed by punching from the main portion.
However, punching is well known in the art. For example, Feng teaches a manufacturing method for an electrical connector, wherein an intermediate shielding sheet 3 comprises bending portions 332 that "can be directly formed by stamping" ([0058]).
Thus, Hou and Feng each disclose electrical connectors. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have recognized that the stamping/punching of Feng could be combined with the conductive member of Hou because it would form the contacting portions "without bending and machining" (Feng: [0058]). Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the modification.
With respect to Claim 16:
Hou discloses the electrical connector as claimed in claim 12.
Hou does not explicitly disclose wherein a first insulator is retained around the grounding member by a first injection molding process and a second insulator is retained around the first insulator by a second injection molding process to form the insulating housing with the grounding member.
However, Feng teaches an electrical connector wherein a grounding member (shielding sheet) 3 is retained in a first insulating body 13 by a first-time injection molding ([0059]), and later the grounding member 3 and the first insulating body 13 are retained inside a third insulating body 15 by a second-time injection molding ([0060]).
Thus, Hou and Feng each disclose electrical connectors. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have recognized that the two-step injection molding of Feng could be combined with the insulating housing of Hou because it would allow for more complex insulating housing designs to be manufactured. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the modification.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 2, allowability resides, at least in part, with the prior art, taken alone or in combination not showing or fairly teaching or suggesting “wherein the row of first terminals are exposed to a first side of the tongue portion, a second side opposite to the first side of the tongue portion has plural first positioning grooves for a first positioning mold to press the grounding member toward a first side of a mating portion and fix the grounding member in an injection molding process,” as recited in claim 2, in conjunction with ALL the remaining limitations of the base claims. The prior art of record fails to teach or fairly suggest these limitations as substantially described in claim 2. These limitations, in combination with remaining limitations of claim 2, are neither taught nor suggested by the prior art of record, before claim 1 is allowable.
Claims 3-4 are dependent on claim 2 and would therefore be allowable.
Regarding Claim 5, allowability resides, at least in part, with the prior art, taken alone or in combination not showing or fairly teaching or suggesting “wherein the grounding member comprises two ears embedded in two opposite ends of the base portion, the insulating housing comprises a first insulator with the tongue portion and a second insulator surrounding the first insulator, each ear comprises a vertical portion extending from the main portion and a horizontal portion extending from the vertical portion, and the vertical portions are embedded in the first insulator and the horizontal portions are embedded in the second insulator,” as recited in claim 5, in conjunction with ALL the remaining limitations of the base claims. The prior art of record fails to teach or fairly suggest these limitations as substantially described in claim 5. These limitations, in combination with remaining limitations of claim 5, are neither taught nor suggested by the prior art of record, before claim 1 is allowable.
Conclusion
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/AMARA ANDERSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2831 /ABDULLAH A RIYAMI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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