DETAILED ACTION
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 anticipatory rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Saito et al. US 20250105548. Regarding claim 1, Saito discloses a connector comprising:
an outer housing 10 which is formed with a cavity 12 and a port (open front end of housing 10) communicated with the cavity,
the outer housing comprising a housing retain portion (labeled HRP in annotated figure 5 below) which is positioned in the cavity; and
a wafer 20 which is provided to the cavity and comprises a wafer retaining portion (labeled WRP below) retained to the housing retain portion,
at least one of the housing retain portion and the wafer retaining portion extending along an inserting direction.
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Per claim 2, the housing retain portion is a recessed groove which extends along the inserting direction and is communicated with the cavity, the wafer retaining portion is a protruding block which snaps to the recessed groove.
Per claim 6, the outer housing further comprises at least one latching member (labeled HLM above), the latching member is positioned at any one of sides of the outer housing and is provided to latch and lock the wafer in the inserting direction.
Per claim 8, Saito discloses a connector comprising:
an outer housing 10 which is formed with a cavity (open space within 10) and an upper port (front surface of 10 facing connector 40) communicated with the cavity,
the outer housing comprising a first housing retain portion (labeled HRP above, corresponding to wafer 1 labeled W1 above) and a second housing retain portion (same structure, corresponding to wafer 4 labeled W4 above) which are positioned in the cavity; and
a wafer assembly provided to the cavity and comprising a first wafer (labeled W1 below), a second wafer (labeled W2), a third wafer (labeled W3) and a fourth wafer (labeled W4) which are mutually stacked and are retained, the first wafer comprising a first wafer retaining portion which is retained to the first housing retain portion, the fourth wafer comprising a second wafer retaining portion which is retained to the second housing
retain portion, at least one of the first housing retain portion and the first wafer retaining portion extending along an inserting direction, at least one of the second housing retain portion and the second wafer retaining portion extending along the inserting direction.
Per claim 9 the first housing retain portion and the second housing retain portion each are a recessed groove which extends along the inserting direction and is communicated with the cavity, the first wafer retaining portion and the second wafer retaining portion each are a
protruding block which snaps to the corresponding recessed groove.
Per claim 13, the outer housing further comprises at least one latching member (labeled HLM above), the latching member is positioned to any one of sides of the outer housing and is provided to latch and lock one of the first wafer, the second wafer, the third wafer and the fourth wafer in the inserting direction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, 10-12, 14-30 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 ROSS GUSHI whose telephone number is (571)272-2005. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday, 8:30 - 5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher Koehler can be reached on 571-272-3560. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROSS N GUSHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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