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 . Claims 1-7 are pending in the current application.
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 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yen et al. (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017/0191612 A1, hereinafter “Yen”).
Specifically, regarding Claim 1, Yen discloses a key device having a supporting structure (Abstract; FIG. 1), comprising: a bottom plate (20; FIG. 2) including a pair of first pivot connecting portions (201; FIG. 2) and a pair of second pivot connecting portions (202), a keycap (10; FIG. 1) disposed on said bottom plate (20), and including a pair of first pivot portions (102; FIG. 1) corresponding respectively to said second pivot connecting portions (202; FIG. 1) and a pair of second pivot portions (101) corresponding respectively to said first pivot connecting portions (201; FIG. 1), a supporting unit (30) pivotally interconnecting said bottom plate (20) and said keycap (10; FIG. 2), and including a first stand (32; FIG. 2) and a second stand (31) pivotally connected to said first stand (32), said first stand (32) including a pair of first lower pivot shafts (321a; FIG. 1) connected respectively and pivotally to said first pivot connecting portions (201) and a pair of first upper pivot shafts (322a) connected respectively and pivotally to said first pivot portions (102; FIG. 1), said second stand (31) including a pair of second lower pivot shafts (312a; FIG. 1) connected respectively and pivotally to said second pivot connecting portions (202) and a pair of second upper pivot shafts (311a; FIG. 1) connected respectively and pivotally to said second pivot portions (101), a first supporting assembly (FSA; FIG. 3, reproduced and annotated below) disposed on one of said bottom plate (20) and said first stand (32), said first supporting assembly (FSA) being adjacent to one of said first pivot connecting portions (201) and said first lower pivot shafts (321a; FIG. 3), and a second supporting assembly (SSA) disposed on one of said keycap (10) and said first stand (32), said second supporting assembly (SSA) being adjacent to one of said second pivot portions (101) and said first upper pivot shafts (322a).
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Regarding Claim 2, Yen discloses that the first supporting assembly (FSA) includes a pair of first supporting members (FSM) that are adjacent to said first lower pivot shafts (321a; FIG. 3), respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 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 prior art fails to teach, disclose, or suggest, either alone or in combination, a key device having a supporting structure, comprising a first supporting assembly that includes a pair of first supporting members, the members being ridge-shaped, the members extending from a first bottom surface of a first stand to a first top surface of the first stand, each of the members having an arc-shaped cross section that is parallel to the first bottom surface, as recited in Claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is 313-446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 10:30 am – 9 pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee 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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/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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