DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-17 are pending. Claim 10, line 1, the phrase “any one of” needs to be deleted.
Priority
3. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
4. The drawings filed on July 9, 2024 are accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claims 1-17, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Frazier, US 8,746,395.
Regarding claims 1, 6-12 and 17 Frazier discloses from Figs. 1-5 and related text, e.g. cols. 4-6, lines 42-55, an agriculture machine, e.g. 2, a working component, e.g.18, 24, lateral operator controls, e.g. 26, having touch (haptic) control and a neutral position, e.g Fig. 2B, at least four distinct states of speed, having an increasing/decreasing regions, e.g. 78, 80, having multiple, at least 4 operating ranges, that may have lateral induced directions by the operator controls, having varying speed values.
Regarding claims 2, 5, Frazier discloses at least four distinct operating ranges, e.g. Figs. 4-5, cols. 7-22. These operating ranges would include as least 6 operating ranges.
Regarding claim 3, Frazier discloses a neutral position, e.g. Fig. 2B col. 4, lines 4-21.
Regarding claims 13-15, the floating mode is disclosed from cols. 5-6, lines 23-14.
Frazier does not specifically disclose the terms discrete steps, as recited from claims 1, 2,4, 5 and 17, nor moving the working component that may move both parallel to a driving direction (claim 16).
Official Notice is taken that implementing discrete steps while operating a control, e.g. a joystick, has been common knowledge in the agricultural machine art, as is having moving the working component that may move both parallel and lateral to a driving direction. To have viewed the use of the operator controls of Frazier to put into practice discrete steps including moving the working component that may move both parallel and lateral to a driving direction would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art. To have provided discrete steps for Frazier would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Frazier to include multiple discrete steps with a reasonable expectation of success as the motivation for doing such is to provide a workable agricultural machine to perform its intended function.
7. Yoyoda, US 12,529,201, discloses a work machine having a touch sensor associated with a work machine. It is noted on the attached PTO-892.
8. Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statements (IDS) submitted August 22, 2024 has been reviewed. Note the attached IDS.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW JOSEPH RUDY whose telephone number is
571-272-6789. The examiner can generally be reached on Monday thru Friday from about 10am-6pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful the examiner’s supervisor, Fadey Jabr, can be reached on 571-272-1516. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANDREW JOSEPH RUDY/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
571-272-6789