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 .
Election/Restrictions
This action is in response to applicant’s amendment received on 08/10/2026. Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I, claims 1-6, is acknowledged.
Claims 1-7 are pending. Claim 7 is withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to a nonelected invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102:
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yamashita et al. (US 2016/0090987, herein “Yamashita”).
Regarding claim 1, Yamashita discloses:
an inverter assembly jig (37) (fig. 7) comprising:
an expansion pin (40) inserted into a through-hole (17) of an electric compressor (1) (fig. 7) [par. 0028 and 0039]; and
an expansion pin actuation mechanism (38) moving the expansion pin (40) closer to and away from a fixing means (16) (fig. 7) [par. 0042-0043] (it is noted, moving the expansion pin 40 closer to and away from the fixing means 26, 27, 28 is considered a functional limitation. MPEP 2114 II clearly states “Apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does" and “A claim containing a ‘recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus’ if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim.” Because Claim 1 fails to further limit the apparatus in terms of structure, but rather only recite further functional limitations, regarding the “moving the expansion pin 40 closer to and away from the fixing means 26, 27, 28” limitation, the invention as taught by Yamashita is deemed fully capable of performing such function. For instance, the jig 37 is fully capable of moving or be moved toward the inverter 5 during the temporarily assembling of par. 0042 -instead of the inverter 5 being pushed toward the jig 37-),
wherein the electric compressor (1) comprises a compression mechanism (3) receiving power from a motor (2) and compressing refrigerant (of an air conditioner of a vehicle), and an inverter (5) controlling the motor (2) [par. 0022],
wherein the inverter (5) comprises a circuit board (14) on which a plurality of elements (18) is mounted, and a frame (8 plus 13 plus 15) coupled to the circuit board (14) (fig. 7) [par. 0024-0025], and
wherein the frame (8 plus 13 plus 15) comprises a base plate (15) facing the circuit board (14) (fig. 7), the fixing means (16) protruding from the base plate (8 plus 13 plus 15) and supporting an outer periphery of the circuit board (14) [par. 0024-0025], and the through-hole (17) formed at a position corresponding to the fixing means (16) in the base plate (15) (fig. 7) [par. 0024].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 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 GUSTAVO A HINCAPIE SERNA whose telephone number is (571)272-6018. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5:30pm.
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/GUSTAVO A HINCAPIE SERNA/Examiner, Art Unit 3763
/JENNA M MARONEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
