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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the disclosed invention is inoperative and therefore lacks utility.
The Specification, in at least para. 38, provides “linear motion and/or other forces generated using the linear motion generation apparatus may be used to (i) move the vehicle (via a thrust force provided by the linear motion generation apparatus), (ii) lift the vehicle, (iii) keep the vehicle hovering and/or levitating in a target position, and/or (iv) perform one or more other operations” and also “[i]n some examples, the vehicle is a spacecraft for traveling through space.” However, the disclosed mechanism, especially such a rotating body in a vacuum (e.g., space), cannot generate linear thrust; and a mechanism which purports to perform such functionality would violate the known laws of physics, as discussed in the attached NPL (NASA – Responding to Mechanical Antigravity).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention.
In the present application, the Wands factors (see MPEP 2164.01(a)) were considered to determine if there is sufficient support for Claims 1-20 in the originally filed disclosure to enable one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the time of invention to make and use the invention without undue experimentation.
Although there exists a high degree of predictability in the mechanical arts (i.e., which encompasses the nature of the invention), e.g. insomuch as the collection of prior art is dense and an ordinary practitioner is expected to be readily familiar with engineering concepts (e.g., and therefore be sufficiently skilled to implement and/or manipulate the prior art), the scope of the claims is such that, even in light of the specification (i.e., the direction provided by the inventor), an ordinary practitioner would not be reasonably informed on how to make or use the invention without undue experimentation.
For example, the Specification provides “linear motion and/or other forces generated using the linear motion generation apparatus may be used to (i) move the vehicle (via a thrust force provided by the linear motion generation apparatus), (ii) lift the vehicle, (iii) keep the vehicle hovering and/or levitating in a target position, and/or (iv) perform one or more other operations” in para. 38. However, there is otherwise insufficient direction to the claimed limitations provided by the inventor in the disclosure, i.e. a “linear motion generation apparatus”.
An ordinary practitioner would need to conduct a significant amount of undo experimentation to overcome the deficiencies of the disclosure (e.g., to generate linear motion) in order to make or use the invention. Further, neither the state of the prior art about the subject matter to which the claimed invention pertains (i.e., which one skilled in the art would have known at the time the application was filed) nor the common knowledge in the art are sufficient to teach the necessary information to overcome the deficiencies of the disclosure such to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention to have the claimed results.
Accordingly, insufficient support has been provided to enable one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to make and use the invention as claimed in Claims 1-20.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to T. S. FIX whose telephone number is (571)272-8535. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 10a-3p.
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/T. SCOTT FIX/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618