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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 8, 12, 15-16, 18, 20 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Bechold US 6493984.
Bechold discloses a submergible lure and/or trolling flasher designed to operate as in the claimed invention. The lure comprises keels, 22, 26 having a plurality of eyelets 24, 42 and 38, 40, respectively. The keel can be altered to create different echelon angles, Detailed Description, para 2. The design creates somewhat radical movements, e.g., zig-zag, while trolling, para. 11.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 2, 14, 7, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bechold, as described above.
Inasmuch as Bechold does not speak to the disclosed lure as being top-water or having a counter weight, it remains that these features are well known and could have been implemented as design choices. Therefore, the Examiner takes Official Notice and these features do not patentably distinguish the claimed invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-11 are allowed.
Claims 13, 19 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.
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/CHRISTOPHER P ELLIS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3644