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 Objection
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: on line 6 “portion” should be deleted, for consistency. Appropriate correction is required.
Drawing Objection
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the specific structure of the body and a plurality of projections extending from the body (end of claim 11) must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
35 USC 102 Rejections
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, 4, 6, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tsai 6935896.
Regarding claim 1, Tsai (front page) discloses a receptacle connector comprising: a housing 11 comprising a first portion 14 having a first contour, a second portion 13 extending from the first portion and having a second contour smaller than the first contour of the first portion, and a tongue (left end of 13) extending from the second portion; a plurality of conductive elements 5, each of the plurality of conductive elements comprising a mating end (left end) held by the tongue portion of the housing, a tail end (right end) extending out of the housing, and an intermediate portion between the mating end and the tail end and at least partially held by the first and second portions of the housing; and an inner shell 21 comprising a first portion engaging the first portion of the housing, and a second portion engaging the second portion of the housing.
Regarding claim 3, Tsai discloses the inner shell 1` comprises an opening; and the housing 11 comprises a protrusion 141 disposed in the opening of the inner shell.
Regarding claim 4, Tsai discloses the protrusion 141 of the housing 11 extends from the first portion 14 of the housing to the second portion 13 of the housing.
Regarding claims 6 and 12, Tsai discloses the inner shell 21 comprises a flange (unnumbered) joining the first portion of the inner shell and the second portion 21 of the inner shell; and the opening of the inner shell extends from the flange to the second portion of the inner shell.
Regarding claim 11, Tsai discloses a receptacle connector comprising: a shielding member 21 comprising a plurality of holes 211; a plurality of conductive elements 5 each comprising a mating end, a tail end, and an intermediate portion between the mating end and the tail end, the plurality of conductive elements comprising a first plurality disposed on a first side of the shielding member and a second plurality disposed on a second side of the shielding member opposite the first side; and a housing 11 comprising a plurality of protrusions 141 disposed in respective holes of the plurality of holes of the shielding member, each of the plurality of protrusions comprising a body and a plurality of projections extending radially from the body to engage edges of the respective holes.
35 USC 103 Rejections
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 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai.
Tsai discloses the first portion of the housing 11 comprises a latch 141; and the first portion 21 of the inner shell comprises a recess 211 to receive the latch, and to reverse the positions of the latch and recess thus would have been an obvious reversal of parts, since the function thereof would not be substantially affected.
Claim(s) 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang et al 11,677,191.
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Wang et al (Figure 3) discloses the housing comprises a third portion 113 having a third contour larger than the first contour 11; and to provide the housing of Tsai with a third portion thus would have been obvious, to accommodate a differently shaped inner shell.
Regarding claim 8, Tsai discloses a main shell 22 disposed outside the inner shell 21.
Regarding claim 13, Tsai discloses the second portion 13 of the housing 11 comprises the plurality of protrusions 141 disposed in the respective holes 211 of the plurality of holes of the shielding member 21.
Claim(s) 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsai in view of Ito 5833495.
Tsai substantially discloses the claimed invention, including a method of manufacturing a receptacle connector, comprising: providing first and second terminal subassemblies 5, each of the first and second terminal subassembly comprising a plurality of conductive elements held by a subassembly housing 11; assembling one of the first and second terminal subassemblies on a first side of a shielding member 21 comprising inserting protrusions 141 of the subassembly housing of the respective terminal subassembly into first holes 211 of the shielding member; assembling the other one of the first and second terminal subassemblies on a second side of the shielding member comprising inserting protrusions (not shown) of the subassembly housing of the respective terminal subassembly into second holes (not shown) of the shielding member. Ito (Figure 3) discloses overmolding 18, and to provide Tsai with same thus would have been obvious, to prevent ingress of contaminants.
Claims Defining Over Prior Art
Claims 5, 9, 10, 15-17, 19 and 20 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art discloses or teaches the housing protrusion being L-shaped; nor the outer shell; nor the combination of the fitting protrusions of the housing into openings of the inner shell, and engaging latches of the inner shell with the housing; in combination with the rest of the subject matter of the respective independent claim.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GARY F PAUMEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2013. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th.
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/GARY F PAUMEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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