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 . Claims 1-15 are pending in the current application.
Claim Objections
Regarding Claim 3, the 2nd to the last line, it appears that the term “parallel” should be changed to “parallel to.”
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.
Claims 1, 2, 12, 14, and 15, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pardini et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,643, hereinafter “Pardini”).
Specifically, regarding Claim 1, Pardini discloses a push-button (10) adapted for being pressed by a user parallel to a pressing direction (Abstract), and for remaining in a locked pressed position until an unlocking action is executed by the user (col. 6, ll. 38-48), where at least part of a plunger sub-assembly (20, 30) is driven into rotation by the user pressing a push-head (12) of the push-button and the rotated part of the plunger sub-assembly then abuts a relief portion (58; FIG. 1) existing in an internal surface of a casing (14; FIG. 1a) of said push-button, thereby producing locking of the pressed position (col. 5, ll. 6-18), wherein the plunger sub-assembly (20, 30) comprises a translation-to-rotation converting part (30), adapted for being rotated by the user pressing the push-head (12), a latch part (48), having an edge arranged for abutting the relief portion (58) in the internal surface of the casing (14) so as to produce locking of the pressed position (col. 6, ll. 6-8; FIG. 1a), and a latch spring element (40) separated from the translation-to-rotation converting part (30; FIG. 1), and connecting the latch part (48) to said translation-to-rotation converting part (30) so that rotation of the translation-to-rotation converting part (30) drives the latch part (48), through the latch spring element (40), into a position that leads to abutment of said latch part (48) against the relief portion (58) in the internal surface of the casing (14; col. 6, ll. 6-26; FIG. 1a).
Regarding Claim 2, Pardini discloses a pull-back spring (22) intermediate between the push-head (12) and the casing (14) of the push-button (FIG. 1), the pull-back spring being arranged so that the user pressing the push-head (12) causes compression of said pull-back spring, and the compressed pull-back-spring then completes driving action of the latch spring element (40) for producing the abutment of the latch part (48) against the relief portion (58) in the internal surface of the casing (14; col. 6, ll. 3-19).
Regarding Claim 12, Pardini discloses a trigger spring (22; FIG. 1) which is intermediate between the push-head (12) and the plunger sub-assembly (20, 30), and arranged for transmitting at least part of a translation movement which is applied by the user to said push-head (12), in the pressing direction to said plunger sub-assembly (FIGS. 1 and 2).
Regarding Claim 14, Pardini discloses a spring-loaded actuator (32) designed for being operated through pressing onto said actuator by a user (via 12, 50; FIG. 1a), and further comprising a push-button (10) according to claim 1, the pushbutton being arranged overtop the actuator so as to provide a locking function to a pressed state of the actuator (FIG. 1).
Regarding Claim 15, Pardini discloses that the actuator and the push-button form a shutdown key of the electrical system (Abstract).
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.
Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pardini in view of Wahrenberg et al. (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2011/0036698, hereinafter “Wahrenberg”).
Regarding Claim 3, Pardini discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention but does not disclose the claimed plunger. However, Wahrenberg discloses that the user pressing the pushhead (4) causes the plunger sub-assembly (20, 30) to translation-move in the pressing direction (col. 2, ll. 45-48), said plunger sub-assembly comprising the following parts a center plunger (14; FIG. 3), arranged for receiving a pressing force due to the user pressing the push-head (4), and for driving the plunger sub-assembly (6) into translation movement, the translation-to-rotation converting part (6), arranged around the center plunger (14) and rotatable relative to said center plunger, the latch part (11), also arranged around the center plunger (14) and rotatable relative to said center plunger (6), and the latch spring element (13), wherein the center plunger (14), the translation-to-rotation converting part (6), the latch part (11) and the latch spring element (13) all execute a same translation movement component, parallel [to] the pressing direction when the user presses the push-head (Abstract, FIGS. 3, 4, and 7).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wahrenberg with those of Pardini to provide a switch design that enables an actuator body to be displaced from a first position to a second position by pushing the body in a first direction, and enables the body to be displaced from the second position to the first position only by pulling a first part of the actuator body in a direction opposite to the first direction.
Regarding Claim 4, Pardini discloses that the latch spring element (40) is a torsion spring which has turns arranged around (near) the center plunger (also 30; FIG. 2), between the translation-to-rotation converting part (30) and the latch part (11).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-11, and 13, 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure. Schaeffer et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,022 A) discloses a push-and-turn latching control button utilizing a spring and plunger for actuating a switch.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is 313-446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 1030am - 9pm.
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/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
