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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-13 and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/16/2025.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: The specification continuously refers to Fig. 11 as a figure of the device and points to numbers of elements. However, in the drawings Fig. 11 is a flowchart.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 15, the claim recites “wherein the input shaft is configured to drive the rotary motion part to perform bidirectional reciprocating rotating motion”; however, it appears that rotational motion is used to create linear motion and when looking through the specification there is only mention of reciprocating linear motion. Therefore, this is seen as indefinite as it is unclear if what is being claimed is that the rotary part is causing rotation to create reciprocating linear motion as set-forth in detail in the specification. For examination purposes, the examiner takes this to mean reciprocating linear motion.
Regarding claim 16, claim 16 states “the first tooth part”; however, there appears to be no antecedent basis for this limitation as the previous limitation is “a plurality of first tooth parts”. Therefore, it is seen as indefinite as it is unclear if and what “the first tooth part” is compared to “a plurality of first tooth parts”.
Further, “the opposite side” in claim 16 also lacks antecedent basis. For examination purposes this is seen as “an opposite side”.
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 is rejected similarly to claim 16 due to its dependency.
Regarding claim 18, the claim states “a side of the rotary motion part…is partially provided at a plurality of third tooth parts”; however, it is unclear how it is partially provided at a location as something is either provided or not. It maybe that the claim is trying to state that the part is partially in contact with; however that is not clear.
Further, the claim states there are “two linear motion parts provided”. It is unclear if these two linear motion parts are two additional parts separate from “the linear motion part” or if the linear motion part is now two parts.
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) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al., WO 2016085051, herein referred to as “Park”.
Regarding claim 14, Park teaches: A treatment tip (abstract), comprising: an input shaft (main shaft 340); a transducer motion assembly comprising a rotary motion part (Tech-solution: specifically rotation force applying unit) and a linear motion part (Tech-solution: specifically the linear motion from converting unit), wherein one end of the input shaft is connected to the rotary motion part (Tech-Solution: main shaft connected to with rotational movement and fig. 3-4), and the linear motion part is connected to the rotary motion part (Tech-solution: specifically the outer rotating part being connected via a main copper shaft which is the converting unit); and a transducer connected to the linear motion part (Tech-solution: specifically driving joint fixed to transducer and linearly moving back and forth according to the rotational movement of the main shaft); wherein the input shaft drives the rotary motion part to rotate while the rotary motion part drives the linear motion part to linearly move, such that the transducer moves linearly (Tech-solution: the rotational motion converts to linear motion to be provided to the transducer).
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) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park in view of Nie et al, US 20220015795, herein referred to as “Nie”.
Regarding claim 15, Park does disclose the rotational part for rotating in order to relate linear motion that is reciprocal and discloses: wherein the input shaft is configured to drive the rotary motion part to perform bidirectional reciprocating rotating motion (Advantageous-effects, best-mode; paragraph 20; rotating to create reciprocating speed/motion linearly). However, Park does not explicitly disclose: a side of the rotary motion part facing the linear motion part is provided with a plurality of first tooth parts, and a side of the linear motion part facing the rotary motion part is provided with a plurality of second tooth parts; the plurality of the first tooth parts are meshed and connected with the plurality of the second tooth parts to drive the linear motion part to perform linear reciprocating motion.
Nie does disclose: a side of the rotary motion part facing the linear motion part is provided with a plurality of first tooth parts, and a side of the linear motion part facing the rotary motion part is provided with a plurality of second tooth parts ([0126]-[0127] and [0133]-[0135]; specifically the two gears for translating rotational motion to linear motion where gears are seen as having teeth portions as they are gears); the plurality of the first tooth parts are meshed and connected with the plurality of the second tooth parts to drive the linear motion part to perform linear reciprocating motion ([0126]-[0127] and [0133]-[0135]; specifically the meshing between the first and second gears).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the rotational and linear motion parts of Park to include the gearing as taught by Nie. The motivation being to use know gearing and connections to create and drive linear motion from a power assembly as seen in Nie, [0009].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 19 is 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 JOANNE M RODDEN whose telephone number is (303)297-4276. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM-5:00 PM MST.
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/JOANNE M RODDEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3794