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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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) 1, 9, 10, and 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20240075773 A1to (BIGI et al.) in combination with US 6,044,888 A to (Cunningham et al.).
Regarding claim 1, (BIGI et al.) provides a tire changing machine (100), comprising: a frame (400); a rotatable turntable (wheel-holder unit 200) configured to retain a wheel assembly; a bead breaker assembly (bead breaking arm 301 and bead breaker tool 302) attached to the frame (400) and configured to engage the wheel assembly; and a lifting assembly (lifting device 500) movably attached to the frame (400) and configured to raise the wheel assembly, the lifting assembly further comprising; a lift (paras. [0190]-[0204]) and a support platform (supporting platform 502)(Figs. 1-2B).
Thus, (BIGI et al.) provides a tire changing machine according to claim 1 except that the support platform lacks a roller assembly.
(Cunningham et al.) provide a lift and spin device on a passenger vehicle tire changer that will reduce or eliminate the necessity of lifting and spinning the tire when using a shoe to break the seal between the tire and the rim (Col. 2, lines 24-27). The lift and spin device 40 of (Cunningham et al.) includes a support platform (vertical plate 42, base 44, end piece 46) and a roller assembly (rollers 50 and 52, and dowels 51 and 53) movably coupled (“The rollers 50 and 52 are mounted on dowels 51 and 53 extending between the plate 42 and the end piece 46. Thus, rollers 50 and 52 are able to freely rotate about the dowels 51 and 53.” – Col. 5, lines 8-18) to the support platform (Figs. 4 and 5). (Cunningham et al.) teach that the lift and spin device may be retrofitted onto existing passenger vehicle rim holding tire changers (Col. 2, lines 43-44).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the support platform of (BIGI et al.) by providing a movably coupled roller assembly to the “fork, a platform or other”, such as a roller assembly like that of (Cunningham et al.), where, as (Cunningham et al.) teach, the roller assembly causes less strain and is less time-consuming than the prior art practice of lifting and spinning the tire during the bead breaking step (Col. 5, lines 19-43).
Regarding claim 9, in the tire changing machine of (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) as applied to claim 1 above, the support platform (502) of (BIGI et al.) further comprises a sloped surface (502a) configured to engage a tire surface of the wheel assembly (para. [0194]; Fig. 2A).
Regarding claim 10, in the tire changing machine of (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) as applied to claim 1 above, the lifting assembly (500) of (BIGI et al.) is attached to the frame within an operational range of the bead breaker assembly (Fig. 2A, 3A and 3B).
Regarding claim 13, since (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) as applied to claim 1 above, provides a tire changing machine with, inter alia, a lifting assembly having a support platform and a roller assembly, and (BIGI et al.) discusses utilizing the lifting assembly to assist in demounting and mounting a tire from a wheel (see, e.g., paras. [0221]-[0266]), it would have been obvious to operate the tire changing machine of (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) by loading a wheel assembly onto the support platform of the lifting assembly provided in a lowered position; separating, with the bead breaker assembly, a tire bead of the wheel assembly from a rim of the wheel assembly; raising the lifting assembly from the lowered position to a raised position; transferring the wheel assembly from the lifting assembly in the raised position to the rotatable turntable; and removing, at the rotatable turntable, a tire of the wheel assembly from the rim of the wheel assembly.
Regarding claim 14, in operating the tire changing machine of (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) according to claim 14, the step of loading the wheel assembly onto the support platform further comprises: rolling the wheel assembly onto the support platform via a sloped surface of the support platform; and engaging the roller assembly with the wheel assembly.
Regarding claim 15, in operating the tire changing machine of (BIGI et al.) in view of (Cunningham et al.) according to claim 14, the step of separating the tire bead of the wheel assembly from the rim of the wheel assembly further comprises: rotatably engaging the wheel assembly against the roller assembly.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 11, 12, and 16-20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David B. Thomas whose telephone number is (571) 272-4497. The examiner’s e-mail address is: dave.thomas@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 11:30-7:30.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Posigian can be reached on (. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/David B. Thomas/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723
/DBT/
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