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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This is a Non-final Office Action for application number 18/828,336 SELF-CLOSING PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE-TO-TORQUE TUBE RAIL filed on 9/9/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 3/10/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention/species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 3/25/2026.
The traversal is on the ground(s) that “1) Inventions I and II are related as a device (self-closing rail) and a method of using a device (self-closing rail) for solar module-to-torque tube installation. Therefore, Applicant respectfully asserts that Inventions I and II are highly related and are not distinct.” (See Remarks, 3/25/2026, page 7) This is not found persuasive because the apparatus, a self closing clamp, does not contain the method step or equivalent apparatus of “coupling a panel frame of a solar panel to a rail body” (claim 11). Claim 1 does not limit the apparatus to the coupling of a solar panel and therefore searching both is considered burdensome to the examiner. The applicant also argues that the species requirement would not pose a serious burden to the examiner. This is not persuasive because the different mechanical features would require different queries. For example, Species A would require “contact with a spring” and “leaf spring” and Species C would require “internal arms” and “torsional spring” as queries to describe the different features.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim 8 is also withdrawn as being drawn to non-elected Species A.
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 of this title, 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over United States Patent Publication No. 2004/0026576 to Shibuya and in view of United States Patent No. 5,564,659 to DeCapo and in view of United States Patent Publication No. 2020/0076360 to Watshon et al.
With regards to claim 1, the publication to Shibuya discloses a device having a anchor body (21); a first arm (left 10) coupled to the anchor body at a first pivot axis (S1); and a second arm (right 10) coupled to the body at a second pivot axis (S2); wherein the first and the second arms are in an open state (See
Figure 2-A) to enable a pipe tube (22) to be moved within an open area between the first and the second arms; and wherein a movement of the torque tube toward the anchor body causes the first and the second arms to be pivoted into a closed state around the pipe tube. (See Figure 8, “then, the pipe 22 is pushed into the inside space of the band 10 from the open space which is largely opened. Then, the band 10 is brought back to form a ring-like configuration by using elasticity of the fastener”, note the “fastener” is used to describe the clamping arms, See 0012, “a fastener for laying pipes”)
Shibuya teaches an anchor to suspend the pipe tube from a ceiling, however, does not teach that the anchor is a rail, hence making the arms “rail arms”.
DeCapo teaches a clamp (14) with compressible arms (32) attachable to a rail (12) for installing conduit to a ceiling. (See Col.1, lines 12-14) It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill that the Shibuya device may be attached to a rail instead of an anchor as they both are used to support tubular devices from a ceiling and the bolt (20) of Shibuya would be able to be used with the rail assembly of DeCapo. This substituted ceiling structure would them also be obvious that the arms of the Shibuya could be labeled “rail arms” and they are suspended from a rail.
Shibuya and DeCapo teach a tubular pipe and tubular conduit, but do not specifically teache a torque tube.
Watson et al. teaches a clamp with clamp arms for clamping a torque tube (14, See 0002) and it would be obvious that a torque tube could be used instead of a pipe or conduit as the torque tube is a similar size and shape as a pipe. (See Figure 9C of Watson et al.)
With regards to claim 2, Shibuya and the combination above teaches wherein the first and second “rail” arms (See obviousness above for “rail arms”) have a shape matching or partially matching a cross-section of the torque tube (See obviousness above for “torque” tube). (See Figure 12 of Shibuya)
With regards to claim 3, Shibuya and the combination above teaches wherein the cross-section of the torque tube has an octagon, round, oval, or square shape.
With regards to claim 4, Shibuya and the combination above teaches wherein the first rail arm has an end (at 13) that faces an end of the second rail arms (at 13) when the first and the second rail arms are in the closed state such that the first and the second rail arms is able to be securely held together to lock the torque tube. (See Figure 9)
With regards to claim 5, Shibuya and the combination above teaches wherein the first pivot axis is between a first section (12) and a second section (10) of the first rail arm, the second pivot axis is between a first section (12) and a second section (10) of the second rail arm.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7, 9 and 10 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.
With regards to claim 6, the prior art does not teach wherein the first rail arm and the second rail arm are kept in the open state by a torsional spring disposed at each pivot axis, a friction fit at each pivot axis, a weight balance between the first section and the second section of the first rail arm, a weight balance between the first section and the second section of the second rail arm, or a combination thereof.
With regards to claim 7, the prior art does not teach one or more mechanical structures comprise a spring engaged between the first rail arm and the second rail arm to keep the first and the second rail arms in the open position by default.
With regards to claim 9, the prior art does not each wherein the one or more mechanical structures comprise a friction fit or a torsional spring at each pivot axis to keep the first and the second rail arms in the open position by default.
Cited References
PN 2015/0200621 to Reed shows a rail and clamp
PN 2012/0001041 to Yang et al. shows a rail and clamp
PN 12,467,213 to Schofield shows a rail and clamp
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Amy J. Sterling at telephone number 571-272-6823 or to Supervisor Jonathan Liu at 571-272-8227 if the examiner cannot be reached. The examiner can normally be reached (Mon-Fri 8am-5:00pm). The fax machine number for the Technology center is 571-273-8300 (formal amendments), informal amendments or communications 571-273-6823. Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application should be directed to the Technology Center receptionist at 571-272-3600.
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/AMY J. STERLING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3631 4/28/26
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