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 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.
Claims 1-12 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.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the elements. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted elements are: a second connecting portion. The claims only recite a prevention member with a plurality of pillar portions (33a) and a connecting portion (36a or 37a). The claims only recite a single connecting portion, while the specification and drawings make clear that two connecting portions are required for the invention. Furthermore, if only a single connecting portion is present and it has a ‘first cut portion’, then there would be nothing to hold the prevention member together. As shown in Fig. 4, cut 43a is only possible in connecting portion 36a because there is no cut in element 37a on the opposite side of the pocket 32a.
Claim 1 recites “welding two ends” in line 11. Line 19 recites “a welded portion”. It is unclear if these are the same elements/features or if they are new and separate elements/features.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The closest prior art reference is Kono U.S. 2005/0185875. Although Kono discloses cut portions in the fall-off prevention member in Fig. 2C, Kono is silent as to the arrangement of cut portions relative to a welding portion or to other cut portions. The specification of the instant application states that the locations of the cut portions and the weld portion are critical ([0012]). There would be not motivation to modify the prior art to arrive at the claimed invention without the use of impermissible hindsight reconstruction.
Conclusion
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/ALAN B WAITS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617