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 .
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 10 and 15-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tatsuya (DE 102017123400).
The Tatsuya reference discloses a side sill 20 for a vehicle (see Figure 1) comprising multiple sill parts (22,24) defining a cavity (unnumbered in Figure 2) and a reinforcement profile having a main part (proximate reference numeral 34 in Figure 2) with a multi-chamber profile (S1,S2,S3,S4,S5) supported on an inner side by guide wall 34, wherein the reinforcement profile has a supporting base (proximate 24N in Figure 2) protruding downward in a vehicle vertical direction (see Figure 2) as claimed.
In regard to claims 15 and 16, see Figure 2 where the supporting base defines in-part a chamber (unnumbered).
In regard to claim 17, the parts that make up the reinforcement profiled are clearly mechanically connected together.
In regard to claim 18, see Figure 2.
Conclusion
Claims 11-14 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The Woolcock et al., Engelbert et al., and Brunner references each pertain to side sills for vehicles with multi-chamber reinforcement structures with similarity to that of Applicant’s.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art of record, with the applied Tatsuya reference being the closest prior art device, alone or in combination, teach Applicant’s invention of a side sill for a vehicle inclusive of details regarding a guide profile in a sill part in which the reinforcement profile insertable into a cavity from an end face of the side sill, as claimed. To modify the closest prior art device to have such features would involve teachings gleaned only from the instant application for patent.
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/STEVEN O DOUGLAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3612
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