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 .
Application Status
This action is responsive to the claims filed 9 October 2024 and response to election/restriction filed 13 November 2025.
Claims 1-13 are currently pending. Claims 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11-12 have been withdrawn from consideration. Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 13 are presently being examined on the merits.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
Receipt is acknowledged of an Information Disclosure Statement, filed 9 October 2024, which has been placed of record in the file. An initialed, signed and dated copy of the PTO-1449 or PTO-SB-08 form is attached to this Office action.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species V (claims 1-4, 6, 8, 10 and 13 deemed by applicant to read on the elected species) in the reply filed on 13 November 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that “the search and examination of the entire application could be performed without serious burden. MPEP §803”. This is not found persuasive because:
Applicant alleges that there would be no burden on the examiner in examining all of the claims at once, relying on M.P.E.P. §802.02. Chapter 800, however, is limited to a discussion of the subject of restriction and double patenting under Title 35 of the United States Code and Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations as it relates to national applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a). The discussion of unity of invention under the Patent Cooperation Treaty Articles and Rules as it is applied as an International Searching Authority, International Preliminary Examining Authority, and in applications entering the National Stage under 35 U.S.C. 371 as a Designated or Elected Office in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is covered in M.P.E.P. §1850 and is dictated by PCT Rules 13.1 and 13.2. See M.P.E.P. §801. Burden is not a consideration in a finding of lack of inventive unity; rather, according to M.P.E.P. §1850, the only consideration is whether the inventions share a special technical feature.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 13 November 2025.
Note that claim 2 is withdrawn from consideration because the claim requires that the “radial outer surface being provided with the plurality of slanted surfaces” which is not shown in the embodiment of Species V (figs. 14 and 15).
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 13 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 line 2 recites “(Rba)”, which should be deleted.
Claim 1 line 9 recites “radial outer and inner” should read “radial outer and inner surface”.
Claims 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 13, each claim is objected to because it depends or requires all of the limitations of an objected to claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 8, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Asthana (US 2019/0186236).
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Asthana teaches:
Claim 1: A control valve (330-fig.3A,B) for a hydraulic impact device of a rock breaking apparatus (¶[0036]), wherein the control valve is an elongated piece with a central axis (annotated fig.3B) and radial outer (annotated fig.3B) and inner surfaces (annotated fig.3B), and comprises the control valve comprising:
several control surfaces (326-fig.3A) located at axial distances from each other and arranged for controlling hydraulic fluid flows in response to an axial control movement (¶[0023]), wherein the control valve is configured to be rotated hydraulically during operation of the impact device (¶[0023]-[0024]), wherein the control valve is without any transverse openings passing in the control valve in a transverse direction (see figs.3A-B showing 326 does not go all the way through 324);
the radial outer surface (annotated fig.3B) including at least one slanted surface (36-fig.3A) for generating torque for providing the hydraulic rotation (¶[0023]-[0024]), a longitudinal direction of which has an oblique orientation in relation to the central axis of the control valve (¶[0023]-[0024]); wherein
the control valve being a control sleeve including a central axial opening (332-fig.3A) configured as a fluid passage (¶[0023]-[0024]).
Claim 4: The control valve as claimed in claim1, wherein the at least one slanted surface (326-fig.3A) is linearly directed on the outer radial surface of the control valve (see fig.3A showing 326 are linearly direction on an outer surface).
Claim 6: The control valve as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one slanted surface (326-fig.3A) has uniform radial dimensions at least in one longitudinal part of the at least one slanted surface (see fig.1 showing the cuts are straight and uniform).
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Claim 8: The control valve as claimed claim 1, further comprising a first end surface (A-annotated fig.3A) and an opposite second end surface (B-annotated fig.3A) wherein the at least one slanted surface comprises a plurality of slanted surfaces extending to at one of the mentioned first end surface and second end surface (see annotated fig.3A showing 326 extending to B).
Claim 10: The control valve as claims in claim 1, wherein the at least one slanted surface (326-fig.3A) has a groove-like configuration (¶[0023]).
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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leino (US 2016/0003372) in view of Asthana (US 2019/0186236).
Leino teaches:
Claim 13: An impact device (2-fig.1) of a rock breaking apparatus (¶[0015]), the impact device comprising:
a body (3-fig.1);
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a percussion piston (4-fig.1) being movable within a valve cylinder in an impact direction towards a front end of the impact device and in a reverse direction towards a rear end of the impact device (¶[0015]-[0016]);
a working pressure space provided with hydraulic pressure fluid for moving the percussion piston in the reverse direction (¶[0015]-[0017]));
a control pressure space (A-annotated fig.1) at a rear end of the valve cylinder and being provided with a control valve (7-fig.1), the control valve being arranged for controlling hydraulic pressure affecting at the pressure space and to thereby controlling reciprocating movement of the percussion piston and wherein the control valve is configured to be rotated hydraulically during the operation of the impact device (¶[0017]-[0019]), wherein the control valve comprises several includes at least one slanted surfaces surface (8a-fig.3; ¶[0027]-[0028]).
Leino does not expressly teach the control valve according to claim 1.
Asthana teaches a control valve according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to modify the device of Leino, by the control valve, as taught by Asthana, as a known alternative control valve that operates in the same way.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the claim objections set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The references listed on the attached form (PTO-892) are cited to show control valves and impact devices. All are cited as being of interest and to show the state of the prior art.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATIE L GERTH whose telephone number is (303)297-4602. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 9am-4pm (CT).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Shelley Self can be reached at (571)272-4524. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KATIE L GERTH/Examiner, Art Unit 3731
/STEPHEN F. GERRITY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3731 22 December 2025