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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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 11-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 102012202338 A1 in view of JP 2010-167916 A and Bachle et al. 8,573,712.
Regarding claims 11,18,19 DE ‘338 shows a method for filling a brake system of a vehicle including the steps of activating/opening valves of the brake system upon a start of the filling operation and deactivating/closing the valves in response to detecting an end of the filling operation. See figures 1 and 3.
Note throughout the machine translation that DE ‘338 indicates that a filling machine is connected to the master cylinder.
Lacking in DE ‘338 is a specific showing of the filling machine/installation.
The reference to JP ‘916 shows a method for filling a brake system in figure 1 but shows the filling machine at 100,110 and 120. Note the states of the valves at 22,40 and 42 during the filling and vacuum process.
The reference to Bachle shows a device for bleeding a brake system but includes a controller w/memory and sensors (see the abstact), as disclosed in col 3 lines 3-20.
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have found it obvious to have incorporated a filling machine/installation in the device of DE ‘338, as taught by JP ‘916, since DE ‘338 indicates that one exists in the device. Also it would have been obvious to have incorporated a sensor and memory into the controller to control the filling and bleeding operations of the device.
Regarding claims 12,13,15-19, as discussed throughout DE ‘338, and as modified above by JP ‘916 and Bachle, these limitations are met.
Regarding claim 14 note the low pressure accumulator at 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER P SCHWARTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7123. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 A.M.-7:00P.M..
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/CHRISTOPHER P SCHWARTZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3616
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