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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 6 and 7 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 6/5/2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-5 in the reply filed on 6/5/2026 is acknowledged.
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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticiapted by Takahashi [EP3564029].
Takahashi discloses a method for manufacturing a connecting member in which a first connecting body and a second connecting body are connected, the first connecting body having a first member at one end portion, and the second connecting body having, at one end portion, a second member extending along the first member (paragraph 0014, 0029), the method comprising: a pre-joining process of preparing a laminated body in a state in which the first member, a solid joining agent containing, as a main component, an amorphous thermoplastic resin that is at least one type of agent selected from the group consisting of a thermoplastic epoxy resin and a phenoxy resin, and the second member, are arranged in this order (paragraph 0073-76); and a joining process of joining the first member and the second member by heating and pressurizing the laminated body to melt the solid joining agent (paragraphs 0073-76), wherein an epoxy equivalent of the amorphous thermoplastic resin is 1600 or more or the amorphous thermoplastic resin does not contain an epoxy group, and heat of fusion of the amorphous thermoplastic resin is 15 J/g or less (the properties of the resin are inherent to the amorphous thermoplastic resin of Takahashi, as both Takahashi and the claimed invention use identical resins).
With respect to claim 2, Takahashi discloses the heating and pressurizing are performed under conditions of 100°C to 400°C and 0.01 MPa to 20 MPa (paragraphs 0088-89).
With respect to claim 3, Takahashi discloses the solid joining agent before melting is a film (paragraph 0076).
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.
Claims 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi in view of Tanaka [JP2008-296556, machine translation provided].
Takahashi discloses a method for manufacturing a connecting member. Applicant is referred to paragraph 5 for a detailed discussion of Takahashi as modified. With respect to claim 4 Takahashi discloses bonding automobile components, but does not disclose a bonding metal to metal. Tanaka discloses adhesively bonding vehicle panels with an adhesive, and teaches bonding a metal vehicle panel to a metal vehicle and Tanaka also discloses one of the components could be a resin (“Best-Mode” section of disclosure). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to modify the method of Takahashi by bonding a metal component to a metal component as taught by Tanaka in order to take advantage of the properties of metal components, to use the same material to match thermal expansion properties of the components, and as a substitution of known alternative materials for their intended purpose is within the ability of one of ordinary skill.
With respect to claim 5, Tanaka discloses the first connecting body extends along a first direction, and the first member extends in a second direction intersecting the first direction (Figures 1 and 6-9).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL MCNALLY whose telephone number is (571)272-2685. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/DANIEL MCNALLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1746
DPM
June 26, 2026
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