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 .
This is the First Office Action on the merits of Application No. 18/878112, filed on 12/23/2024. Claims 16-30 are still pending in the application.
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.
(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) 16-17, 22, 16, 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by KR 10-1929263 to Kwon (henceforth referred to as Kwon).
Regarding claims 16-17, 22, 16, 29-30, Kwon discloses an elevator including an elevator car movable in an elevator shaft to a floor (i.e. Machine Translation page 2, lines 1-2: “an elevator car moving along a hoistway… and a platform door installed… at each floor of the building”), the car having a car door with a least a first car door leaf (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 210, 220), the elevator shaft having a shaft door with a least a first shaft door leaf (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 230, 240) at the floor, the car door having an electrically activatable car door lock (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 20) and the shaft door having an electrically activatable shaft door lock (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 110), the car door lock having a first latch (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 22, 40) locking the first car door leaf, the shaft door having a lock (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 110 shows a latch hook) locking the shaft door, the shaft door lock being accessible from the floor and manually actuatable for unlocking the shaft door lock from the floor (i.e. Machine Translation page 3, first paragraph: “person on the landing door opens the emergency key… provided on the first landing door… and then the first car door.. and the second car door can be manually opened together with the first landing door… and the second landing door), the elevator comprising:
the car door lock having an emergency unlocking mechanism (i.e. Fig. 38, 262, 264, 266) operatively connected to the first latch of the car door lock;
an actuator (i.e. Fig. 1, shows “pusher” ref. 112) attached to the shaft door and being movable from a first position to a second position (i.e. Machine translation page 4, last paragraph: “door hook 110 is pivotally moved up and down relative to a hinge… and the pusher pushes the floor cam”) by moving a key in the shaft door lock (i.e. Machine Translation page 5, first paragraph: “landing door latch 110 rotates one direction of the emergency key provided on at least one landing door… so that… locking latch is released”), the actuator actuating the emergency unlocking mechanism in the second position to brin the first latch into an unlocked position thereby unlocking the car door lock and the first car door leaf (i.e. Machine Translation page 5, paragraph 6: “the emergency key… provided on the first landing door… lifting door latch 110 is moved together with the first landing door to push up the vane wing 38 upward… the vane wing 38 pushed the unlocking bracket 264” and page 6, fifth paragraph: “key lock unlocking device… releases the locked state of the car door lock device when manually opening the landing door”);
wherein the shaft door and the car door are spaced apart by a predetermined distance from one another in a region of a door coupling (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 30, 112), the door coupling having a shaft door coupling (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 112 serves as coupling elements) that engages with a car door coupling (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 30) such that the first car door leaf and the first shaft door leaf move collectively;
wherein the first shaft door leaf is locked by a hook (i.e. Fig. 6 shows a hoot at the end of ref. 110) of the first shaft door leaf engaging a first shaft door latch (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 14);
wherein the car door lock is driven by an electric car door lock drive (i.e. Fig. 1, not referenced but car door operator shown next to ref. 266) to unlock the first car door leaf;
wherein the shaft door lock is driven by an electric shaft door lock drive (i.e. also indirectly driven by door operator) to unlock the first shaft door leaf;
wherein the car door lock is attached to a car door striker (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 200) and the shaft door lock is attached to a shaft door striker (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 120); and
the shaft door lock and the actuator are arranged in the shaft door striker such that the actuator in the first position (i.e. Fig. 2, ref. 110, 112 is in a non- pivoted position) is spaced at least the predetermined distance from a clearance profile of the car (i.e. Fig. 2, when ref. 110, 112 are in the non pivoted position, there is clearance for the elevator car to travel past).
Wherein the emergency unlocking mechanism includes an emergency unlocking lever (i.e. Fig. 2, ref. 38) moved by the actuator.
Wherein movement of the actuator applies a pressure force to the emergency unlocking mechanism (i.e. Fig. 4-Fig. 5, ref. 112 of 110 pushes against ref. 38).
A method for emergency unlocking the car door of the elevator according to claim 16, the method comprising steps of:
unlocking the shaft door from the floor by manually actuating the shaft door lock (i.e. Machine Translation page 6, fifth paragraph: “key lock unlocking device… releases the locked state of the car door lock device when manually opening the landing door”);
moving the actuator from a first position to the second position by the actuation of the shaft door lock (i.e. Machine translation page 4, last paragraph: “door hook 110 is pivotally moved up and down relative to a hinge… and the pusher pushes the floor cam”);
the actuator actuating the emergency unlocking mechanism upon the actuator reaching the second position (i.e. Fig. 4-Fig. 5); and
the actuation of the emergency unlocking mechanism unlocking the car door lock that unlocks the first car door leaf (i.e. Fig. 5 and Machine Translation page 6, fifth paragraph: “key lock unlocking device… releases the locked state of the car door lock device”).
Wherein the turning of the key directly causes rotation of the actuator (i.e. Machine Translation page 5, first paragraph: “landing door latch 110 rotates on direction of the emergency key provided in the first landing door”).
including unlocking a second car door leaf of the car door by actuating the emergency unlocking mechanism (i.e. Fig. 5, both ref. 230 and 240 are unlocked when ref. 38, 262, 264 and 266 are actuated).
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(s) 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 10-1929263 to Kwon.
Regarding claim 28, Kwon does not specifically teach turning the key at least 20 degrees. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to turn the key at least 20 degrees to ensure the hook of the shaft door lock is rotated enough to be certain the hook clears the horizontal latch of the shaft door lock since it has been held where general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves routine skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18-21, 23-25 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
WO 2023/053320 to Kwon teaches a shaft door opening apparatus;
WO 2013/140575 to Koketsu teaches a shaft door opening apparatus;
JP 2009-113915 to Imashiro et al teaches a shaft door opening apparatus;
US Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0078628 to Christen teaches shaft door opening apparatus;
JP 2003-335483 to Ito et al teaches a shaft door opening apparatus.
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/DIEM M TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3654