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 § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-8, and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 209312947, in view of CN 2021217725422 (translation, Zhang et al., US 2023/0327175 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 6, 15, and 20, CN ‘947 discloses a winding needle assembly (see figure 1, which is driven by an external mechanism), comprising a first winding needle 10 and a second winding needle 20, wherein the first winding needle and the second winding needle are configured to clamp a separator (not shown, see abstract), and the second winding needle 20 comprising a second inclined surface 221 toward the first winding needle 10 of a first inclined surface 121 (claims 4, 18); a first connecting part 13 and a first winding part 11, a second connecting part 23 and a second winding part 21, and connected to each other (claims 2, 5, 16, 19); at least one first fixing hole 133 and a first positioning part 134, at least one second fixing hole 233 and a second positioning part 234 (claims 13-14), see figures 1-3.
Zhang ‘175 discloses a plurality of transmission protrusions (i.e., as a rolling member since it’s able to rotate/move, 31, 310, are located away from a second connecting part, no reference number, claims 3, 7, 17) on a winding needle 30 to help rotate with a winding needle sleeve 10, see figures 9-13.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the apparatus of CN ‘175 to include a rolling member as suggested by Zhang ‘175, in order to help facilitate winding of the separator. Furthermore, since all of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
Regarding claim 8, as stated above, Zhang ‘175 shows the rolling member (31, 310) protruding from the winding needle, but does not specifically show a range of dimension.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to select the size ranges of the rolling member protrusion as claimed by the applicant, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-12 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 claims 9-12 are patentable over the prior art of record because the teachings of the references taken as a whole do not show or render obvious the combination set forth in claims 9-12, including every structural element recited in the claims.
None of the references of the prior art teach or suggest the elements of the device as advanced above and such do not provide the necessary motivation, absent applicant's specification, for modifying the device in the manner required by the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANG K KIM whose telephone number is 571-272-6947. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 9 P.M or Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 7 P.M.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Victoria Augustine, can be reached on (313) 446-4858. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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SK
2/4/26
/SANG K KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654