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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claim 1: The term “close to” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “close to” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
In particular, lines 11 and 12 of the claim recite “a vibration inhibiting member is provided so as to be close to or in contact with radially inner sides of the metal terminals while including an axis of the separator” but there does not appear to be any indication in Applicant’s disclosure as to what constitutes such an inhibiting member being “close to” said metal terminals. The relevant portions of Applicant’s as-filed specification appear to be ¶ 97 and 98 which recite, respectively “a vibration inhibiting member 80 is provided so as to be close to or in contact with the radially inner sides of the metal terminals 71” and “the vibration inhibiting member 80 is provided so as to be close to or in contact with the radially inner sides of the metal terminals 71 while including the axis of the separator 50”. Furthermore, Applicant’s as-filed specification also recites in ¶ 9 “a vibration inhibiting member is provided so as to be close to (adjacent) or in contact with radially inner sides of the metal terminals” but there is no elucidating information that provides the reader with the scope of what one should consider to be close to/adjacent to said metal terminals. For instance, a recitation of --within 1 mm-- or --directly contacting-- could obviate the above issue by providing a definitive scope of Applicant considers to be “close to” regarding the relative distance between the claimed vibration inhibiting member and metal terminals.
As to claim 3: Lines 15 and 16 of the claim recite “a vibration inhibiting member is provided, between the separator and the grommet, so as to be close to or in contact with radially inner sides of the metal terminals” and accordingly suffers from a similar issue as claim 1 for reasons similar thereto but not repeated herein for brevity.
As to claims 2 and 4-12: Each of said claims depends ultimately from one of claims 1 or 3 and accordingly each inherits the issues of their respective independent claims regarding the recitation of “close to” as noted previously above but not repeated herein for brevity.
Due to the above noted issues regarding a lack of certainty of scope regarding the recitation of “close to” a proper and complete prior art search for the claimed subject matter of each of claims 1-12 could not be carried out at this time. However, in the interest of compact prosecution, to the examiner’s best understanding, a preliminary search for what appears to be the most relevant prior art has been carried out and the closest available prior art documents are listed for Applicant’s reference below.
The examiner recommends responding to this office action by indicating how Applicant believes the claim scopes of independent claims 1 and 3 (as well as the claims dependent thereupon) by indicating what Applicant considers to be “close to”, preferably by providing evidence from Applicant’s disclosure so as to avoid new matter issues. Alternatively or in addition, the examiner notes that the above issues could also be remedied by amendment to obviate the above noted issues.
In the event Applicant’s response overcomes the issues regarding “close to” as claimed in each of claims 1 and 3, a prior art search for the claimed subject matter of each (as well as each of the claims dependent thereupon) would be conducted at that time in order to advance prosecution of the application.
References Cited but not Relied Upon
As to references cited but not relied upon:
Noda et al. US Pat 6,550,309 B1 discloses a gas sensor with a sealing material which disperses stress from mechanical or thermal shock and appears to be pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
Paulus et al. US Pat 5,739,414 discloses a sensor with a glass seal with improved strength and durability, is operable over jarring and vibrations, and appears to be pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN M ROYSTON whose telephone number is (571)270-7215. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4:30 E.S.T..
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Macchiarolo can be reached at 571-272-2375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN M ROYSTON/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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