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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamashita et al. (WO 2016/129287 A1) in view of Yamamoto et al. (US 2004/0124733 A1).
RE claim 1, Yamashita teaches an electric motor 10 (Fig.2), comprising: a stator 31 overmolded with a jacket 35, said stator 31 having a stator winding 33 with winding ends (WE) (see annotated Fig.1), said winding ends projecting beyond said stator at one end as phase connections 37 and being aligned axially in pairs (see Fig.5 for pairs of end connection 37);
a rotor 21 rotatably mounted about an axis of rotation (of shaft 14) with respect to said stator 31;
a motor support 35 having a plurality of passage openings 84 formed therein and corresponding to a number of said phase connections 37 (Fig.5);
a connecting cable 11 (e.g.: 11b, see Fig.5) with connecting contacts for making contact (electrical contact) with said winding ends 37; and a plurality of wire holders (74, 75) corresponding to the number of said phase connections 37 disposed on said one end of said stator 31, through said wire holders (74, 75) said winding ends are guided in pairs (Fig.5).
Yamashita does not teach the jacket is made of plastic.
Yamamoto suggested that mold can be made by engineering plastic resin which can provide excellent flowability, good thermal resistance and strength endurable for high density winding (¶ 59).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yamashita by having the jacket to be made of plastic, as suggested by Yamamoto, for the same reasons as discussed above.
Claims 10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamashita in view of Yamamoto as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Winheim et al. (US 2017/0125928 A1).
RE claim 10/1, Yamashita in view of Yamamoto has been discussed above. Yamashita further said winding ends 37 are guided through said wire holders from a parallel orientation into a mutually facing alignment (Fig.5).
Yamashita does not teach the electric motor is a cooling fan motor for a motor vehicle. However, Yamashita suggests that the motor with the provided advantage of preventing the undesirable deformation of the connecting and the desirable shape is maintained.
Winheim suggests that electrical motor is well-known to be utilized in any applicable application such as fan of a motor vehicle (¶ 7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the electric machine, disclosed by Yamashita, in any applicable application such as fan of a motor vehicle for the same reasons as discussed above.
Claim 12/1 is rejected for similar reason as claim 10/1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-9 and 11 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.
RE claim 2/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, each of said wire holders has a plate-shaped contact portion and a guide portion molded thereon for said winding ends.
Claim 3 is allowable for its dependency on claim 2.
RE claim 4/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, a respective wire holder of said wire holders has a guide contour holding said winding ends, said guide contour tapers conically toward said motor support; and/or said respective wire holder has at least two passage channels formed therein and extending at an angle or obliquely relative to one another for each of said winding ends.
RE claim 5/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, a respective wire holder of said wire holders has at least two inlet openings formed therein at a distance from one another and at least two outlet openings formed therein at a distance from one another, wherein the distance between said outlet openings is smaller than the distance between said inlet openings.
RE claim 6/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, said connecting contacts for making contact with said winding ends are hook-shaped with a connecting leg assigned to said connecting cable and with a free or clamping leg bent over approximately in a U shape.
Claims 7 and 8 are allowable for their dependency on claim 6.
RE claim 9/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, a base plate having through openings formed therein and aligning with said passage openings of said motor support for said winding ends aligned by means of said wire holders; and/or said base plate having press-in slots formed therein for holding and/or positioning said connecting contacts.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-5532. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-6PM EST.
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, Seye Iwarere can be reached at (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS TRUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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