DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The listing of references in the specification is not a proper information disclosure statement. 37 CFR 1.98(b) requires a list of all patents, publications, or other information submitted for consideration by the Office, and MPEP § 609.04(a) states, "the list may not be incorporated into the specification but must be submitted in a separate paper." Therefore, unless the references have been cited by the examiner on form PTO-892, they have not been considered.
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) filled on 10/01/2024 is being considered in the examination of this application.
Drawings
4. The drawings are objected to because reference numeral 11 appears to be a typographical error and should probably be replaced with reference numeral 12.
5. Figure 1 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g).
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
6. Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
7. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because of the presence of indefinite language such as “each other”, “which can”, “most”, “leaving only a small part”, “reduce”, “certain angle” and “certain axial clearance”. These terms as well as terms which can be implied, such as “the present invention discloses” or “adopts” should be removed entirely. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Objections
8. Claims 1-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
a. Claim 1: all instances of “an SMA” should be first defined and rewritten as --shape memory alloy (SMA)-- such that they can later be referred to as “SMA” for the purpose of clarity.
b. Claim 1, lines 1-4, the limitation “internally and sequentially comprising an SMA driver assembly, a thrust bearing assembly, a tray assembly, and a separation assembly from bottom to top, and realizing external encapsulating by a shell (1) and a bottom cover (22)” should be replaced with “comprising a shape memory alloy (SMA) driver assembly, a thrust bearing assembly, a tray assembly, and a separation assembly, wherein the SMA driver assembly, the thrust bearing assembly, the tray assembly and the separation assembly are arranged internally and sequentially on a bottom cover and within a shell, from a bottom to a top inside the shell” or the like purpose of clarity and grammatical comprehension.
c. Claim 1, line 24: the term “an inclined surface” should be rewritten as --an inclined surface of the inclined block-- for the purpose of clarity.
d. Claim 1, line 24: the term “are provided with” should be rewritten as --both include-- for the purpose of clarity.
e. Claims 2-10: the limitation “The SMA wire-driven reusable release mechanism having a self-resenting function” should be rewritten as --The SMA wire-driven reusable mechanism-- for the purpose of clarity and simplicity.
f. Claim 2, line 5: the term “top to bottom” should be rewritten as --the top to the bottom within the shell-- in accordance with the discussive above for claim 1 and for the purpose of clarity.
g. Claim 3, line 2: the term “in the thrust bearing assembly” should be rewritten as --of the thrust bearing assembly--.
h. Claim 4, line 3: the term “a side surface” should be rewritten as --a side surface of the shell” for the purpose of clarity.
i. Claim 10, line 2: the term “processed” appears to be a translational error and should be replaced with “arranged” or the like for the purpose of clarity.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
9. 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.
10. Claims 2-4 and 8 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.
11. Claim 2, line 7, recites the limitation “pits are formed in a raceway of the middle ring” which renders the intended scope of the claim unascertainable, since it is unclear as to whether the pits and raceway are considered to be the same or distinct form the pits and raceway as recited in claim 1. Further clarification and appropriate correction is required.
12. Claim 3 recites the limitation “the balls” in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
13. The term “narrow” and “wide” in claim 4 are relative terms which render the claim indefinite. The terms “narrow” and “wide” are 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. It is unclear as to exactly narrow the top of the shell in the upper portion is required to be and exactly how wide the top of the shell in the lower portion is required to be in order for the top of the shell to be considered as being narrow in the upper portion and wide in the lower portion. The examiner suggests either claiming the upper portion is narrower than lower portion or claiming the lower portion is wider than the upper portion in order to obviate such indefinitess.
14. Claim 8, line 2, recites the limitation “wherein two groups of SMA driver assemblies are arranged” which renders the claim indefinite, since it is unclear as to whether the two groups includes is in addition to or include the SMA driver assembly as recited in claim 1. Further clarification and appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 5-7 and 9-10 are allowable
Claims 2-4 and 8 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 1, the prior art of record fails to disclose the combined limitations of the claim. In particular, the SMA driver assembly, the tray assembly and the separation assembly as recited in the claim.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Nygren (US 5603595 A), Nygren (US 6469830 B1), Nygren et al. (US 6530718 B2), Yue et al. (CN 111483620 A) individually disclose an SMA wire-driven mechanism including a self-resetting function, comprising an SMA driver assembly, a thrust bearing and a separation assembly.
Houghton et al. (US 11466721 B1) discloses a driving mechanism including self-resetting function, comprising a thrust bearing assembly and a separation assembly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this or any earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Arfan Sinaki, whose telephone number is 571-272-7185. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm 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, Joshua J. Michener can be reached at 571-272-1467. The fax number for the organization to which this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ARFAN Y. SINAKI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3642
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