DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group III claim 4 in the reply filed on 11-25-025 is acknowledged. The restriction is made final.
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.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Johansson et al. (4,790,169). Johansson discloses a molding die comprising a punch sleeve (320), an annular holding die (330), a doming ring (336) and a base die (342). Johansson discloses a method of forming a bottomed metal cylinder (10A; Fig. 14) comprising lowering the punch sleeve (320; Fig. 10) from inside the bottomed metal cylinder workpiece (10’; col. 8, lines 17-18) and pressing a lower end peripheral edge portion (13’; Fig. 10) of the cylinder workpiece (10’) against a working surface (332) of the annular holding die (330), to form a chime portion (302) and a ground contact portion (304) at a bottom surface peripheral edge portion of the cylinder (Fig. 10). As the punch sleeve (320) is lowered (Fig. 11) in axial direction (324) the doming ring (336) is elastically biased in the opposite axial direction (325) and held in a raised position by springs (352) relative to the base die (342; Fig. 12) while holding the chime portion (302) and the ground contact portion (304) of the cylinder (10’) by the punch sleeve (320) and the working surface (332) of the annular holding die (330) to form a rising portion (306) between the punch sleeve and the doming ring (Fig. 12) and a peripheral edge portion (Fig. 12) comprising a portion of cylinder bottom (14’) that is formed by a can body engaging surface (338) of the doming ring (336) to be an outer annular portion of a dome-shaped bottom surface (308; col. 8, lines 46-47) inside the ground contact portion (304); and arranging the base die (342) to form a center portion (Fig. 13) of the dome-shaped bottom surface (308).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDWARD THOMAS TOLAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4525. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-5.
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/EDWARD T TOLAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3725
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