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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Fujihara et al. (US 10,894,453). Fujihara et al. discloses a coupling device (7) mounted on an automatic traveling device (5) and capable of coupling a towed vehicle (3), the coupling device comprising: a drive motor (73); a gear mechanism (731) connected to the drive motor; a coupling arm (71) connected to the gear mechanism (See Figure 6); and a controller (although the controller is not labeled, see column 6, lines 29-54, which describes how the automatic traveling device is controlled as set forth in Figure 12) that drives the drive motor; wherein in a case where the automatic traveling device reaches a predetermined coupling operation position (S2 in Figure 12), the controller moves the coupling arm from a non-coupling position (See Figure 5) to a coupling position (See Figure 16) at which the coupling arm is coupled to the towed vehicle by driving the drive motor and rotating the gear mechanism.
Regarding claim 9, Fujihara et al. discloses the coupling device comprising a housing (See Figure 5), wherein the drive motor and the gear mechanism are housed in the housing, and the coupling arm is housed in the housing (See Figure 5) at the non-coupling position, and moves from the non-coupling position in the housing to the coupling position outside the housing in response to a rotational operation of the gear mechanism (See Figure 16).
Regarding claim 10, Fujihara et al. discloses an automatic traveling device (5) comprising a coupling device (7) capable of coupling a towed vehicle (3), the coupling device including: a drive motor (73); a gear mechanism (731) connected to the drive motor; a coupling arm (71) connected to the gear mechanism (See Figure 6); and a controller that drives the drive motor (although the controller is not labeled, see column 6, lines 29-54, which describes how the automatic traveling device is controlled as set forth in Figure 12), the automatic traveling device further comprising an output processor (inherent) that outputs a drive signal to the coupling device in a case where the automatic traveling device reaches a coupling operation position at which an operation of the coupling the towed vehicle is performed (See Figure 12), wherein a case where the controller receives the drive signal, the controller moves the coupling arm from a non-coupling position at which the coupling arm is coupled to the coupling portion of the towed vehicle by driving the drive motor and rotating the gear mechanism.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James A Shriver II whose telephone number is (303)297-4337. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00 am - 4:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, J. Allen Shriver II can be reached at (303) 297-4337. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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J. ALLEN SHRIVER II
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3613
/JAMES A SHRIVER II/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3613
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