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 .
Claims 1-6, 9-18, and 20-23 are currently pending. Claims 1-6, 9-18, 20-21, and 23 are allowed. Claim 22 is rejected.
It is noted the claims submitted on November 12, 2025 appear with abnormal formatting. For example, see the unnecessary breaks in the excerpt of Claim 1 provided below. Applicant is requested to review the formatting of the entire claim set so that the claims are easier to read.
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Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pg. 8 of the remarks, filed November 12, 2025, with respect to the objection of the Abstract, objections of Claims 17 and 20, rejections of Claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 112 have been fully considered and are persuasive in light of amendments. The objection of the Abstract, objections of Claims 17 and 20, rejections of Claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 112 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Pg. 9 of the remarks, filed with respect to the rejection of Claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of Claim 1 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments are found persuasive in light of amendments. See “Allowable Subject Matter” section below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(d)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Regarding Claim 22, Lines 1-2 recite “wherein the gear mesh stiffness between the planet gears and the ring gear is in the range from 1.40x109 N/m to 2.00x1010 N/m”. This is the exact same limitation as recited in Claim 18, which Claim 22 depends upon. The only difference is the additional zeroes. Thus, Claim 22 is rejected for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, since it merely recites the same limitations.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6, 9-18, 20-21, and 23 are allowed.
Regarding Claim 1, the claim has been amended to include the limitation of “the gear mesh stiffness between the planet gears and the ring gear multiplied by the gear mesh stiffness between the planet gears and the sun gear is less than 1.5x1019 N2m-2”. On Pg. 9 of the remarks filed November 12, 2025, as best understood, Applicant alleges this is not contemplated by the art of record and would not have been an obvious result of routinely optimizing with the claimed gear mesh stiffness between the planet gears and the sun gear. This is found to be persuasive. Therefore the rejection of Claim 1 has been withdrawn.
This amendment also obviates the double patenting rejection that was previously given through further narrowing of the claim.
Regarding Claim 21, the claim is similar in scope to previously recited Claim 1. The difference is the claim recites a range of gear mesh stiffness between the planet gears and ring gear instead of the planet gears and sun gear. The claim is considered allowable for the same reasons set forth above.
Claims 2-6, 9-18, 20-21, and 23 subsequently depend upon Claims 1 and 21, respectively.
As noted above, Applicant is suggested to check the formatting the claims. Applicant is also suggested to check the amendment to Claim 16, as the spacing between “to” and the numerical value appears small.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELTON K WONG whose telephone number is (408)918-7626. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00AM - 5:00PM PST.
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/ELTON K WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745