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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on November 1, 2024 and June 16, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujishiro (JP 2022153347; machine translation relied upon).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 19-20, Fujishiro teaches a pneumatic tire (such a tire is inherently configured to be mounted on a tire rim having a rim width RW) comprising a tread rubber 15, a section width SW, an outer diameter from 200 to 660 mm, preferably from 250 to 580 mm (overlapping the claimed range of outer diameter), the tread rubber having a cap tread 151 forming a ground contacting surface and having a hardness of 50 to 80, preferably 58 to 76, a pair of cross belts 141 and 142 (taken to be the claimed blet layer) (machine translation at pages 2-4; figure 1), a plurality of circumferential main grooves extending continuously in the circumferential direction (machine translation at page 15; figure 5) (while orientation of the circumferential grooves is not specified, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use linear circumferential grooves as the basic and most common orientation of circumferential grooves), a specific embodiment depicts a rim width falling within the claimed 78% to 99% of the tire section width (see figure 1), the belt layer has outer edges in the axial direction, one outer edge on each axial side, and a maximum belt width Wbmax (claimed WA) of 0.85 ≤ Wbmax/TW ≤ 1.23, preferably 0.90 ≤ Wbmax/TW ≤ 1.20, with the depicted embodiment having the outer edges of the belt outside of the tread edges (machine translation at page 11; figure 4), the ground contact surface is divided into a plurality of land regions by the circumferential grooves, the land regions include a pair of shoulder land regions each located on a respective axially outermost side, each of the shoulder land regions includes an inner edge in the axial direction, in an axial half of the pneumatic tire, the inner edge of the shoulder land region is located axially inside the outer edge of the belt layer (figures 1 and 4), a pair of points C2 are defined at a distance of ¼ of the tire contact width TW from the equatorial plane CL (machine translation at page 12; figure 4), the claimed inner edge of the shoulder land region (where LA is measured from) being on the other side of circumferential groove 22 (see figures 4-5), therefore LA = 25% * TW – width of circumferential groove 22, so given conventional main groove widths of about 3-6% of tread width, results in LA = 19-22% * TW, so inserting the maximum and minimum values of Wbmax/TW set forth above results in LA = 15.4% (0.813*19%) to 25.9% (1.176*22%) of Wbmax, falling within the claimed range of 10% to 30% of claim 1, and overlapping the claimed ranges of 11% to 22% of claim 19, the tread width TW is in the range of 0.65 ≤ TW/SW ≤ 0.95, resulting in LA = 12.35% (19%*0.65) to 20.9% (22%*0.95) of SW, overlapping the range of claim 20 of 10% to 20% of the section width, and thus Hs ≤ 75 – 20 * LA/SW simplifies to Hs ≤ 75 – 20 * 12.35% and Hs ≤ 75 – 20 * 20.9%, or Hs ≤ 72.53 and Hs ≤ 70.82, the disclosed hardness values set forth above of 50 to 80, and preferably 58 to 76, overlapping these claimed ranges.
Regarding claim 2, Fujishiro teaches a plurality of circumferential grooves (machine translation at page 15; figure 5), such teaching two or more circumferential grooves, reading on the claimed limitation of two to four circumferential grooves. It is further noted that Fujishiro discloses that there can be no circumferential main groove on the tire equatorial plane (machine translation at page 15).
Regarding claim 3, Fujishiro teaches a range of SW of 100 to 400 mm, preferably 105 to 340 mm (machine translation at page 4), such ranges overlapping the claimed range.
Regarding claims 4-5, the claim is directed to a tire, rather than a tire-rim combination, and accordingly the width and diameter of the rim do not further limit the structure of the tire. Regardless, Fujishiro teaches specific embodiments having a rim size of 10x8 and 12x4.00B (machine translation at page 27), such rims having a rim width of 8 and 4 inches respectively and a rim diameter of 10 and 12 inches respectively, such values falling within the claimed ranges.
Regarding claim 6, Fujishiro teaches a specific embodiment having a tire size 235/45R10 (machine translation at page 27), such a tire having an aspect ratio of 45%, falling within the claimed range.
Regarding claim 7, as was set forth above, LA = 15.4% to 25.9% of Wbmax, and LB = Wbmax – 2 * LA, therefore LB = 48.2 to 69.2% of Wbmax (claimed WA), completely encompassed by the claimed range.
Regarding claim 8, Fujishiro teaches a relationship 1.00 ≤ Wbmax/Wbmin ≤ 1.40, resulting in a width of the cross belt 142 (claimed outermost belt ply) of 71.4% to 100% of the width of the cross belt 141, overlapping the claimed range.
Regarding claim 9, Fujishiro teaches a drop amount DA such that 0.008 ≤ DA/TW ≤ 0.090 (machine translation at page 12), and substituting in maximum and minimum Wbmax/TW values of 0.85 and 1.23, results in a range of .65% to 10.6% of Wbmax (claimed WA), overlapping the claimed range.
Regarding claim 10, given that the both of the shoulder land regions are inside of the tread edge, they are both in contact with a plane (the ground) when the tire is placed on the ground.
Regarding claims 12-14, Fujishiro teaches that the belt includes a first belt ply 141 and a second belt ply 142 disposed radially outside the first belt ply, and the outer edges of the belt layer (plies 141 and 142) are outer edges in the axial direction of the first belt ply 141, and the outer edge of the first belt ply is located axially outside an outer edge in the axial direction of the second belt ply, the outer edge of the first belt ply is located axially outside of the tread edge and the outer edge of the second belt ply is not located axially outside the tread edge (machine translation at page 11; figure 3).
Regarding claims 15-16, Fujishiro teaches a pair of sidewall rubbers 16 (taken to be the claimed sidewall portions), a pair of bead portions each having a bead core 11 embedded therein, a carcass 13 extending between the bead portions, each of the sidewall portions extending radially inward from a respective axial end of the tread portions, each of the bead portions is arranged radially inside a respective one of the sidewall portions, the carcass includes two plies 13A and 13B (machine translation at page 2; figures 1-2), the carcass plies include a body portion 131 (claimed main body portion) and a winding portion 132 (claimed turned up portion) continuous with the main body portion, the main body portion extends from the bead core of one of the bead portions to the bead core of the other one of the bead portions via the tread portion and the sidewall portions, each of the turned up portions is turned up around a respective one of the bead cores from the inside to the outside in the axial direction, the outer ends of the turned up portions of the first carcass ply are located radially outside of the tire maximum width positions, and the outer ends of the turned up portions of the second carcass ply are located radially inside the tire maximum width positions (machine translation at pages 8-9; figure 2).
Regarding claim 17, Fujishiro teaches that the tread portion is provided with two circumferential grooves 22, the land regions consist of the shoulder land regions and a crown land region demarcated between the two circumferential grooves, and each of the shoulder regions is demarcated axially outside a respective one of the circumferential grooves (machine translation at page 15; figure 1).
Regarding claim 18, Fujishiro teaches a preferred hardness range of 58 to 76, overlapping the claimed range, and measured at 20 degrees C in accordance with JIS K6253 (machine translation at page 3), and as this temperature is only 3 degrees C away from the claimed temperature, the hardness values taught would only be slightly different from their measurement at the claimed temperature, and such a range at the claimed temperature would also overlap the claimed range.
Conclusion
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/P.N.S/ Examiner, Art Unit 1749 September 5, 2025
/JUSTIN R FISCHER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749