DETAILED ACTION
This is the first Office action on the merits of Application No. 18/943,798. Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 4/22/2025 and 5/27/2026 have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 6 and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
in claim 6, line 2, the phrase “the sun gear and planetary gear” appears it should be –the sun gear and the planetary gear--;
in claim 6, lines 2-3, the phrase “compound planetary, and stepped planetary gear system” appears it should be –a compound planetary, and a stepped planetary gear system--; and
in claim 17, line 4, the phrase “a other end” appears is could be –the other end—or –another end--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(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.
Claims 1, 4-7, 10, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by He (US Patent 11712961).
Regarding claim 1, He discloses a drive train (Fig. 1) for a wheeled vehicle comprising: a fixed axle (axle 1, “the axle 1 has a cylindrical structure and is fixedly connected to a frame”); an axial flux electric motor (rotors 6 and 7 with stator 3), wherein the axial flux electric motor includes: (i) a first set of bearings (Fig. A, below, 1st set) supported on the fixed axle; and (ii) a rotor shaft (shaft portions adjacent to 8 and 9) supported by the first set of bearings; and a gearbox (sun gear 11, planetary gear 12, carrier 13, and ring gear 14) supported on the fixed axle by a second set of bearings (Fig. A bearings support the sun gear and carrier), wherein the gearbox includes: (i) a sun gear (11) rigidly connected to a rotor (rotors 6 and 7) of the axial flux electric motor; and (ii) at least one planetary gear (12) in contact with the sun gear; wherein an output (13) of the gearbox is rigidly connected to a wheel hub (2) and the at least one planetary gear.
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Fig. A: Fig. 1 of He (US Patent 11712961)
Regarding claim 4, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, wherein: the axial flux electric motor and the gearbox are adjacent on the fixed axle (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 5, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, wherein: the wheel hub surrounds at least a portion of the gearbox in a radial direction (shown in Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 6, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, wherein: the sun gear and planetary gear are both part of one of: a simple planetary (shown in Fig. 1), compound planetary, and stepped planetary gear system.
Regarding claim 7, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, wherein: the axial flux electric motor serves as a single motor for the gearbox and the gearbox is not connected to any other motor (Fig. 6 shows motor (e.g. 7) only operational mode with gearbox not connected to anything else).
Regarding claim 10, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, wherein: the first set of bearings are at least partially enclosed by the rotor shaft (shown in Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 18, He discloses a wheeled vehicle (column 1) comprising: at least one wheel hub (2); a fixed axle (axle 1, “the axle 1 has a cylindrical structure and is fixedly connected to a frame”); an axial flux electric motor (rotors 6 and 7 with stator 3), wherein the axial flux electric motor includes: (i) a first set of bearings (Fig. A, 1st set) supported on the fixed axle; and (ii) a rotor shaft (shaft portions adjacent to 8 and 9) supported by the first set of bearings; and a gearbox (sun gear 11, planetary gear 12, carrier 13, and ring gear 14) supported on the fixed axle by a second set of bearings (Fig. A bearings support the sun gear and carrier), wherein the gearbox includes: (i) a sun gear (11) rigidly connected to a rotor (11) of the axial flux electric motor; and (ii) at least one planetary gear (12) in contact with the sun gear; wherein an output (13) of the gearbox is rigidly connected to the at least one wheel hub and the at least one planetary gear.
Regarding claim 20, He discloses a method, comprising: rotating a rotor of an axial flux electric motor (rotors 6 and 7 with stator 3), wherein the axial flux electric motor includes: (i) a first set of bearings (Fig. A, 1st set) supported on a fixed axle (axle 1, “the axle 1 has a cylindrical structure and is fixedly connected to a frame”); and (ii) a rotor shaft (shaft portions adjacent to 8 and 9) supported by the first set of bearings; rotating, based on rotating the rotor, a planetary gear (12) of a gearbox (sun gear 11, planetary gear 12, carrier 13, and ring gear 14), the gearbox being supported on the fixed axle by a second set of bearings (Fig. A bearings support the sun gear and carrier), wherein the gearbox includes a sun gear (11) rigidly connected to the rotor and in contact with the planetary gear; and rotating, based on rotating the planetary gear, a wheel hub (2), the wheel hub being rigidly connected to the planetary gear.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Patent 11712961) in view of Tetsull (Canadian document CA831710, cited on IDS).
Regarding claim 14, He discloses the drive train of claim 1, further comprising: a marking on the sun gear, the sun gear having a prime number of teeth, the at least one planetary gear having a prime number of teeth (e.g. column 7).
He does not disclose the markings.
Tetsull discloses the drive train comprising a marking on the sun gear, the sun gear having a prime number of teeth; and a marking on the at least one planetary gear, the at least one planetary gear having a prime number of teeth, wherein the marking on the sun gear and the marking on the at least one planetary gear are aligned during assembly (Fig. 4 and page 7, lines 10-30).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified He to incorporate the markings of Tetsull with a reasonable expectation of success with the recognized advantage of aligning the assembly.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Patent 11712961) in view of Yoshino (US Patent Publication 20130288841).
Regarding claim 19, He discloses the wheeled vehicle of claim 18, wherein: the at least one wheel hub is a wheel hub for a tire (Fig. 1).
He does not disclose the swing arm and electric scooter.
Yoshino discloses the wheeled vehicle wherein: the wheeled vehicle is an electric scooter (Fig. 1, 1); the at least one wheel hub is a wheel hub for a tire (37) of the electric scooter; and the fixed axle is supported by a swing arm (22) of the electric scooter.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified He to incorporate the swing arm and electric scooter of Yoshino with a reasonable expectation of success with the recognized advantage of incorporating a compact electric motor and gearbox assembly into an electric vehicle/scooter wheel.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 8-9, 11-13, and 15-17 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.
Reasons for allowance, if applicable, will be the subject of a separate communication to the Applicant or patent owner, pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.104 and MPEP § 1302.14.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu (Chinese document 115296482) discloses a hub motor of axial magnetic flux built-in planetary speed reducer.
Duan (US Patent Publication 20230283145) discloses integrated axial flux motor assemblies including planetary gearsets.
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/LORI WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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