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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 11/20/24 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. JP 2023087018 is not seen in the file and no publication date or applicant was listed in the IDS which must be supplied when filed.
The information disclosure statement filed 3/24/25, the machine translations in the NPL are crossed through because the translations have been checked already in the Foreign Patents Documents.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO INC EP 3273186 A1.
Regarding claim 1, SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO discloses an electronically controlled regulator comprising, inside a body 30 formed with an introduction port 15 and a discharge port 12 (see Fig. 1 and paragraph [0035]), a pressure regulating valve including:
a valve shaft in which a valve body 17 is coaxially provided and capable of reciprocating in an axial direction;
a valve seat 16 having a seat face with which the valve body can be brought into close contact on a high-pressure fluid chamber side following the introduction port (see Fig. 1);
a discharge pressure regulating unit that adjusts a pressure of a fluid by changing a distance between the valve body and the valve seat while driving an electronically controlled electric motor to reciprocate the valve shaft by a valve shaft moving structure including a feed screw provided between an outer peripheral surface of the valve shaft and an inner peripheral surface of a rotor, in which the electronically controlled regulator discharges a high-pressure fluid introduced from the introduction port into the high-pressure fluid chamber from the discharge port as a pressure-reducing fluid having a set pressure on a discharge pressure chamber side while depressurizing and adjusting the high-pressure fluid by the pressure regulating valve (see claim 1 and paragraphs [0036], [0037]),
a cylindrical space is formed in the discharge pressure chamber and a piston that receives fluid pressure in the discharge pressure chamber is slidably disposed in the cylindrical space together with the valve shaft in a state where the piston is fixed to an outer peripheral side of the valve shaft (see Fig. 1);
a spring 7 that constantly biases the valve shaft in a valve closing direction while bringing a distal end side into contact with the piston is disposed in the cylindrical space (see Fig. 1 and paragraph [0069]);
a fluid pressure received by the piston is converted into a pressure load in a direction of pressing the valve body against the seat face at the time of closing the valve when the electric motor is stopped (see difference of diameters "X" and "Y" in Fig.1 and paragraph [0060]); and
occurrence of a positional deviation of the valve shaft due to a backlash provided in a meshing portion of the feed screw is avoided by a biasing force of the spring at the time of pressure regulation (see "backlash" in paragraph [0067] and Figs. 2 and 9).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO INC EP 3273186 A1 in view of Moser US 2022/0214090.
Regarding claim 2, SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO lacks that the electric motor is an AC servomotor or a DC brushless motor and discloses the valve shaft moving structure is the feed screw but lacks the shape being trapezoidal of the following; formed by a combination of a trapezoidal male screw formed on the outer peripheral surface of a columnar motion shaft coaxially attached to the valve shaft and a trapezoidal female screw formed on the inner peripheral surface of the rotor and meshing with the trapezoidal male screw, and the trapezoidal female screw rotates around the trapezoidal male screw by driving of the electric motor to move the valve shaft while operating the trapezoidal male screw in the axial direction without rotating the trapezoidal male screw. Moser discloses using either a stepping motor (used by SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO) and a DC brushless motor [0007] and that the screws may be any shape including trapezoidal [0011]. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a DC brushless motor as disclosed by Moser in place of the stepping motor of SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO as Moser teaches that either motor may be used or as a simple substitution of different motors and It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use trapezoidal screws shape as disclosed by Moser as the screws shape of SAGINOMIYA SEISAKUSHO as Moser teaches that any screw shape may be used including trapezoidal or as a simple substitution of different screws shape.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The primary reason for the allowance of the claims 3-4 is an electronically controlled regulator having the combination of the valve shaft is a cylindrical member in which an annular valve body is coaxially provided and has a passage through which a fluid can pass with a discharge pressure of the fluid is adjusted by operating the valve body on a distal end side by the discharge pressure regulating unit so as to change the distance between the valve body and the seat face in combination with the rest of the device as cited in claims 1 or 2.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Arai discloses trapezoidal shape screws. Kellogg discloses a DC brushless motor. Akita, Harada, Naganuma disclose electric motors driving valve shafts.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN BASTIANELLI whose telephone number is (571)272-4921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Craig Schneider, can be reached at telephone number (571) 272-3607 or Kenneth Rinehart can be reached at 571-272-4881. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/John Bastianelli/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
571-272-4921