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 .
DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
This is the first Office Action on the merits of Application 18/955,866 filed on 11/21/24. Claims 1-14 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/21/24 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1-3 & 5-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KR 20140032620 to Yoon (applicant cited reference).
Claim 1
Yoon discloses in Figs 1-4,
An aero shutter for a vehicle, comprising: at least one opening (e.g. see area within 30) through which air can flow; and a plurality of flaps (e.g. 40) that are distributed along a circumference of the opening (e.g. along 30), each flap being rotatable about a pivot joint (e.g. 22, 32, 42 or 44) between a closed state (Fig. 3a) in which the flap covers a section of the opening and an opened state (Fig. 3b) in which the flap does not cover the opening or covers the opening to a lesser extent compared to the closed state.
Claim 2
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the flaps are configured to jointly cover the entire opening when each flap assumes its closed state (see Fig 3a).
Claim 3
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the flaps are coupled to a common movement mechanism (e.g. 50, 52 & 34) configured to simultaneously rotate the flaps about their pivot joints.
Claim 5
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein a rotation axis (e.g. each pivot rotates about axis parallel to 30) of each pivot joint extends at an angle (e.g. evenly positioned along circumference) to an area of the opening.
Claim 6
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the aero shutter comprises a first member (e.g. 20) and a second member (e.g. 30) that are movable relative to one another, wherein each flap is connected to the first member via the pivot joint and each flap is coupled to the second member, and wherein during the relative movement of the first member and second member, each flap is rotatable about the pivot joint to move between the opened state and the closed state (see Fig 6).
Claim 7
The aero shutter of claim 6, wherein the second member is rotatable about a rotation axis that extends at an angle to the opening (see Fig 4, axis concentric with opening and located on the circumference of opening).
Claim 8
The aero shutter of claim 6, wherein the second member extends along at least a section of the opening’s circumference (see Fig 4, extends along opening’s circumference).
Claim 9
The aero shutter of claim 6, wherein the second member is ring-shaped and/or comprises cylindrical section (see Figs 3a, 3b & 4).
Claim 10
The aero shutter of claim 6, wherein the first member is immovable (e.g. fixed ring, paragraph 20 of translated document).
Claim 11
The aero shutter of claim 6, wherein the coupling between each flap and the second member includes a rotational degree of freedom (e.g. 32 & 44 are pivot joints) and/or a linear degree of freedom.
Claim 12
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the flaps are flat (see Fig 4).
Claim 13
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the flaps are convexly curved relative to the opening (see Figs 3a & 4 for convex curve shapes).
Claim 14
The aero shutter of claim 1, wherein the flaps comprise at least a first flap and a second flap (e.g. 40, 2 of 8 flaps), the first flap having a first edge facing a second edge of the second flap, wherein the first edge and the second edge are complementary curved (Fig 3 shows one curved edge of a flap complementing another flaps curved edge in order to cover the opening).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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 HUAN LE whose telephone number is (571)270-3122. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm PST.
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/HUAN LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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