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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: in line 2, the word “to” should follow “a stop connected” and come before “the body”. Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-3 and 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (CN-114889505-A) in view of Yu (CN-217705580-U).
Zhu and Yu each disclose a vehicle seating assembly with a foldable middle seat that becomes an armrest when folded down.
Claim 1 – Zhu teaches a seat module for an automotive vehicle (“vehicle rear seat” in the title), the seat module comprising:
a frame securable to a chassis of the automotive vehicle (element 1 in figure 1);
a driver seat connected to the frame (seating frame on the right-hand side of element 3 in figure 1) and a passenger seat connected to the frame (seating frame on the left-hand side of element 3 in figure 1); and
a middle seat assembly located between the driver seat and the passenger seat (element 3 in figure 1), the middle seat assembly including:
a middle frame securable to the frame (element 31 in figure 2);
a fixed portion connected to the middle frame (element 30 in figure 2), the fixed portion including one or more cushions (figure 6); and
a headrest (as seen in figures 1, 2, and 6), a movable portion (element 32 in figure 6) pivotably connected to the middle frame and movable between an upright position where the movable portion forms a backrest of a middle seat (figure 6) and a lowered position where the movable portion forms an armrest (element 32 in figure 6 is labeled as a “backrest handrail part” in the description of drawings).
Zhu teaches a headrest but does not teach the movable portion as the part that includes the headrest.
Yu teaches the movable portion includes the headrest (figures 1 and 2).
When the middle seat is folded down in the armrest position, the headrest being in the upright position no longer serves a purpose. The headrest being attached to the movable portion would serve the purpose of extending the armrest area for the occupants on either side of the armrest. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to attach the headrest of Zhu to the movable portion of Zhu as shown in the disclosure of Yu.
Claims 2 and 15 – Zhu teaches a hinge (figure 8) connected to the movable portion and connected to the middle frame, the hinge configured to allow the movable portion to pivot between the upright position (figure 6) and the lowered position (element 32 in figure 6 is labeled as a “backrest handrail part” in the description of drawings).
Claims 3 and 16 – Zhu teaches the hinge includes:
a body (element 321 in figure 8) connected to the middle frame, the body defining a track (the hole in element 321 that element 322 moves through); and
a guide (element 322 in figure 8) secured to the movable portion and extending through the track, the guide engageable with the track (figure 8) to guide movement of the movable portion between the upright position (figure 6) and the lowered position (element 32 in figure 6 is labeled as a “backrest handrail part” in the description of drawings).
Claim 14 – Zhu teaches a middle seat assembly (element 3 in figure 1) for an automotive vehicle, the middle seat assembly comprising:
a middle frame (element 31 in figure 2) of a seat assembly (“vehicle rear seat” in the title) between a first seat (seating frame on the right-hand side of element 3 in figure 1) and a second seat (seating frame on the left-hand side of element 3 in figure 1) of the seat assembly;
a fixed portion connected to the middle frame (element 30 in figure 2), the fixed portion including one or more bolsters (figure 6); and
a headrest (as seen in figures 1, 2, and 6), a movable portion (element 32 in figure 6) pivotably connected to the middle frame and movable between an upright position where the movable portion forms a backrest of a middle seat of the seat assembly (figure 6) and a lowered position where the movable portion forms an armrest between the first seat and the second seat (element 32 in figure 6 is labeled as a “backrest handrail part” in the description of drawings).
Zhu teaches a headrest but does not teach the movable portion as the part that includes the headrest.
Yu teaches the movable portion includes the headrest (figures 1 and 2).
When the middle seat is folded down in the armrest position, the headrest being in the upright position no longer serves a purpose. The headrest being attached to the movable portion would serve the purpose of extending the armrest area for the occupants on either side of the armrest. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to attach the headrest of Zhu to the movable portion of Zhu as shown in the disclosure of Yu.
Claims 4-9, 12, 17-19, and 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (CN-114889505-A) in view of Yu (CN-217705580-U), further in view of Aktas (US-20180065520-A1).
Aktas also discloses a vehicle seating assembly with a foldable middle seat that becomes an armrest when folded down.
Claims 4 and 17 – Zhu and Yu do not teach a biasing element connected to the body and engaged with the guide, the biasing element configured to bias the guide and the movable portion toward the lowered position.
Aktas teaches a biasing element connected to the body and engaged with the guide, the biasing element configured to bias the guide and the movable portion toward the lowered position (element 10 in figure 6, described in paragraph [0023] as “operable about the second pivot 22 to further define a deployed position 26 defined by an opposing direction force 28 that results in a biasing of the inertial lock 10 into selective engagement with the retention pin 18”).
The hinge of Zhu is less desirable than the hinge of Aktas as the hinge of Zhu rotates on one single pin, which does not give a fine-tuned rotational motion. The hinge of Aktas rotates on the pin element 20, but the body of Aktas’s hinge, element 46 in figure 5, provides a track, element 70 in figure 5, and a guide, element 18 in figure 5, attached to the movable portion that engages with the track. The two function hinge system of Aktas proves to be an upgrade to the hinge system of Zhu. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the disclosure of Zhu with the hinge of Aktas. As such, it would have been obvious to include the biasing element of Aktas in the modification of Zhu.
Claim 5 – Zhu teaches either a guide, from claim 3, or a pin, but does not teach both.
Aktas teaches a hinge pin extending through the body and connected to the movable portion (element 20 in figure 5), the hinge pin defining a rotational axis of the movable portion between the upright position and the lowered position (figure 5).
It would have been obvious to include the hinge pin of Aktas when modifying the hinge of Zhu.
Claim 6 – The simple hinge of Zhu does not teach a stop connected the body, the biasing element engageable with the stop to limit a range of engagement between the biasing element and the guide.
Aktas teaches a stop connected the body, the biasing element engageable with the stop to limit a range of engagement between the biasing element and the guide (described in paragraph [0025] as “a blocking leg 54 that is attached to the armrest bracket 46 and is positioned to receive the inertial lock 10 in the idle position”).
It would have been obvious to include the stop of Aktas when modifying the hinge of Zhu.
Claims 7 and 18 – Zhu teaches a lock movable between a locked configuration and an unlocked configuration (figure 3).
Zhu does not teach the lock mechanism as being the system used to lock and unlock the movable portion of the middle seat.
While Zhu is silent on how the movable portion stays locked in place, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the lock mechanism disclosed by Zhu as the mechanism used to lock the movable portion of the middle seat as well since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art.
Claims 8 and 19 – Zhu teaches the lock comprises:
a lock bracket (element 60 in figure 3);
a primary lock pin (element 61 in figure 3) extending at least partially through the lock bracket; and
a primary hook (the hook in front of element 600 in figure 3 that hooks onto element 61) connected to the lock bracket and movable between a latched position where the primary hook engages the primary lock pin and movable between an unlatched position where the primary hook releases the primary lock pin (the locking system in figure 3 is old and well-known in the art as a lock system where element 602 is pulled to move the primary hook out of the way, allowing device to move away from the primary lock pin 61).
While Zhu is silent on how the movable portion stays locked in place, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the lock mechanism disclosed by Zhu as the mechanism used to lock the movable portion of the middle seat as well, placing the lock bracket on the middle frame and the primary lock pin on the movable portion, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art.
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Claim 9 – Zhu teaches a secondary latch engageable with the primary hook to bias the primary hook towards the latched position (element A in Image 1 above that, when pulled, moves the primary hook to release the primary lock pin, and when released, biases the primary hook towards the latch position).
Claim 12 – Zhu teaches a release (element 602 in figure 3) connected to the lock and configured to be exposed when the movable portion is in the upright position, the release operable to move the lock from the locked configuration to the unlocked configuration (when pulled, element 602 moves the secondary latch which moves the primary hook to release the primary lock pin, and when released, biases the primary hook towards the latch position).
Claim 21 – Zhu does not specifically teach the headrest is extendable from the movable portion when the movable portion is in the lowered position to reveal a storage compartment.
Zhu does teach the use of the cushioned elements of the seating assembly to have a second purpose as a storage space, element 33 in figure 6. Having storage spaces in various cushioned elements, including the headrest, is old and well-known in the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the headrest of Zhu with a storage space similar to that of Zhu’s figure 6, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-11 and 20 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.
Zhu, Yu, and Aktas do not teach the secondary biasing element engaged with the secondary latch, as claimed in claims 10 and 20 and it would not have been obvious to make such a modification. Claim 11 would be allowable due to its dependency on claim 10.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-12 and 14-21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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/T.A.L./Examiner, Art Unit 3636
/DAVID R DUNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3636
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