368Notice 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 ACTION
This is a Non-final Office Action for application number 18/981,368 LOCKING ASSEMBLY, DRIVING-TYPE LOCKING MECHANISM, TELESCOPIC SUPPORTING LEG, AND TRIPOD filed on 12/13/2024. Claims 1-24 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-16, 19 and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention/species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 6/4/2026.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 17 and 18 are also withdrawn as being dependent upon withdrawn claims 1, 9 and 15.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 12/13/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 21 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by United States Patent No. 12,025,906 to Speggiorin et al.
The patent to Speggiorin et al. teaches a tripod (1), having a tripod base (2), an operating component (See Figure 4) mounted on the tripod base, and three telescopic supporting legs annularly disposed on a periphery of the tripod base in a uniformly-spaced manner (See Figure 1); the telescopic supporting leg comprises a driving-type locking mechanism (131, 7), at least one upper sleeve that is hollow (40), and a lower sleeve (50) that can move up and down in the upper sleeve; and the driving-type locking mechanism comprises a driving component (7, 31, 131) and a locking assembly (10, 20, 123), the driving component is mounted at an upper end of the upper sleeve (See Figure 4), the locking assembly is mounted at an upper end of the lower sleeve (See Figure 10A), and the driving component is configured to drive the locking assembly to move to control position locking and releasing of the telescopic supporting leg; and the operating component is connected to driving components of the three telescopic supporting legs simultaneously. (See Col. 12, lines 14-25)
With regards to claim 22, Speggiorin et al. teaches, wherein the operating component comprises an operating base, (127) an operating handle (7), and three connecting ropes (125), the operating handle is rotatably disposed on the operating base, a reset torsion spring (13) is disposed between the operating handle and the operating base, the operating handle is connected to ends of the three connecting ropes respectively, and other ends of the three connecting ropes are connected to the driving components (31, 131) of the three telescopic supporting legs respectively.
Cited References
PN 2021/0317942 to Mendo shows a tripod
PN 2010/0282921 to Hein et al. shows a telescoping device
PN 4,796,843 to O’Connor shows a tripod
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Amy J. Sterling at telephone number 571-272-6823 or to Supervisor Jonathan Liu at 571-272-8227 if the examiner cannot be reached. The examiner can normally be reached (Mon-Fri 8am-5:00pm). The fax machine number for the Technology center is 571-273-8300 (formal amendments), informal amendments or communications 571-273-6823. Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application should be directed to the Technology Center receptionist at 571-272-3600.
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/AMY J. STERLING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3631 7/22/26
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