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 Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 20 recites the limitation “allowable bending radius”, which is considered indefinite, since it is not known as what a non-allowable radius would be. Correction required.
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(s) 1, 2, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uno et al. (US 8,899,371 B2) and in further view of Yasuda et al. (US 9,945,398 B2).
With respect to claim 1, Uno et al. discloses a work vehicle comprising body frame 3 with left and right sidewalls 21, 22, first and second hydraulic motors 18, 19, hydraulic pump 17, and first and second hydraulic hoses 51, 53, each hose having a port on the pump and a port on one of said motors, as shown in figure 3. Uno et al. does not disclose a pair of hydraulic pumps. Yasuda et al. does disclose a work vehicle with a pair of pumps 31L, 31R, as shown in figure 2. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the second hydraulic pump of Yasuda et al. into the hydraulic drive of Uno et al. in order to have a separate pump for each motor.
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With respect to claim 2, said hoses 51, 53 pass through a gap between said left and right walls 21, 22, as shown in figure 3 of Uno et al.
With respect to claim 20 (as best understood), the distance between the ports of the hydraulic motors appears to be shorter than a bending radius of the hoses, as shown in figure 3 of Uno et al.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-19 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY J RESTIFO whose telephone number is (571)272-6697. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11am-8pm.
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JEFFREY J. RESTIFO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3613
/JEFFREY J RESTIFO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3613
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