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 § 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 24, 47, 52, and 55 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Muller (CH 688068).
With regard to claim 24 Muller discloses a mechanism for the measurement of a time, for a timepiece movement (claim 1), including a unit of time counter including:
a display mobile (11) intended to drive a display member (15) for said unit of time and adapted to be kinematically coupled to a drive mobile (10) of the timepiece movement (claim 1), on command, to be able to be driven in rotation in a predefined rotation direction from a predefined position throughout the measurement of a time (figure 1 shows a limited angular range. See paragraphs 2-4. The system is started, operates, and needs to be reset. The system is a limited on demand modules not capable of continuous operation due to the limits of its range),
a return mobile (10), intended to be mounted to pivot on a frame element in such a manner as to be able to pivot between an initial position (“0” figure 1), associated with said predefined position of said display mobile (11), and a final position (“60” figure 1), said display mobile and said return mobile being arranged in such a way that said return mobile pivots from its initial position to its final position when said display mobile completes substantially one turn from said predefined position (figure 1 shows the mobile 10 have a corresponding gear pattern for its rotation to the arc of 11 connected to 15),
an elastic return member (12) adapted to act on said return mobile and to tend to return said return mobile to its initial position (figure 1),
wherein said display mobile (11) further includes teeth (one through five figure 1) meshing with teeth of said return mobile (10), said teeth of said display mobile including a truncated portion (11 figure 1), intended to enable temporary decoupling between said display mobile and said return mobile when said return mobile reaches its final position, driving said return mobile to its initial position, with a retrograde movement, on each complete turn of said display mobile, because of the action of said elastic return member (figures 1, 2).
With regard to claim 47 Muller discloses a timepiece movement including a mechanism for the measurement of a time (claim 1) comprising a unit of time counter including:
a display mobile (11) intended to drive a display member (15) for said unit of time and adapted to be kinematically coupled to a drive mobile (10) of the timepiece movement (claim 1), on command, to be able to be driven in rotation in a predefined rotation direction from a predefined position throughout the measurement of a time (figure 1 shows a limited angular range. See paragraphs 2-4. The system is started, operates, and needs to be reset. The system is a limited on demand modules not capable of continuous operation due to the limits of its range),
a return mobile (10), intended to be mounted to pivot on a frame element in such a manner as to be able to pivot between an initial position (“0” figure 1), associated with said predefined position of said display mobile (11), and a final position (“60” figure 1), said display mobile and said return mobile being arranged in such a way that said return mobile pivots from its initial position to its final position when said display mobile completes substantially one turn from said predefined position (figure 1 shows the mobile 10 have a corresponding gear pattern for its rotation to the arc of 11 connected to 15),
an elastic return member (12) adapted to act on said return mobile and to tend to return said return mobile to its initial position (figure 1)
wherein said display mobile (11) further includes teeth (one through five figure 1) meshing with teeth of said return mobile (10), said teeth of said display mobile including a truncated portion (11 figure 1), intended to enable temporary decoupling between said display mobile and said return mobile when said return mobile reaches its final position, driving said return mobile to its initial position, with a retrograde movement, on each complete turn of said display mobile, because of the action of said elastic return member (figures 1, 2).
With regard to claim 52 Muller discloses the timepiece movement of claim 47 in which said mechanism for the measurement of a time is a chronograph mechanism (0-60 figure 1; claim 1).
With regard to claim 55 Muller discloses a timepiece including a timepiece movement (title, figure 1) according to claim 47.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 25-46, 48-51, 52, 54, 56, and 57 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 SEAN KAYES whose telephone number is (571)272-8931. The examiner can normally be reached 10-6.
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/SEAN KAYES/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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