DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-10 have been cancelled and claims 11-30 are pending.
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 .
Election/Restriction
Claims 11-30 are allowable, pending the correction to the below rejections. The restriction requirement between inventions, as set forth in the Office action mailed on 4/23/20226, has been reconsidered in view of the allowability of claims to the elected invention pursuant to MPEP § 821.04(a). The restriction requirement is hereby withdrawn as to any claim that requires all the limitations of an allowable claim. Specifically, the restriction requirement of 4/23/2026 is fully withdrawn. Claims 21-30, directed to group II are no longer withdrawn from consideration because the claim(s) requires all the limitations of an allowable claim, and applicant’s amendments are persuasive.
In view of the above noted withdrawal of the restriction requirement, applicant is advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or non-statutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application.
Once a restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 1/27/2025,1/19/2026,2/3/2026, 3/19/2026, and 6/24/2026 were filed prior to the mailing date of the mailing of this action. The submissions comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 1/27/2025. These drawings are accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 11-20 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "a guide rod" in line 8, which is unclear if this is an additional guide rod or the same guide rod previously recited.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "an actuator" in line 10, which is unclear if this is an additional actuator or the same actuator previously recited.
Claims 20 and 30 recites the limitation "the whole locking element", there is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claims. Should this be changed to - -an entirety of the locking element - -? Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21-29 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of the prior art of record discloses or renders as obvious, “a locking nut including a body and a locking element, the body having a bore, the body having a first end and a second end, the body including a tapered contact surface that tapers outwardly from the first end towards the second end, the tapered contact surface being rotationally symmetric about the bore, the locking element including a threaded portion, the threaded portion configured to engage a corresponding threaded portion of the guide rod such that the tapered contact surface of the locking nut bears against a corresponding contact surface of the actuator housing for securing the guide rod within the elongate passage”, in combination with the rest of the limitations in claim 21.
Claims 11-20 and 30 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
None of the prior art of record discloses or renders as obvious, “a locking element including a threaded portion, wherein the threaded portion is configured to engage a corresponding threaded portion of a guide rod of an actuator, such that the tapered contact surface of the locking nut is configured to bear against a corresponding contact surface of an actuator housing of the actuator for securing the guide rod within an elongate passage of an actuator”, in combination with the rest of the limitations in claim 11.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Craig Price, whose telephone number is (571)272-2712 or via facsimile (571)273-2712. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday (8:00AM-4:30PM EST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Craig Schneider, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-3607, Kenneth Rinehart can be reached at 571-272-4881. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CRAIG J PRICE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
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