DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-11 of U.S. Application No. 19010290 filed on 01/06/2025 are presented for examination.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/06/2025, 06/23/2025, 04/28/2026, and 06/02/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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, 6-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Silvery et al. (US 2022/0302799; Hereinafter, “Silvery”) in view of Ikemoto (US 2013/0270973; Hereinafter, “Ikemoto”).
Regarding claim 1: Silvery discloses a motor (para [0002]) comprising:
a busbar (12) configured to be electrically connected to at least one of the coils (para [0012], the busbar (12a, 12b, 12c) including a plurality of passing portions (annotated fig. 2 below and fig. 6-9);
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and a temperature sensor (20; fig. 1) installed on the busbar (fig. 8-9), wherein at least part of the temperature sensor (20) passes through each of the passing portions and is installed on the busbar (fig. 8-9).
Silvery does not specifically show a stator core having a tubular shape; and a plurality of coils installed in the stator core.
Ikemoto shows a stator core (12) having a tubular shape (fig. 1); and a plurality of coils (14) installed in the stator core (fig. 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio to have formed the motor of Silvery with a stator core having a tubular shape; and a plurality of coils installed in the stator core as disclosed by Ikemoto as customarily practiced in the art providing electromagnetic force all around the rotor, causing the rotor to rotate.
Regarding claim 2/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Silvery further discloses that at least one of the passing portions is a notch (annotated fig. 2 above) provided in at least one of a pair of side edges (annotated fig. 2 above) extending in a longitudinal direction (understood as the axial direction) of the busbar (12).
Regarding claim 3/2/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 2 and Silvery further discloses that the side edges of the busbar include a proximal edge (closer to the body of the bus bar 12 seen in fig. 2) located on a side closer to the stator core and a distal edge (the free ends of the welding points 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, 16e, 16f, 16g) located on an opposite side from the proximal edge (fig. 2-3), and the notch is provided in the distal edge of the busbar (annotated fig. 2 above).
Regarding claim 6/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Ikemoto further discloses each of the coils (14) includes a protruding coil portion (“coil end”; para [0017]) protruding from the stator core (12) on one side in an axial direction of the stator core (fig. 2), and the busbar (20) is disposed adjacent to the protruding coil portion in the axial direction (fig. 2) of the stator core (12) and extends in a circumferential direction of the stator core (fig. 2).
Regarding claim 7/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Silvery further discloses the passing portions (see the annotated fig. 2 above) are arranged in the circumferential direction of the stator core (fig. 2).
Regarding claim 8/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Silvery further discloses the each of the passing portions extends through the busbar (12) in a radial direction of the stator core (by the virtue of the bent portions 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d, 14e, 14f, 14g).
Regarding claim 9/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Silvery further discloses the temperature sensor includes a thermistor temperature measurement portion (para [0018]) and a cable portion (para [0057]) connected to the thermistor temperature measurement portion (fig. 1), and the thermistor temperature measurement portion (fig. 1) is installed on the busbar (12) by passing through at least one of the passing portions (fig. 8-9).
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Regarding claim 10/9/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 9 and Ikemoto further discloses the busbar (20) and the thermistor temperature measurement portion (22) are integrally covered with a resin (26; para [0023]).
Regarding claim 11/1: Silvery in view of Ikemoto discloses the limitations of claim 1 and Ikemoto further discloses the coils(14) include a U-phase coil, a V-phase coil, and a W-phase coil, and
the busbar is a neutral busbar that electrically connects the U-phase coil, the V-phase coil, and the W-phase coil (“a three-phase alternating current”; para [0016]) to each other to form a neutral point (20) of the coils (para [0016-0018]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4/2/1, 5/2/1 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 AHMED ELNAKIB whose telephone number is (571)270-0638. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00AM-4:00PM.
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/AHMED ELNAKIB/ Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2834
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