DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
Claim 10-14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 02/04/2026.
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, 7, 15, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujisawa JP 2008062360 in view of Raggl (U.S. 2016/0144496).
In regards to claim 1, Fujisawa discloses A fastener driver comprising:
a housing (71a and 71b);
a drive mechanism (at least elements 79, 73, 73a, 73c) disposed within the housing (fig 5);
a motor (78) within the housing, the brushless motor including a rotor(at least 78) and a stator (fig. 4) and configured to produce a rotational output to the drive mechanism (see at least paragraph 77);
a battery pack (77) interface (fig. 4) disposed on the housing, the battery pack interface configured to couple to a battery pack (77 see fig. 4 and paragraph 82); and
an electronic controller (81) electrically coupled to the drive mechanism and the battery pack interface (see at least paragraph 82); the controller configured to:
determine an operating mode (paragraph 79) of the fastener driver;
monitor a parameter of the battery pack (see at least paragraph 86) coupled to the battery pack interface,
in response to determining that the operating mode is a first operating mode , determine whether the monitored parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold (see at least paragraph 67); and adjust a power consumption of the motor in response to determining that the operating mode is the first operating mode and the monitored parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold (see at least paragraph 67, 69, 70, 71).
Fujisawa does not disclose a brushless motor
Raggl teaches a brushless motor (see at least paragraph 19 and 32).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Fujisawa with the teachings of Raggl such that the motor to be used is a brushless motor. One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to substitute one motor type for another. Fujisawa does not disclose the type of motor used however there is only a limited number of types of motors used in the prior art and one of ordinary skill would have found it obvious to select any of the known motor types to be used in the device. KSR Int’l v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 1740-41, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)
In regards to claim 2. Fujisawa further discloses The fastener driver of claim 1, wherein the monitored parameter includes one or more selected from a group consisting of: a battery voltage (see at least paragraph 67), a battery temperature, a battery capacity, battery health, and a battery identity.
In regards to claim 7. Fujisawa further discloses The fastener driver of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to, in response to determining that the operating mode is a second operating mode, disable the adjustment of the power consumption of the motor (see at least paragraph 82).
In regards to claim 15. Fujisawa discloses A fastener driver comprising:
a housing (71a and 71b);
a drive mechanism (at least elements 79, 73, 73a, 73c) disposed within the housing (fig 5);
a motor (78) within the housing, the brushless motor including a rotor(at least 78) and a stator (fig. 4) and configured to produce a rotational output to the drive mechanism (see at least paragraph 77);
a battery pack (77) interface (fig. 4) disposed on the housing, the battery pack interface configured to couple to a battery pack (77 see fig. 4 and paragraph 82); and
an electronic controller (81) electrically coupled to the drive mechanism and the battery pack interface (see at least paragraph 82); the electronic controller configured to:
receive an instruction to operate in a reduced power mode (see at least paragraphs 18, 26, 28, 46, 51, 71, 72);
reduce a power supplied to the motor by a first amount (see at least paragraphs 46, 51, 71, 72);
monitor a parameter (paragraph 72) of the battery pack coupled to the battery pack interface; and reduce the power supplied to the motor by at least a second amount in response to the monitored parameter by a value down to a predetermined minimum (see at least paragraphs 71, 72 and 86).
Fujisawa does not disclose a brushless motor
Raggl teaches a brushless motor (see at least paragraph 19 and 32).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Fujisawa with the teachings of Raggl such that the motor to be used is a brushless motor. One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to substitute one motor type for another. Fujisawa does not disclose the type of motor used however there is only a limited number of types of motors used in the prior art and one of ordinary skill would have found it obvious to select any of the known motor types to be used in the device. KSR Int’l v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 1740-41, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)
In regards to claim 16. Fujisawa discloses The fastener driver of claim 15, wherein the monitored parameter includes one or more selected from a group consisting of: a battery voltage (see at least paragraph 67), a battery temperature, a battery capacity, battery health, and a battery identity.
Claim(s) 3, 8 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujisawa in view of Raggl as applied to claims 3, 8, 17 above, and further in view of Butzen (U.S. 2005/0001007)
In regards to claim 3. Fujisawa discloses The fastener driver of claim 1, Fujisawa does discloses wherein the first operating mode is a sequential operating mode.
Butzen teaches wherein the first operating mode is a sequential operating mode (see at least paragraph 94).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in at the time of filling to modify Fujisawa with the teachings of Butzen to include a sequential and bumpfire as modes of operation. These operating modes are known in the art and as such it would have been obvious to modify Fujisawa to include them as the modes of operation of the tool.
In regards to claim 8. Fujisawa discloses The fastener driver of claim 7, Fujisawa does discloses wherein the second operating mode is a bumpfire mode.
Butzen teaches wherein the second operating mode is a bumpfire mode (see at least paragraph 94).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in at the time of filling to modify Fujisawa with the teachings of Butzen to include a sequential and bumpfire as modes of operation. These operating modes are known in the art and as such it would have been obvious to modify Fujisawa to include them as the modes of operation of the tool.
In regards to claim 17. Fujisawa discloses The fastener driver of claim 15, wherein the power consumption of the motor is reduced by reducing a speed of the motor (see at least paragraph 50).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 9, 18-20 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 LUCAS E A PALMER whose telephone number is (303)297-4779. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Thursday 8am-6pm PT.
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/Lucas E. A. Palmer/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3731