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 § 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, 10, 11, 14, 18, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rodesch (U.S. Patent No. 5,938,529) in view of Takizawa (U.S. PGPUB 2019/0140500).
Re claims 1, 10, 11, 14, 18, and 19: Rodesch discloses a motor system for use with a mechanical reel gaming machine, the motor system comprising:
a rotor comprising a plurality of permanent magnets;
a reel connected to the rotor for displaying symbols associated with a game (see claim 1: a rotor is connected to a reel; column 4, lines 65-67; column 5, lines 1-3); and
a stator comprising a plurality of stator coils spaced from the rotor, wherein the stator, when activated, is configured to provide an electromagnetic coupling between the stator coils (column 4, 65-67; column 5, lines 1-21: windginds) and the permanent magnets, provide rotational torque to the rotor, and cause the reel to rotate (column 2, lines 52-67; column 4, lines 1-14, claims 1 and 4).
Although Rodesch discloses a permanent magnet, Rodesch fails to disclose the use of a plurality of magnets. However, Takizawa discloses a similar motor system arrangement wherein a rotor includes a plurality of permanent magnets (see Abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, to simply substitute the rotor of Rodesch with the rotor with a plurality of magnets as taught by Takizawa as such would have produced the predictable results of a rotor with permanent magnets to produce rotation resulting in the rotation of a reel.
Re claim 2 and 15: Rodesch discloses with respect to the motor system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the stator is axially spaced from the rotor and is configured to be coupled to a frame of the mechanical reel gaming machine (see Fig. 3, Fig. 4; Fig. 10, object 40).
Re claim 3, 5, 16, and 20: Rodesch in view of Takizawa discloses with respect to the motor system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the rotor comprises a rotor surface oriented to face the stator, wherein the plurality of permanent magnets are coupled to the rotor surface (see Takizawa, Fig. 4, object 8, see Fig. 5).
Re claim 9: Rodesch discloses with respect to the motor system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a controller electrically coupled to the stator, the controller comprising a processor configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to control the stator based on at least one of a position of the rotor and a current measurement of the stator (column 3, lines 1-8; column 4, lines 13-23).
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) 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rodesh in view of Takizawa in further view of Yoshino (U.S. PGPUB 2010/0117477).
Re claim 8: Rodesch in view of Takizawa fails to disclose with respect to the motor system in accordance with Claim 1, wherein the stator is spaced a distance from the rotor that is between one millimeter and five millimeters. However, Yoshino teaches a motor system similar to Rodesch, wherein the minimum gap between a stator and rotor is between 0.1 to 2.0 mm (see paragraph [0026]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, to modify the motor system of Rodesch with the minimum gap distance of Yoshino for the purpose of optimizing the minimum gap between the stator and rotor in order to increase the efficiency of the system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, and 17 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 REGINALD A RENWICK whose telephone number is (571)270-1913. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11am-7pm.
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REGINALD A. RENWICK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3714
/REGINALD A RENWICK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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