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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 3-5 and 11-23 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 4/03/2026.
Applicant's election of Species A3 and election with traverse of Species B1 in the reply filed on 4/03/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that claims 1-10 do not require the omission of a second robotic gripping device. This is not found persuasive because while the Examiner agrees with the Applicant that claims 1-10 do not require an omission of a second robotic gripping device, the Examiner notes that claims 11-23 each require two or more gripping devices which exclude them from the elected embodiment of Species B1. The Examiner notes that an election of species requirement was made, which is made based on the disclosed embodiments, rather than based on the claims. The key question is not whether claims 1-10 encompass the claimed embodiment Species B1, which they do, but whether claims 11-23 encompass the claimed embodiment Species B1, which they do not since Species B1 is for a device having a single gripping device and claims 11-23 each require two or three gripping devices. Finally, the Examiner notes that a serious search/examination burden if restriction were not required.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
File Format Issues
The “equation” objects in the Applicant’s docx file for the claims repeatedly caused Microsoft Word to crash while examining the instant application. In future filings, the equation objects should be replaced by text and the equation object should be avoided. There are text symbols for all material was expressed in the equation objects, and therefore equation objections are not necessary and should be avoided. For example, there is a degree symbol “°” and a plus/minus symbol “±”. Subscripts (such as “ɸC”) can also be made by such methods such as the subscript font button or via the shortcut “Ctrl” + “=”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 6-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ilievski (US10,465,723).
Ilievski discloses:
Re claim 1. A robotic gripping device comprising:
an elongated core (see 1320) with a longitudinal axis, the elongated core being flexible;
a plurality of bellows (C13/L39-42; see also 1300 & 1310) protruding radially (see Fig. 6F) from the elongated core to define a spanning angle (θ) about a circumference of the elongated core, the plurality of bellows being flexible;
a fluid port (C20/L39-44); and
a hollow interior extending through the elongated core and into each bellow in the plurality of bellows, the hollow interior fluidly connected to the fluid port such that the hollow interior is inflated by adding fluid and deflated by removing fluid, thereby actuating the plurality of bellows (C20/L32-48; see claim 13).
Re claim 2. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of bellows protrudes radially such that the spanning angle (θ) is less than 360° (See Fig. 6F).
Re claim 6. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of bellows protrudes radially such that the spanning angle (θ) is 180°±90° (See Fig. 6F), the plurality of bellows comprises a first bellow and a second bellow, the first bellow and the second bellow being adjacent, the first bellow being angled relative to the second bellow by a curling angle (ɸC) that is greater than 0° but less than 180 ° (See Fig. 6F).
Re claim 7. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of bellows protrudes radially such that the spanning angle (θ) is or 180°±10° (See Fig. 6F), the plurality of bellows comprises a first bellow and a second bellow, the first bellow and the second bellow being adjacent, the first bellow being angled relative to the second bellow by a curling angle (ɸC) that is greater than 0° but less than 180 ° (See Fig. 6F; C18L58-C19/L14).
Re claim 8. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of bellows protrudes radially such that the spanning angle (θ) is 180°±90° (See Fig. 6F), the plurality of bellows comprises a first bellow and a second bellow, the first bellow and the second bellow being adjacent, the first bellow being angled relative to the second bellow by a curling angle (ɸC) that is greater than 0° but less than 180 ° (See Fig. 6F), wherein, when a fluid is added to the hollow interior, the plurality of bellows curls along the longitudinal axis (See Fig. 6F; C18L58-C19/L14).
Re claim 9. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of bellows protrudes radially such that the spanning angle (θ) is 180°±10° (See Fig. 6F), the plurality of bellows comprises a first bellow and a second bellow, the first bellow and the second bellow being adjacent, the first bellow being angled relative to the second bellow by a curling angle (ɸC) that is greater than 0° but less than 180 °, wherein, when a fluid is added to the hollow interior, the plurality of bellows curls along the longitudinal axis (See Fig. 6F; C18L58-C19/L14).
Re claim 10. The robotic gripping device as recited in claim 6, where the curling angle (ɸC) is selected from the group consisting of 10°±5°, 20°±5°, 30°±5°, 35°±5°, 40°±5°, 45°±5° and 65°±5° (See Fig. 6F; C18L58-C19/L14; note that the groups collectively cover the range of 5 degrees to 70 degrees. Furthermore, 360/5=72, which means at 5 degrees (10-5) it would take 72 bellows to complete a 360 curl. There are approximately 20 bellows seen in Fig 6F completely a 180 curl, which would correspond to about 40 bellows to complete a 360 degree curl. Thus, Fig. 6F clearly falls within the implicitly claimed range of 5 degrees to 70 degrees.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY T PRATHER whose telephone number is (571)270-5412. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 9 AM - 5 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Minnah Seoh can be reached at 571-270-7778. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREGORY T PRATHER/
Examiner, Art Unit 3618
/MINNAH L SEOH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3618
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