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 .
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-8, in the reply filed on 5/21/26 is acknowledged. Claims 9-11 have been withdrawn from consideration as being directed toward non-elected claims.
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)(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.
Claims 1 and 3-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being clearly anticipated by JP-04962066.
JP-04962066 teaches apparatus and method of resin coated product including a bearing part. JP-04962066 teaches a heating apparatus (14) (claimed holding apparatus) whereby a bearing (2) is made of having a resin coating (11) on the interior of a cylindrical substrate (10) (claimed applying defined amount of coating) and rotational means (3) for rotating the bearing (2) having the coating (11) on the inner surface of the cylindrical substrate (10) and heating the coating (11) while being rotated in the furnace (14) (abstract).
Regarding claim 1, the rotation of the furnace would be at the claimed first speed and cure the coating 11 on the inner surface of the cylindrical substrate (10) (9th aspect of the invention).
Regarding claim 3, JP-04962066 teaches drying in the heated furnace while being rotated prior to curing which would be the claimed third speed (12th aspect of the invention).
Regarding claims 4-7, JP-04962066 teaches using a controller (30) and control unit (31) that controls the rotating speeds and the heating and hence would inherently teach both constant and/or variable speeds during the drying and heating steps (embodiment 1) and would also teach same/similar speeds. JP-04962066 teaches the speed of rotation is faster in the drying step than in the curing step (6th aspect of invention).
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 2 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP-04962066 in combination with Nakashima et al. (2004/0062860).
Features detailed above concerning the teachings of JP-04962066 are incorporated here.
JP-04962066 fails to teach applying the coating to the bearing component while being rotated at a second speed as well as the first, second and third speeds being “selected” based upon viscosity, temperature and/or size of bearing component.
Nakashima et al. (2004/0062860) teaches a method of forming coat on inner surface of bearing and apparatus for the same. Nakashima et al. (2004/0062860) teaches applying the coating material while rotating the bearing [0026],[0027].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified JP-04962066 bearing coating process to include coating the inner surface of the bearing while rotating the bearing at a speed as evidenced by Nakashima et al. (2004/0062860) with the expectation of producing a smooth coating due to the rotation aspect of the bearing during coating.
Regarding claim 8, both JP-04962066 and Nakashima et al. (2004/0062860) teach heating the bearing during coating and this would affect the speeds utilized in the applying, drying and curing steps as the higher the temperatures the lower the speeds required with a balance to avoid defects in the coating layer applied.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN K TALBOT whose telephone number is (571)272-1428. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 7-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MICHAEL CLEVELAND can be reached at 571-272-1418. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN K TALBOT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712
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