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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “a control unit,” recited in claim 14, must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2023/166308 A1, in view of TheiB, U.S. Patent No. 12027834 B2.
Regarding claim 1, WO ‘308 discloses a housing 16 (claim 12) with a cable reel assembly 10 comprising: a rotatable body (see figure 1, with an internal cavity with a shaft, see figure 3 and drawing below, claims 6-7) having a first later end (see drawing below), an opposing second lateral end (see drawing below), and an outer wall (see drawing below) to receive a cable 18 (i.e., a charging cable for an electric vehicle, see the specification, claim 13) wound therearound, a reduction gear (see drawing below, with an end plate and co-axially aligned, claims 2 and 5) having a gear edge defining a plurality of teeth (see drawing below) arranged at the first end of the rotatable body, an auxiliary shaft assembly (14, 24, are parallel to the longitudinal axis with one or more support bars, claims 4 and 9-11) comprising an elongated bar (14, 24) extending from a first end (left end) to an opposing end (right end), a drive motor (see drawing below)operatively coupled to the drive gear (i.e., since a motor is driving the body) along a longitudinal axis (i.e., a rotational axis of the body), see figures 1-4.
As stated above, WO ‘308 doesn’t show a driving gear joined to the first end of the elongated bar, and the drive motor to selectively drive a rotation of the drive gear.
TheiB ‘834 discloses a driving gear 14B joined to the first end of the elongated bar, and the drive motor to selectively drive the rotation of the drive gear by a control system (i.e., using 17A to engage and disengage with 14C, control devices/control system, see columns 1 and 5, claim 14), see figures 1-3.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the apparatus of WO ‘308 to include a drive gear at the elongated bar and be able to selectively drive the drive gear as suggested by Theib ‘834, to show that there are many ways to drive the cable reel. Furthermore, since all of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
PNG
media_image1.png
692
608
media_image1.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image2.png
608
466
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Regarding claims 3 and 8, as stated above, WO ‘308 in view Theib ‘834 shows the second end of the elongated bar is joined to the side panel housing instead of the end plate.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to attach the existing element into a certain area, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANG K KIM whose telephone number is 571-272-6947. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 9 P.M or Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 A.M. to 7 P.M.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Robert Hodge, can be reached on (571) 272-2097. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
SK
6/8/26
/SANG K KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654
Prosecution Insights