DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a reply to the amendment dated June 29, 2026.
Claims 1 and 3 have been amended; and claims 5-9 have been added as new claims.
Claims 1-9 remain pending in this application.
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) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuasa (JP H08240110), in view of Haneda et al. (JP 2007009784 A), hereafter Haneda, in further view of Akeda et al. (JP H1054217 A), hereafter Akeda.
Regarding claim 1, Yuasa discloses an internal combustion engine (2) comprising: a cylinder block [0010]; a coolant pump (17) configured to discharge a coolant; an oil cooler configured to cool oil through heat exchange with the coolant discharged from the coolant pump [0017], and a coolant channel (11) configured to supply the coolant to the oil cooler (Fig. 1), the coolant channel passing through the oil pan (1), the coolant pipe extends in a prescribed direction crossing the up-down direction, and both a first end and a second end of the coolant pipe are fixed to a side wall of the first oil pan (Fig. 1).
Yuasa is silent to an engine wherein the coolant pump is mounted on the cylinder block; the oil cooler being installed on an opposite side of the cylinder block from the coolant pump; an oil pan located between the coolant pump and the oil cooler and mounted on a lower part of the cylinder block. Haneda discloses an engine (1), having an oil pan (3), and an oil cooler (12) disposed on the lower side of the cylinder block (Fig. 7), and a coolant pump (8); wherein the oil pan is located between the coolant pump and the oil cooler and mounted on a lower part of the cylinder block (Fig. 7). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the pump and the cooler of Yuasa as taught by Haneda in order to arrange the accessories per the engine compartment constraints. It has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
Yuasa as modified with Haneda is silent to the oil pan comprising of an annular first oil pan and a second oil pan, the first oil pan being mounted on the cylinder block, and the second oil pan being located on an opposite side of the first oil pan from the cylinder block and mounted on the first oil pan; the coolant channel includes a coolant pipe located closer to the second oil pan than a middle in an up-down direction of the first oil pan; and a central axis of the first oil pan and a central axis of the second oil pan are collinear; and the first oil pan and the second oil pan are connected to each other in the up-down direction in a state in which side walls of the first oil pan and side walls of the second oil pan are aligned and center positions of the first oil pan and the second oil pan coincide with each other.
Akeda teaches a engine comprising a cylinder block (41), a first oil pan (43) being mounted on the cylinder block, and the second oil pan (2) being located on an opposite side of the first oil pan from the cylinder block and mounted on the first oil pan (Fig. 7); and further including a coolant channel with a coolant pipe (44) located closer to the second oil pan than a middle in an up-down direction of the first oil pan (the coolant pipe crosses the middle of the first oil pan as seen in Fig. 7); and a central axis of the first oil pan and a central axis of the second oil pan are collinear; and the first oil pan and the second oil pan are connected to each other in the up-down direction in a state in which side walls of the first oil pan and side walls of the second oil pan are aligned and center positions of the first oil pan and the second oil pan coincide with each other (Fig. 1, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to produce an oil pan of Yuasa wherein there is a top part and a bottom part attached together and forming a pan as taught by Akida in order to improve on the manufacturing process by providing a cooling channel in a separate oil pan structure. It has been held that constructing a formerly integral structure in various elements involves only routine skill in the art. Nerwin v. Erlichmann, 168 USPQ 177, 179.
Regarding claim 1, Yuasa discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the coolant pipe is installed in a flow path of the oil that flows into the oil pan (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 3, Yuasa discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the coolant pipe is installed at such a position that the coolant pipe contacts the oil stored in the oil pan (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 4, Yuasa discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the coolant pipe is disposed in a middle region in a width direction of the first oil pan, the width direction being a direction perpendicular to both of the up-down direction and the prescribed direction (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 5, Examiner takes official notice that is known in the art to provide an oil pan with a lower rigidity than the cylinder block.
Regarding claims 6 and 7, Yuasa as modified with Akeda discloses the first oil pan constructed with a cooling channel and therefore having a higher rigidity than the second oil pan which doesn’t have additional structure within. However, Yuasa as modified with Akeda does not disclose the lower portion of the first oil pan having lower rigidity than the upper portion of the first oil pan.
It would have been an obvious matter of design choice to provide an oil pan constructed of two sections wherein the top section comprises a cooling channel constructed at a lower level and therefore having a higher rigidity than the upper portion.
Regarding claims 8 and 9, Yuasa as modified with Akeda further discloses the middle region is a middle one of three regions defined by equally dividing the first oil pan in the width direction (the regions can be easily applied to the oil pan of Yuasa as modified with Akeda), and wherein, in the width direction, a plurality of cylinders is arranged in the cylinder block (Yuasa: Fig. 1).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-4 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on grounds of rejection disclosed in the current rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/TEUTA HOLBROOK/
Examiner
Art Unit 3747
/GEORGE C JIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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