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/Restriction
Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121:
I. Claims 1-6, 8-13, drawn to a filling nozzle, classified in F17C2205/037.
II. Claim 7, drawn to a method for manufacturing the elastic spacer, classified in B29C39/24.
The inventions are independent or distinct, each from the other because:
Inventions Group II and Group I are related as process of making and product made. The inventions are distinct if either or both of the following can be shown: (1) that the process as claimed can be used to make another and materially different product or (2) that the product as claimed can be made by another and materially different process (MPEP § 806.05(f)). In the instant case the elastic spacer of the filling nozzle may be made by other methods i.e. injection molding, casting, extrusion, etc.
Restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper because all the inventions listed in this action are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and there would be a serious search and/or examination burden if restriction were not required because one or more of the following reasons apply:
(a) the inventions have acquired a separate status in the art in view of their different classification;
(b) the inventions have acquired a separate status in the art due to their recognized divergent subject matter;
(c) the inventions require a different field of search (for example, searching different classes/subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search queries);
(d) the prior art applicable to one invention would not likely be applicable to another invention;
(e) the inventions are likely to raise different non-prior art issues under 35 U.S.C. 101 and/or 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph.
Applicant is advised that the reply to this requirement to be complete must include (i) an election of an invention to be examined even though the requirement may be traversed (37 CFR 1.143) and (ii) identification of the claims encompassing the elected invention.
The election of an invention may be made with or without traverse. To reserve a right to petition, the election must be made with traverse. If the reply does not distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election shall be treated as an election without traverse. Traversal must be presented at the time of election in order to be considered timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are added after the election, applicant must indicate which of these claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
During a telephone conversation with Mark Garred on 07/13/2026 a provisional election was made without traverse to prosecute the invention of Group I, claims 1-6 and 8-13. Affirmation of this election must be made by applicant in replying to this Office action. Claim 7 is withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancelation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
The examiner has required restriction between product or apparatus claims and process claims. Where applicant elects claims directed to the product/apparatus, and all product/apparatus claims are subsequently found allowable, withdrawn process claims that include all the limitations of the allowable product/apparatus claims should be considered for rejoinder. All claims directed to a nonelected process invention must include all the limitations of an allowable product/apparatus claim for that process invention to be rejoined.
In the event of rejoinder, the requirement for restriction between the product/apparatus claims and the rejoined process claims will be withdrawn, and the rejoined process claims will be fully examined for patentability in accordance with 37 CFR 1.104. Thus, to be allowable, the rejoined claims must meet all criteria for patentability including the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 101, 102, 103 and 112. Until all claims to the elected product/apparatus are found allowable, an otherwise proper restriction requirement between product/apparatus claims and process claims may be maintained. Withdrawn process claims that are not commensurate in scope with an allowable product/apparatus claim will not be rejoined. See MPEP § 821.04. Additionally, in order for rejoinder to occur, applicant is advised that the process claims should be amended during prosecution to require the limitations of the product/apparatus claims. Failure to do so may result in no rejoinder. Further, note that the prohibition against double patenting rejections of 35 U.S.C. 121 does not apply where the restriction requirement is withdrawn by the examiner before the patent issues. See MPEP § 804.01.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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) 1-6 and 8-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Racine (US Patent No. 3,779,587), and further in view of Takezawa (US 2018/0134148 A1).
Re: Claim 1, Racine discloses the claimed invention including a filling nozzle (30) comprising:
a pipe joint body (20) provided at a tip of a filling hose (at 22) for filling fluid and connected to a receptacle (7) on a side to be filled with fluid (Fig. 5) except for gaseous fuel. However, Takezawa teaches a pipe joint body (1, 10) provided at a tip of a filling hose (5) for filling gaseous fuel and connected to a receptacle (40) on a side to be filled with gaseous fuel (Fig. 5, Para. 10, gaseous fuel for filling a receptacle from a filling hose/nozzle); and
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to include receptacle for use with gaseous fuel as taught by Takazawa, since Takazawa states in paragraph 9 that such a modification provides a filling device capable of preventing a filling nozzle from being detached before depressurization is performed after filling, preventing a seal structure for preventing that the filling nozzle is detached from deteriorating, and decreasing a risk that fuel gas such as hydrogen gas leaks due to the deterioration, thus increasing the usefulness of Racine’s filling nozzle.
a clutch (11) that extends on an outside of the pipe joint body in a direction in which the pipe joint body and the receptacle are connected (hereinafter referred to as "connection direction") and engages with the receptacle (Depicted in Fig. 4),
wherein a ring-shaped elastic spacer (12) is fitted into an engagement portion (Fig. 2) where an end portion of the clutch away from the receptacle is engaged with the pipe joint body such that a portion of the clutch other than the end portion is biased radially inwardly of the filling nozzle by the elastic spacer (Fig. 2, Col. 2, lines 11-15, biases inwardly due to the force of the spacer), and
a shape of the elastic spacer is complementary to a gap or a portion of the gap when the end portion of the clutch is engaged with the engagement portion where the end portion engages with the pipe joint body (Depicted in Fig. 2.
Re: Claim 2, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the engagement portion is composed of an annular recess formed in the pipe joint body and accommodating the end portion of the clutch that is away from the receptacle, and the annular recess is connected to an outside of the pipe joint body by a drainage channel (8) (Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 3, Racine discloses the claimed invention including a through hole is formed in the elastic spacer, and the through hole communicates with the drainage channel (Fig. 2, the spacer of Racine is circular thus defining a through hole in the middle).
Re: Claim 4, Racine discloses the claimed invention including an extension portion (5) extending toward the receptacle side is provided radially outward of the elastic spacer, and a radial dimension of the extension portion is set to be the same as or smaller than a radial dimension of the receptacle side portion of the clutch (Depicted in Fig. 2, internal radial dimensions same or smaller).
Re: Claim 5, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the elastic spacer is formed in a shape complementary to a radially outer region of the gap (Depicted in Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 6, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the end portion of the clutch is engaged with the engagement portion where the end portion engages with the pipe joint body (Fig. 2), a gap is formed in an area radially inward from a radially inner end face of the end portion of the clutch in which no elastic spacer is filled, the gap is connected to the drainage channel of the pipe joint body, and no through hole is formed in the elastic spacer (Fig. 2, no through hole is within the material of the spacer, but a gap is formed on the inner side).
Re: Claim 8, Racine discloses the claimed invention including an extension portion (5) extending toward the receptacle side is provided radially outward of the elastic spacer, and a radial dimension of the extension portion is set to be the same as or smaller than a radial dimension of the receptacle side portion of the clutch (Depicted in Fig. 2, internal radial dimensions same or smaller).
Re: Claim 9, Racine discloses the claimed invention including an extension portion (5) extending toward the receptacle side is provided radially outward of the elastic spacer, and a radial dimension of the extension portion is set to be the same as or smaller than a radial dimension of the receptacle side portion of the clutch (Depicted in Fig. 2, internal radial dimensions same or smaller).
Re: Claim 10, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the elastic spacer is formed in a shape complementary to a radially outer region of the gap (Depicted in Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 11, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the end portion of the clutch is engaged with the engagement portion where the end portion engages with the pipe joint body (Fig. 2), a gap is formed in an area radially inward from a radially inner end face of the end portion of the clutch in which no elastic spacer is filled, the gap is connected to the drainage channel of the pipe joint body, and no through hole is formed in the elastic spacer (Fig. 2, no through hole is within the material of the spacer, but a gap is formed on the inner side).
Re: Claim 12, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the elastic spacer is formed in a shape complementary to a radially outer region of the gap (Depicted in Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 13, Racine discloses the claimed invention including the end portion of the clutch is engaged with the engagement portion where the end portion engages with the pipe joint body (Fig. 2), a gap is formed in an area radially inward from a radially inner end face of the end portion of the clutch in which no elastic spacer is filled, the gap is connected to the drainage channel of the pipe joint body, and no through hole is formed in the elastic spacer (Fig. 2, no through hole is within the material of the spacer, but a gap is formed on the inner side).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References cited on the PTO-892 provide additional examples pipe joint bodies with clutch assemblies.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES P. CHEYNEY whose telephone number is (571)272-9971. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Paul Durand can be reached at 571-272-4459. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHARLES P. CHEYNEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3754
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