DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on 3.18.25. In view of this communication, claims 1-7 are now pending in this application.
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
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I : Claims 1-6 in the reply filed on 10.7.26 is acknowledged.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation 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).
Claim Objections
Claims below are objected to because of the following informalities, specifically claims are to be rewritten as product claims. The following is just a sampling that Examiner found as the number of such errors are multiple. Examiner requests a thorough review of all claims.
Claim 1 recites in part “radially arranged pin holes drilled in the front-back direction so that contact pins of a pressing jig penetrate and contact the front of the housing”. Claim 1 is a product claim should be rewritten as “radially arranged pin holes drilled in the front-back direction are configured so that contact pins of a pressing jig penetrate and contact the front of the housing.
Claim 2 recites “a positioning groove is formed” which should be rewritten as “ a positioning groove is configured to be formed”.
Claim 3 recites “ each of the grounding brushes is made by neatly gathering several long, thin carbon…” which should be rewritten as “ each of the grounding brushes is configured to be made by neatly gathering several long, thin carbon…”.
Appropriate corrections are required.
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 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fang et al (CN220421586U English translation), hereinafter Fang.
Regarding Claim 1, Fang discloses (Figs 1-5,7) a shaft grounding ring (10) comprising:
an annular housing (11) having a first through hole (11h) in a central portion (Fig 3) thereof through which a motor shaft (101) passes in a front-back direction (AA), and having brush mounting grooves (111) arranged radially (R) on a front thereof;
a plurality of grounding brushes (13) respectively inserted into the brush mounting grooves (111) of the housing, and an elastic end (13 end) of which is in electrical contact with an outer circumferential surface of the motor shaft (Fig 1); and
an annular cover (12) coupled to the housing (11) with the grounding brushes (13) in between to fix the grounding brushes, having a second through hole (12h) in a central portion thereof in a front-back direction (AA) , which communicates with the first through hole (11h) and through which the motor shaft passes (101), and having radially arranged pin holes (121) drilled in the front-back direction so that contact pins of a pressing jig penetrate and contact the front of the housing (Fig 5 discloses 11 integral with fastener 14 which is peened over countersunk hole 121a which inherently requires a press tool that penetrate 121 and contact 14 which is part of 11) .
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claim 2 recites “The shaft grounding ring of claim 1, wherein one of the pin holes of the cover is integrally formed with an open hole that extends from a center to an end of an inner edge thereof so that a positioning protrusion that determines a fastening position of the pressing jig is inserted, and a positioning groove is formed in the housing to communicate with the open hole”. Fang discloses pin holes 121 are integrally formed with cover 12 but Fang does not disclose rest of the limitations. Therefore claim 2 is allowable.
Claim 3 recites “The shaft grounding ring of claim 1, wherein the housing has a first coupling surface on an inner edge of the front thereof, has a narrow and long slot groove in a circular shape on an outer edge of the first coupling surface, has the brush mounting grooves arranged radially on the first coupling surface, and has a second coupling surface on an inner edge of a back thereof, wherein each of the grounding brushes is made by neatly gathering several long, thin carbon fiber filaments, putting the filaments in a crimp tube, and pressing the filaments together, so that the grounding brushes are elastic in themselves, and wherein the cover has a shrink flange on an outer edge thereof to fit into the slot groove, has first stretch flanges inserted into the first through hole of the housing are arranged radially on an inner circumference of the second through hole, and has a second stretch flange that bends an end of each of the first stretch flanges that penetrate the first through hole of the housing outward to bring the first stretch flanges into close contact with the first coupling surface of the housing”. Fang does not disclose the slot groove structure of joining cover and housing. In Fang, the cover 12 and housing 11 are joined by integral fastener 14. Therefore claim 3 is allowable. Claims 4-6 are allowable as they are dependent upon claim 3.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jin (KR102576489B1 English translation) discloses relevant cover and housing structure with grounding brush in between in Fig 2.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4814. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher M Koehler can be reached on 5712723560. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
