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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 19, 2025 has been considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticiapted by Osawa et al. (JP 2005-66810).
Osawa discloses and shows at Fig. 10, for example, a power transmission mechanism comprising:
a drive unit that comprises a power source (12, not shown in Fig. 10); and
an output unit driven by power from the power source, the output unit comprising:
an output shaft (17); and
an elastic member (15), the elastic member comprising:
a power-side end part (axial end portion) that rotates according to the power from the power source,
an output-side end part (axial end portion at opposite end) that rotates in keeping with rotation of the power- side end part so as to rotate the output shaft; and
an extension/contraction part (coiled portion) that generates elastic force around a rotation center of the power-side end part and the output-side end part.
Cl. 2 – the extension/contraction part has a coil shape including a plurality of annular parts, and the annular parts are arranged apart from one another in a direction in which a center axis line of the extension/contraction part extends.
Cl. 4 – the elastic member is a torsion coil spring.
Cl. 8 – Osawa discloses and shows at Fig. 10, for example, an output unit driven by power fron a power source, conprising:
an output shaft (17); and
an elastic nenber (15) including a power-side end part (axial end portion) that rotates according to the power from the power source, an output-side end part (axial end portion at opposite end) that rotates in keeping with rotation of the power-side end part so as to rotate the output shaft, and an extension/contraction part (coiled portion) that generates elastic force around a rotation center of the power-side end part and the output-side end part.
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Osawa as applied to claim 1.
Osawa discloses and shows the invention of claim 1 as described elsewhere above. Osawa further shows the extension/contraction part having a coil shape, but neither specifies nor shows an angle between an auxiliary line connecting a center axis line of the extension/contraction part with the power-side end part and an auxiliary line connecting the center axis line with the output-side end part is 90 degrees or less, as viewed from a direction in which the center axis line extends.
However, such an angle would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in accordance with MPEP 2144.05(II)(A) which states, “[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation.” in citing In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955)
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Osawa et al. (JP 2005-66810) in view of Cariccia et al. (IT 202000009295).
Osawa discloses and shows at Fig. 10, for example, a drive system comprising:
a power transmission mechanism including:
a drive unit that comprises a power source (12, not shown in Fig. 10); and
an output unit driven by power from the power source,
the output unit including
an output shaft (17); and
an elastic member (15) including a power-side end part (axial end portion) that rotates according to the power from the power source, an output-side end part (axial end portion at opposite end) that rotates in keeping with the rotation of the power-side end part so as to rotate the output shaft; and an extension/contraction part (coiled portion) that generates elastic force around a rotation center of the power-side end part and the output-side end part.
Osawa does not include a torque calculation apparatus as claimed. Cariccia discloses and shows a pulley system having a torque calculation apparatus (110) configured to calculate load torque on a shaft on a basis of an extension/contraction amount of an elastic member (21,22) according to a rotation angle of a drive shaft possessed by the drive unit and a rotation angle of the output shaft (pg. 6, ninth full paragraph of English Translation). The system and apparatus is therefore efficient and long lasting with low noise.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the Osawa drive system with a torque calculation apparatus as taught by Cariccia to likewise yield an efficient and long lasting drive system with low noise.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BOBBY RUSHING, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-0501. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8AM-5PM EST.
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/BOBBY RUSHING, JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618
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