DETAILED ACTION
This action is a first action on the merits. The claims filed on March 4, 2025 have been entered. Claims 1-7 are pending and addressed below.
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
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
This application is a 371 national stage entry of PCT No. JP2023/024154 filed on June 29, 2023 and claims foreign priority to Japan Patent No. JP2022-211760 filed on December 28, 2022.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed on March 4, 2025, October 27, 2025, March 25, 2026, and July 2, 2026 have been considered by the Examiner.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it exceeds 150 words in length. . A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities: The recitation of “as a front-rear direction of the vehicle” in line 2-3 should likely be --in a front-rear direction of the vehicle--. Appropriate correction is 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 (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 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al., Korean Patent No. KR 20220028865 A (hereinafter Lee).
Claim 1: Lee discloses a shock absorption structure for a vehicle body (see abstract), comprising:
a rocker (side sill, see Fig 1) extending with a longitudinal direction thereof as a front-rear direction of the vehicle body (see pg 2) and having a closed sectional structure having a hollow structure connected in the longitudinal direction (see Fig 1, pg 2); and
an energy absorption member (first buffer member 3, second buffer member 4) that absorbs shock energy upon side collision of a vehicle from an outer side in a width direction of the vehicle body (abstract, pg 2),
wherein the energy absorption member includes an outer member (second buffer member 4) disposed on the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body (at side sill outer panel 2, see Fig 1) and an inner member (first buffer member 3) disposed on an inner side in the width direction of the vehicle body (at side sill inner panel 1, see Fig 1);
the outer member and the inner member (4, 3) are arranged such that a collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body is transmittable there between (impact is sequentially transmitted to the second buffer member 4 and the first buffer member 3 through the side sill outer panel 2 during a side collision of the vehicle impact, see Fig 8, pg 10-11)
the outer member (4) is made higher in deformation strength against a collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body than that of the inner member (3) (as shown in Fig 8), and
the outer member (4) and the inner member (3) are set to have a longer length in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body than a size of a collision target in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body (outer member 4 transmits collision load to the inner member 3 over a wider area in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, as the inner member 3 is deformed before the outer member 4 as shown in Fig 8, pg 10-11).
Claim(s) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al., US 2020/0114972 (hereinafter Lee).
Claim 1: Lee discloses a shock absorption structure for a vehicle body, comprising:
a rocker (inner side sill panel 32 and outer side sill panel 33) extending with a longitudinal direction thereof as a front-rear direction of the vehicle body and having a closed sectional structure having a hollow structure connected in the longitudinal direction (see Fig 1-2, par [0009]-[0010]); and
an energy absorption member (reinforcing core 1) that absorbs shock energy upon side collision of a vehicle from an outer side in a width direction of the vehicle body (see Fig 1-2, par [0003]);
wherein the energy absorption member (1) includes an outer member (outer panel 101) disposed on the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and an inner member (inner panel 103) disposed on an inner side in the width direction of the vehicle body (as shown in Fig 3, 7);
the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) are arranged such that a collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body is transmittable therebetween (arrangement as seen in Fig 7),
the outer member (101) is made higher in deformation strength against a collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body than that of the inner member (102, 103, 107, 108, 105) (outer panel 101 may formed so as to have a larger thickness than the middle panel 102 and the inner panel 103, see Fig 7, par [0047]-[0048]) and
the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) are set to have a longer length in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body than a size of a collision target in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body (see Fig 4-5).
Claim 2: Lee discloses wherein each of the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) includes a deformation portion (outer member 101 includes quadrangles between 101 and 105, inner member 103 includes quadrangles between 105 and 103, see Fig 7) which is deformed by the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and absorbs the collision energy (in order to enhance the rigidity to withstand a side impact, Fig 7, par [0046]-[0048]), and
the outer member (101) has a larger number of deformation portions than that of the inner member (the number of quadrangles between 101 and 105 is greater than the number of quadrangles between 105 and 103 as shown in Fig 7), and
the plurality of deformation portions is arranged in parallel in the width direction of the vehicle body (as shown in Fig 1, 7).
Claim 3: Lee discloses wherein each of the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) includes a deformation portion (outer horizontal partition wall 106, inner horizontal partition wall 108) which is deformed by the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and absorbs the collision energy (in order to enhance the rigidity to withstand a side impact, Fig 7, par [0046]-[0048]),
the deformation portion includes a plate member (outer horizontal partition wall 106 and inner horizontal partition wall 108 are in the form of plates) whose plate surface extends in the width direction of the vehicle body (see Fig 1, 7), and the outer member (101) has a smaller dimension of the plate member (partition wall 106) in the width direction of the vehicle body (left to right) than that of the inner member (partition walls 107, 108) (as seen in Fig 7).
Claim 4: Lee discloses wherein each of the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) includes a deformation portion (outer horizontal partition wall 106, inner horizontal partition wall 108) which is deformed by the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and absorbs the collision energy (in order to enhance the rigidity to withstand a side impact, Fig 7, par [0046]-[0048]), and
the deformation portion (106) of the outer member (101) includes a reinforcement structure (quadrangles of greater thickness, see Fig 7 ) that increases the deformation strength against the collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body (increased thickness of each of the outer horizontal partition wall 106 be set to 4.5 mm, see par [0045], [0047]-[0048]).
Claim 5: Lee discloses wherein each of the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) includes a deformation portion (outer horizontal partition wall 106, inner horizontal partition wall 108) which is deformed by the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and absorbs the collision energy (in order to enhance the rigidity to withstand a side impact, Fig 7, par [0046]-[0048]), and
the deformation portion of the inner member (108) includes a fragile structure (less thickness) that decreases the deformation strength against the collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body (thickness of the inner horizontal partition wall 108 may be set to 3.0 mm, see par [0045], [0047]-[0048]).
Claim 6: Lee discloses wherein each of the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) includes a deformation portion (outer horizontal partition wall 106, inner horizontal partition wall 108) which is deformed by the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body and absorbs the collision energy (in order to enhance the rigidity to withstand a side impact, Fig 7, par [0046]-[0048]), and
the deformation portion of the outer member (outer horizontal partition wall 106) is made of a material having higher deformation strength (increased thickness) against the collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body than that of the inner member (increased thickness of each of the outer horizontal partition wall 106 be set to 4.5 mm, see par [0045], [0047]-[0048]).
Claim 7: Lee discloses further comprising:
an intermediate member (vertical partition wall 105) between the outer member (101) and the inner member (103) in the width direction of the vehicle body (as shown in Fig 1, 7),
wherein the outer member (101), the intermediate member (105), and the inner member (103) are arranged such that the collision load in the width direction of the vehicle body is mutually transmittable between adjacent members (via the arrangement in Fig 7), and
the outer member (101), the inner member (103), and the intermediate member (105) have a relationship in the deformation strength against the collision load from the outer side in the width direction of the vehicle body, in which the outer member is stronger than the intermediate member and the intermediate member is stronger than the inner member (thickness of the outer panel 101 may be set to 3.4 mm, and the thickness of each of the middle panel 102 and the inner panel 103 may be set to 3.0 mm, par [0048]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The disclosure of Oxley et al., US 2022/0212720 discloses a vehicle rocker component is relevant to the claims but has not been relied upon in the current rejection.
Claims 1-7 are rejected. No claims are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAROLINE N BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)272-1623. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10-6 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tara E Schimpf can be reached at (571) 270-7741. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CAROLINE N BUTCHER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3676
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