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, Group VII, and species F in the reply filed on 11/17/2025 is acknowledged.
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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cho et al. (WO 2017/082489), referred to hereafter as Cho.
With regard to claim 13, Cho discloses a rotor comprising: a hub (120) on a rotation axis of the rotor; a plurality of blades (110) each connected to and curved around the hub; and a plurality of reinforcing portions (140, 190) each curved around the hub (Fig. 14) and connected to at least one of a front edge portion and a rear edge portion of the blades adjacent to one another in at least a radial direction (Fig. 14).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Vallejo (US 2012/0183407).
With regard to claim 13, Vallejo discloses a rotor comprising: a hub (103) on a rotation axis of the rotor; a plurality of blades (104) each connected to and curved around the hub; and a plurality of reinforcing portions (109) each curved around the hub and connected to at least one of a front edge portion and a rear edge portion of the blades adjacent to one another in at least a radial direction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 19-21 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 a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: with regard to claim 19, Bills et al. (US 8,905,706) teaches blades having a main body with edges formed into any of a logarithmic spiral pattern, a Fibonacci spiral pattern, a Fermat's spiral pattern, a conical spiral pattern, or a hyperbolic spiral pattern, around the hub, and an extended portion connected to the blade main body portion, but is silent about the extended portion having different widths when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, and a pedestal portion on one edge of the extended portion that contacts on at least any of the front edge or the rear edge, and at least one of the reinforcing portions is connected to one part of the pedestal portion of one of the blades, said one part being farthest from the hub among the other parts of the pedestal portion, and it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application, nor any motivation, to modify the prior arts for these deficiencies, because it would require improper hindsight reconstruction. Claims 20 and 21 depend from claim 19.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to the attached form PTO-892 for pertinent prior art disclosing similar rotors such as US 8240996 and US 20110014052.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BEHNOUSH HAGHIGHIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7558. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 7:00am-15:00pm.
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, Courtney D Heinle can be reached at (571) 270-3508. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BEHNOUSH HAGHIGHIAN/
Examiner
Art Unit 3745
/COURTNEY D HEINLE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3745