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 July 16, 2025 and July 1, 2026 have 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 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Taguchi (US 5,014,741).
Taguchi discloses and shows at Fig. 3 a vehicle drive device comprising:
a case (100) that forms a housing chamber in which oil flows;
a power transmission mechanism disposed in the housing chamber (not shown in Fig. 3) and including a rotary shaft member that enables transmission of power from a power source to a wheel (see title of invention);
an oil pump (not shown, see “Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention”) that sucks and discharges oil in the housing chamber; and
an oil passage structure, at least a part of which is formed in the case,
wherein
the case includes
a case member (100) including, at an axial end, a first mating surface (at 100) and a second mating surface (101) that is located on a radially inner side of the first mating surface as viewed in an axial direction of the rotary shaft member, and
a cover member (not shown, described as “oil pump cover”) including a third mating surface aligned with the first mating surface in the axial direction and a fourth mating surface aligned with the second mating surface in the axial direction, the cover member being coupled to the case member via a coupling between the first mating surface and the third mating surface,
the oil passage structure includes an oil passage (103, 109, 107,105, 104, 110, 108, 106) between a discharge side of the oil pump and an oil supply target, and
the oil passage (109, 110) is formed in a manner surrounded by at least one of the second mating surface or the fourth mating surface as viewed in the axial direction, and includes a groove portion recessed toward the at least one mating surface in the axial direction (col. 4:34-37, 51-52, 63 – col. 5:11).
Cl. 4 – the second mating surface and the fourth mating surface are aligned in the axial direction (col. 4:34-37) without interposing a seal member (no seal member is mentioned or shown in Fig. 3).
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.
Claims 2, 3 and 5-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taguchi as applied to claim 1, in view of Ishikawa et al. (JP WO 2018/030372).
Taguchi discloses and shows the invention of claim 1 as described elsewhere above to also include the groove portion having a curved/bent shape as viewed in the axial direction. Taguchi does not include a cooler in the aforementioned embodiment.
Ishikawa discloses and shows a vehicle drive device comprising an oil cooler (97) attached to a cover member (61), where an oil passage (92b) extends from a discharge side of an oil pump (96) to the oil cooler. The oil cooler is arranged so as to cool the oil before being routed to cool the motor. 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 Taguchi vehicle drive device to include an oil cooler attached to the cover member as claimed, where an oil passage extends from a discharge side of an oil pump to the oil cooler to cool the oil before being routed to the motor.
Cl. 3 – the power source includes a rotary electric machine (Ishikawa, 2) provided coaxially with a rotary shaft member (21), the supply target includes the rotary machine, the groove portion (Figs. 10-11, item 92b) overlaps the rotary electric machine as viewed in the axial direction.
Cl. 5 – the power source includes a rotary electric machine (Ishikawa, 2) provided coaxially with a rotary shaft member (21), the housing chamber includes a first housing chamber (81) that houses the rotary electric machine, and a second housing chamber (82) that is adjacent to the first housing chamber in the axial direction and houses at least a part of the power transmission mechanism, and the oil pump (96) is of an electric type (see pg. 19, fifth full paragraph of English translation) and is disposed in the first housing chamber (see Fig. 10).
Cl. 6 – Ishikawa further comprises an oil temperature sensor that is disposed in the first housing chamber and generates sensor information corresponding to a temperature of oil (see pg 32,
fourth full paragraph of English translation).
Cls. 7 & 10 – the cover member is provided to cover an axial end of the second housing chamber on a side farther from the first housing chamber (Ishikawa, Fig. 1).
Cls. 8 & 9 – the second mating surface and the fourth mating surface are aligned in the axial direction (Taguchi, col. 4:34-37) without interposing a seal member (no seal member is mentioned or shown in Fig. 3).
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Minnah Seoh can be reached at (571) 270-7778. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BOBBY RUSHING, JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618
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