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 24, 2025 is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The following title is suggested: Device for detecting a position of a mobile part, and associated method, and aircraft.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the position" in line 1 and “the path” in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the following steps" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 2-5 and 7-10 should have been rejected for the same reason for their dependency.
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(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barney (US 20190026620) in view of Nobes et al. (WO 2019/113673).
As per claim 1, Barney discloses a rotary RFID switch (figures 2A and 6-7) for detecting a position of moving part (rotating mount 25) between a first extreme position, a second extreme position and at least one intermediate position (switch labels, paragraph 0053; figures 6-7), the detection device including a fixed antenna (RFID antenna 34, paragraph 0032) and a plurality of radio-frequency identification tags (RFID tags 37, paragraphs 0032-0035) arranged along a path of the moving part between said extreme and intermediate positions (paragraphs 0053-0055).
Barney discloses the instant claimed invention except for a mechanical contactor configured so as to establish an electrical connection between the antenna and a single combination of at least one radio-frequency identification tag for each position of the movable piece. Nobes et al. disclose a rotary encoder (100, figure 1) comprises switch knob (102) includes twelve discrete rotational positions along with additional off position located between the discrete rotational positions (paragraph 0028), wherein the rotary encoder (100) can then generate one or more digital values based on the rotational position(s) of the switch knob 102 (paragraph 0021) and a positional detector involving a unique combination of electrical connections for each position (paragraphs 0018, 0029-0036 and figures 2A to 2C, in particular conductive pads 212). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to utilize the rotary encoder as taught by Nobes et al. in a system as disclosed by Barney for the purpose of establishing the electrical connection between the antenna and a single combination of at least one radio-frequency identification tag for each position of the movable piece.
As per claim 2, Barney discloses the rotary RFID switch (figure 2A) being disposed around the moveable piece and comprises a fixed armature (7) and a moveable portion integral with the moveable piece (paragraphs 0037-0044).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 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 TAI T. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2961. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm.
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/TAI T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685 February 24, 2026
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