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 .
Claims 1-8 filed on April 18, 2025 are pending.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Clarent (Published May 22, 2023, https://imgur.com/a/clarent-1UFXaxb (pictures and video)).1
As to claim 1, Clarent discloses a keyboard comprising:
a base including a tray formed therein (See pictures and video for black colored bottom tray that holds the structures where the white colored keys are attached);
at least one key row disposed within the tray, the at least one key row including a plurality of keys linearly arranged along a first direction (See pictures and video, white colored keys that move linearly with the black colored laterally moving structure);
at least one key row base connecting the at least one key row to the base, the at least one key base being configured to move the at least one key row along the first direction with respect to the base (See pictures and video, the structure that moves laterally with respect to the base by the depicted person’s hand).2
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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:
As to claim 2, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspect of: further comprising at least one electric motor in mechanical communication with a gear and configured to move the at least one key row along the first direction with respect to the base.
As to claim 7, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspect of: further comprising at least one hand screw in mechanical communication with a gear and configured to move the at least one key row along the first direction with respect to the base.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Baermann (3,588,766, Patented June 28, 1971) is made of record for its relevance to claim 1 by its disclosure of the following at col. 2, ll. 10-19; col. 3, ll2-18; and Figs. 1-3:
“Referring now to the drawings wherein the showings are for the purpose of illustrating preferred embodiments of the invention only and not for the purpose of limiting same, FIG. 1 illustrates the application of the present invention to a 15keyboard, such as commonly found on calculators. Although 15only a portion of the keyboard has been shown, it is to be appreciated that in such an application, keys from 0 to 9 would be provided. Furthermore, several rows of these keys can be arranged behind one another to form the complete keyboard.”
“The member 14 is biased to the first position shown in FIG. 1 by biasing means which may take a variety of forms; however, in the embodiment shown it takes the form of a compression spring 36. One end of the spring 36 is secured to one end of the movable member 14 and the other end of the spring is secured to a support member 38, which preferably is connected to the casing 10. Secured to the other end of the movable member 14 is a cancelling button, designated generally by the reference numeral 40. The cancelling button 40 includes a key portion 42 which is located outside of the casing 10 where it is readily accessible to the operator and a stem portion 44 which extends outward from the key portion, passes through an opening 46 in the casing and is connected to the end of the movable member 14. Depressing the cancelling button 40 will displace the movable magnet member 14 from its normal first position to the second position.”
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sanjiv D Patel whose telephone number is (571)270-5731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Boddie can be reached at 571-272-0666. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Sanjiv D. Patel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
01/07/2026
1 See Split Keyboard with Bi-stable Column Stagger, https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/13p4lvm/split_keyboard_with_bistable_column_stagger/ which discloses “This is a prototype of a keyboard that shifts between column stagger and no column stagger (around the WASD area) in a bi-stable manner with a compliant mechanism, and might bridge the gap between a layout for typing and a layout for gaming.” This Reddit disclosure also provides the following link: https://imgur.com/a/clarent-1UFXaxb
2 See also Baermann in Conclusion Section below.