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 .
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.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy of Japanese patent application number 2024-091500, filed on June 5, 2024, has been received and made of record.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (lDS) submitted on May 6, 2025 and August 26, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and have been considered by the Examiner.
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 1-2 and 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ishikawa et al. (US Patent 11,914,270), in view of Yasu (US Pub. 2020/0012407).
In regard to claim 1, note Ishikawa discloses a shutter mechanism comprising a camera that includes a light receiving unit, the camera being mounted on a chassis of an information processing apparatus (column 2, lines 56-62, and figure 1, 3, 8, 9: 10, 28, 24; the information processing apparatus 10 includes a camera 28 mounted on the chassis 24), a shutter (column 3, lines 27-64, and figure 3: 36, 38) configured to slide between a first position and a second position, the first position limiting light reception of the light receiving unit (column 3, lines 27-39, and figure 3: 36, 38), the second position releasing limitation of the light reception (column 3, lines 27-39, and figure 9: 36/38), a first member that is a magnet relatively fixed to the chassis (column 5, lines 31-36, column 10, lines 15-22, and figures 3, 6, 8, 9: 56), the first member including north poles (56a, 56c) and south poles (56b, 56d) that are alternately arranged in a slide movement direction at a predetermined pitch (figures 3, 6, 8, 9: 56), and a second member that is a magnet relatively fixed to the shutter (column 5, lines 14-24, column 10, lines 15-22, and figures 3, 6, 8, 9: 54) so that a magnetized surface of the second member faces a magnetized surface of the first member, the second member including north poles (54b) and south poles (54a) that are alternately arranged in the slide movement direction at the predetermined pitch (figures 3, 6, 8, 9: 54) and having a magnetization pattern of the north and south poles of the magnetized surface inverted from a magnetization pattern of the first sheet member when being viewed from a direction facing the first sheet member at the first position (column 5, line 66 – column 6, line 2, and figure 6A) and the second position (column 5, line 66 – column 6, line 2, and figure 6B).
Therefore, it can be seen that the primary reference fails to explicitly disclose that the first and second members are sheet-shaped magnet sheets.
In analogous art, Yasu discloses sheet-shaped magnet sheets with plural alternating north and south poles, such that the sheets are slidable relative to each other (paragraph 0081, figure : 210, 220). The Examiner notes that the use of thin sheet-shaped magnets disclosed by Yasu to replace the magnets of Ishikawa would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in order to provide a thinner system due to the reduced magnet thickness. Therefore, 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 primary reference to replace the magnets of Ishikawa with the thin sheet-shaped magnets disclosed by Yasu, in order to provide a thinner system due to the reduced magnet thickness.
In regard to claim 2, note Ishikawa discloses that a length of the second sheet member in the slide movement direction is configured to be shorter than a length of the first sheet member in the slide movement direction by a movable length of the shutter (figures 3, 9: 54, 56; the second member 54 is shorter than the first member 56).
In regard to claim 4, note Ishikawa discloses that the chassis mounted with the shutter mechanism (column 2, lines 20-67, and figure 1: 26, 36/38; the shutter mechanism 36/38 is mounted on the chassis 24/26).
In regard to claim 5, note Ishikawa discloses that the chassis is mounted with a display unit, and the shutter mechanism is arranged in a bezel portion that is provided on the chassis to surround the display unit (column 2, lines 20-67, and figure 1: 24/26, 36/38).
In regard to claim 6, note Ishikawa discloses that the first sheet member and the second sheet member are arranged in the bezel portion (column 2, lines 20-67, and figure 1: 24/26, 54, 56). And Yasu discloses that the first and second member overlap each other in a thickness direction of the chassis (paragraph 0223, and figure 39). And based on the combination of Ishikawa and Yasu, it would have been obvious to overlap the members in the bezel portion in order to provide a system with reduced height in the thickness direction of the chassis.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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.
Claims 7-9 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As for claim 7, the prior art does not teach or fairly suggest the use of a method of manufacturing a shutter mechanism, wherein the shutter mechanism includes a camera that includes a light receiving unit, the camera being mounted on a chassis of an information processing apparatus, a shutter that is slidable between a first position and a second position, the first position limiting light reception of the light receiving unit, the second position releasing limitation of the light reception, a first sheet member that is a sheet-shaped magnet sheet relatively fixed to the chassis, the first sheet member including north poles and south poles that are alternately arranged in a slide movement direction at a predetermined pitch, and a second sheet member that is a sheet-shaped magnet sheet relatively fixed to the shutter so that a magnetized surface of the sheet faces a magnetized surface of the first sheet member, the second sheet member including north poles and south poles that are alternately arranged in the slide movement direction at the predetermined pitch and having a magnetization pattern of the north and south poles of the magnetized surface inverted from a magnetization pattern of the first sheet member when being viewed from a direction facing the first sheet member at the first position and the second position, the method comprising cutting out the first sheet member and the second sheet member from the two magnet sheets in a state where the two magnet sheets are superimposed at a stable position at which the north poles and the south poles on the magnetized surfaces facing each other are mutually inverted, adding marks for positioning the first sheet member and the second sheet member to the first sheet member and the second sheet member in a state where the first sheet member and the second sheet member are superimposed, and cutting out the second sheet member to be short by a movable length of the shutter, in conjunction with the other limitations of the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISS S YODER III whose telephone number is (571)272-7323. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:00 PM.
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/CHRISS S YODER III/Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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