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 .
This is the Final Office Action on the merits of Application No. 19/206450, filed on 05/13/2025. Claims 1-15 are still pending in the application.
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(s) 1-2, 4-5, 7-13, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by EP 1566357 to Yasue et al (henceforth referred to as Yasue).
Regarding claims 1-2, 4-5, 7-10, Yasue discloses a method of providing access for a person to at least one component (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 7) of an elevator system (i.e. Fig. 1), which at least one component is located on top of and/or above an elevator car (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 17) of the elevator system, wherein the method includes:
moving the elevator car along a hoistway (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 1), which extends between a plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 32), to a first maintenance position (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2” the elevator car can be called to various landings within the hoistway), such that a working platform (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 18), which is provided within the elevator car, is reachable by a person from a first one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Abstract: “landing hall is provided with a landing hall side control switch portion for moving the ceiling portion upward and downward”);
opening an elevator car door (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 19) and a hoistway door (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 17a) at the first one of the plurality of landings;
accessing the elevator car from the first one of the plurality of landings and converting the working platform from a storage position (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 18) to a working position (i.e. 4, ref. 18) within the elevator car;
moving the elevator car along the hoistway to a second maintenance position (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2”) the elevator car can be called to various landings within the hoistway), such that a person is capable of entering the working platform from a second one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 5);
after moving the elevator car along the hoistway to the second maintenance position (i.e. Abstract: “landing hall is provided with a landing hall side control switch portion for moving the ceiling portion upward and downward”), entering the working platform by the person from the second one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 5 shows operator entering already lowered platform, ref. 18, from landing ref. 32);
accessing, by the person, the at least one component (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 7) of the elevator system from the working platform by reaching out through an upper portion of the elevator car.
Wherein the first one of the plurality of landings is the same as the second one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 1 and 4, a person can enter the car and/or the work platform at the same landing, ref. 32).
Wherein the method includes, after the person has entered the working platform (i.e. Fig. 4), moving the elevator car to a third maintenance position within the hoistway (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2”) the elevator car can be called to various landings within the hoistway); wherein the third maintenance position is in particular at an upper end of the hoistway such as to allow the person on the working platform to access the at least one component (i.e. Fig. 1) at the upper end of the hoistway.
Wherein the method includes closing the elevator car door and/or respective hoistway door before moving the elevator car from the first and/or second maintenance position (i.e. implicit safety feature of an elevator car can/must have ability to close doors prior to moving the elevator car).
Wherein the method includes controlling movement of the elevator car by control commands entered via at least one input device, wherein the at least one input device is located at the elevator car and/or at least one of the landings (i.e. Abstract: “landing hall is provided with a landing hall side control switch portion for moving the ceiling portion upward and downward”); and/or wherein the method includes controlling movement of the elevator car by control commands entered into a mobile control device configured for transmitting the control commands to the controller of the elevator car.
Wherein the method further includes after the person has accessed the at least one component of the elevator system from the working platform:
moving the elevator car to the second maintenance position (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2”);
the at least one person leaving the elevator car by stepping from the working platform onto the respective landing (i.e. paragraph 0022: “Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view that shows states of getting on and off, the ceiling portion of the elevator apparatus”);
moving the elevator car to the first maintenance position; and converting the working platform from its working position to its storage position (i.e. Fig. 1 and paragraph 0031: “After the work is completed, the ceiling portion 18 is returned to its normal operating position by reversing the procedures described above”).
A method of maintaining at least one component (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 7) of an elevator system (i.e. Fig. 1), which at least one component is located on top of and/or above an elevator car (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 17) of the elevator system, the method comprising providing access for a person to the at least one component as claimed by claim 1.
Regarding claims 11-13 and 15, Yasue discloses an elevator system (i.e. Fig. 1) comprising:
an elevator car (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 17), which is configured for moving along a hoistway (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 1) between a plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 10);
a working platform (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 18), which is provided within the elevator car and which is convertible between a storage position (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 18) and a working position (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 18); and
a controller (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 15), which is configured for controlling movement of the elevator car within the hoistway;
wherein the controller is switchable into a maintenance mode (i.e. paragraph 0029: “During maintenance inspection… operator… operates the landing hall side operation switch”), in which it is configured for:
moving the elevator car to a first maintenance position (i.e. Fig. 4) in which the working platform is accessible from a first one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 32);
opening an elevator car door (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 19) and a hoistway door (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 17a) at the first one of the plurality of landings for allowing a person to convert the working platform from the storage position to the working position (i.e. paragraph 0029: “a worker at the landing hall 32…. operates the landing hall side operation switch… The ceiling portion 18 is thus lowered to the getting on/off position”); and
moving the elevator car to a second maintenance position (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2” the elevator car can be called to various landings within the hoistway) for allowing a person to enter the working platform from a second one of the plurality of landings, after moving the elevator car along the hoistway to the second maintenance position, for accessing the at least one component (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 7) of the elevator system, which is located on top of and/or above the elevator car, from the working platform by reaching out through an upper portion of the elevator car.
Wherein the first one of the plurality of landings is the same as the second one of the plurality of landings (i.e. Fig. 1 and 4, a person can enter the car and/or the work platform at the same landing, ref. 32).; and/or wherein, when the elevator car is positioned in the second maintenance position, the difference in height between the working platform and the second one of the plurality of landings is less than 25cm.
Wherein the controller is further configured for moving the elevator car to a third maintenance position within the hoistway (i.e. not shown but implied in paragraph 0010: “A car 4 is raised and lowered within the hoistway 1, guided by guide rails 2”) the elevator car can be called to various landings within the hoistway) after the person has entered the working platform; wherein the third maintenance position is in particular at an upper end of the hositway allowing the person to access the at least one component (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 7) at the upper end of the hoistway from the working platform (i.e. Fig. 2).
Wherein the controller is further configured for allowing to open, or opening, an elevator car door and a hoistway door at the first one and/or second one of the plurality of landings such as to allow the person to access the elevator car (i.e. Fig. 5), wherein the controller is in particular configured for allowing to close, or closing, the elevator car door and the at least one of the hositway doors at the first one and/or second one of the plurality of landings before the elevator car is moved; and/or wherein the elevator system includes at least one control device (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 15), which is provided at least one of the landings and/or within the elevator car, and which is configured for receiving control commands for controlling the movement of the elevator car and/or wherein the elevator system includes a transceiver which is configured for receiving control commands sent by a mobile control device for controlling the movement of the elevator car (i.e. paragraph 0023: “hall operation panel 33…. and a landing hall call button 36 that is electrically connected to the control panel 15”).
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) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 1566357 to Yasue.
Regarding claim 3, Yasue teaches all the limitations except for a difference in height between the working platform and the second on of the plurality of landings is less than 25cm. However, Yasue teaches “the height of the maintenance work position is adjustable according to the height of a worker, the height of equipment to be worked on, and the like” in paragraph 0017. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a difference of height between the working platform and the second plurality of landings is less than 25cm to accommodate shorter operators or to make it easier to load equipment onto the working platform without much lifting needed and there would have been reasonable expectation of success.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 14 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIEM M TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7825. The examiner can normally be reached M 9-5, W-F 10-2.
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/DIEM M TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3654
