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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species A (claims 1-2 and 5) in the reply filed on 14 November 2025 is acknowledged.
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 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sakamoto et al – hereafter Sakamoto – (US 20180016942 A1; also US 10,801,368 B2).
Regarding claim 1, Sakamoto teaches a rotary device (Fig.4-5) comprising:
an impeller (20);
a plurality of vanes (12) that is located radially outside the impeller and that is arranged along a circumferential direction (Fig.5);
a housing body (30) that encloses the impeller;
a shroud piece (8) that is discrete from the housing body, the shroud piece including at least a part of a shroud that faces blade surfaces of the impeller and being in contact with or fixed to at least a part of each of the plurality of vanes (surface of 10 adjacent to 12);
a surface that faces the shroud piece across the plurality of vanes (Fig.4); and
an elastic body (24) that is arranged between the housing body and the shroud piece and that presses the shroud piece and the plurality of vanes toward the surface (Fig.4).
Regarding claim 5, Sakamoto further teaches the shroud piece is in contact with or fixed to the whole each of the plurality of vanes (Fig.4; ¶56).
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) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakamoto as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kobayashi et al – hereafter Kobayashi – (US 20180030848 A1; also US 10,677,086 B2).
Regarding claim 2, Sakamoto teaches all the limitations of claim 1, see above, however, does not explicitly teach the elastic body includes a disc spring that is arranged around a central axis of the impeller, and the disc spring is arranged radially outside a radially-outermost part of the impeller, and an inner edge of the disc spring presses the shroud piece.
Kobayashi teaches a rotary device (Fig.2) comprising: an impeller (6); a plurality of vanes (23) that is located radially outside the impeller; a housing body (4) that encloses the impeller; a shroud piece (32) that is discrete from the housing body; and an elastic body (45) that is arranged between the housing body and the shroud piece and that presses the shroud piece (Fig.2). Kobayashi further teaches the elastic body includes a disc spring (Fig.2; ¶31) that is arranged around a central axis of the impeller, and the disc spring is arranged radially outside a radially-outermost part of the impeller (Fig.2).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the rotary device of Sakamoto by having the elastic body includes a disc spring that is arranged around a central axis of the impeller, and the disc spring is arranged radially outside a radially-outermost part of the impeller based on the teachings of Kobayashi because this would require a simple substitution of one known element (elastic body of Sakamoto) for another (elastic body of Kobayashi) to obtain predictable results (providing a seal between the housing body and the shroud piece).
The proposed combination of Sakamoto and Kobayashi teaches all the limitations of claim 2 except for an inner edge of the disc spring presses the shroud piece.
However, it has been held that if shifting the position of a component in a device would not have modified the operation of said device, said position shift of said component is unpatentable, additionally, a particular placement of a component in a device has been held to be an obvious matter of design choice. In the current instance, there is no evidence that having an inner edge of the disc spring pressing the shroud piece instead of an outer edge of the disc spring pressing the shroud piece, would change the operation of the propulsion assembly, 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 modify the rotary device of Sakamoto and Kobayashi by shifting the position/placement of the inner edge of the disc spring to be disposed pressing the shroud piece as an obvious matter of design choice (MPEP 2144.04 VI C).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN G FLORES whose telephone number is (571)272-3486. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:30pm Pacific Time.
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/JUAN G FLORES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745