Ex Parte Miekley et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Mar 28, 2018

13501064 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 28, 2018)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
13/501,064 08/01/2012
10800 7590 03/28/2018
Maginot, Moore & Beck LLP
One Indiana Square, Suite 2200
Indianapolis, IN 46204
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Klaus Miekley
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
2178-0163 2034
EXAMINER
MERCADO, ALEXANDER A
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2856
MAILDATE DELIVERY MODE
03/28/2018 PAPER
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte KLAUS MIEKLEY, RAINER WILLIG, BERTHOLD
ROGGE, HERBERT OECHSNER, and
GEORG KONSTANTIN
Appeal2017-008015
Application 13/501,064
Technology Center 2800
Before TERRY J. OWENS, CHRISTOPHER L. OGDEN, and
MONTE T. SQUIRE, Administrative Patent Judges.
OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
The Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's
rejection of claims 1-9 and 11. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
The Invention
The Appellants claim a sensor assembly including a fastening
mechanism. Claim 1 is illustrative:
1. A fastening assembly for a sensor assembly comprising:
a fastening mechanism;
a carrier plate that includes a central passage;
at least one sensor module positioned at an installation
location on the carrier plate; and
Appeal2017-008015
Application 13/501,064
a metal bush configured to connect to a vehicle
bodywork via the fastening mechanism, the metal bush
including:
Brokaw
Kalotay
Winterhalter
Kiwi or
a sleeve as a single-point fixing mechanism that
passes through the central passage of the carrier plate and
secures the carrier plate to the metal bush such that the
installation location of the at least one sensor module on
the carrier plate is vibrationally decoupled from a natural
resonance of the sensor assembly; and
a carrier unit configured to support the carrier
plate.
The References
us 3,826,339
us 5,321,991
US 2004/0032821 Al
GB 2 254 668 A
The Rejections
July 30, 1974
June 21, 1994
Feb. 19,2004
Oct. 14, 1992
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows: claims 1-
9 over Kiwi or in view of Kalotay and claim 11 over Kiwior in view of
Brokaw and Winterhalter.
OPINION
We reverse the rejections. We need address only the independent
claims, i.e., claims 1 and 11.
Claim 1
Claim 1 requires that the installation location of at least one sensor
module on a carrier plate is vibrationally decoupled from a natural resonance
of a sensor assembly.
Kiwior holds an acceleration sensor (12) on a printed circuit
board ( 14) by placing a metal eyelet ( 18) in an opening through the
acceleration sensor ( 12) and the printed circuit board ( 14) and fastening the
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Application 13/501,064
eyelet (18) to a housing (16) by use of a bolt (32) that passes through the
eyelet (18) and screws into a threaded aperture (34) in the housing (16)
(pp. 7-9; Fig. 1 ).
Kalotay discloses a Coriolis flowmeter comprising a motion
sensor (accelerometer 32) mounted at a zero flow nodal location (31) on a
driver-vibrated pipe (10) to measure the amplitude change of the cyclical
transverse displacement of the pipe (10) due to flow therethrough (col. 5,
11. 25-34; col. 6, 11. 2-50; Figs. 1, 2). "The signal output of accelerometer 32
is processed to provide the mass flow rate, total amount of mass, and other
measurement information" (col. 6, 11. 42--44).
The Examiner finds that "Kalotay teaches the placement of an
acceleration module in a nodal location (Col 2, lines 62 - 66), which is a
location vibrationally decoupled from a natural resonance of a sensor
assembly (Figure 1 )" (Ans. 5).
Kalotay's nodal location of the sensor (32) is based upon vibration of
a pipe (10), not vibration of a sensor assembly (col. 6, 11. 34--36). The
Examiner finds that "[i]t is critical the component in the sensor package that
actually performs the sensing be at the location of the nodal point, not the
sensor package itself' (Ans. 4--5), but the Examiner does not establish that
Kalotay discloses, or would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the
art, a sensor package having a sensor located such that it is vibrationally
decoupled from a natural resonance of the sensor package.
Thus, the Examiner has not set forth a factual basis which is sufficient
to support a conclusion of obviousness of the fastening assembly claimed in
the Appellants' claims 1-9. See In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017 (CCPA
1967) ("A rejection based on section 103 clearly must rest on a factual basis,
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Application 13/501,064
and these facts must be interpreted without hindsight reconstruction of the
invention from the prior art"). Accordingly, we reverse the rejection of
those claim.
Claim 11
Claim 11 requires a metal bush secured to a carrier plate by a sleeve
such that a resonant frequency of the carrier plate is shifted into an uncritical
frequency range of at least one sensor module on the carrier plate.
Brokaw attaches a damper (30) comprising a sleeve body (31) to a
cable (24) at an optimum antinode point to achieve a damping factor
exceeding 50 to 1 and, by careful adjustment of the damper's location,
essentially stopping all vibration (col. 3, 11. 57---61; col. 4, 11. 8-9; Fig. 2).
The Examiner finds that "Brokaw discloses damping of transverse
waves (" ... wind against a horizontal cable, for example, will produce
vertical oscillations in the cable") (Col 1, lines 11 -22)" (Ans. 8), and that
"[t]ransverse waves can certainly occur in metal bushes as metal can
inherently vibrate in the transverse mode" (id.). The Examiner concludes
that "[i]t would have been obvious to modify Kiwior, in view of the
teachings of Brokaw[,] to shift the resonant frequency of the carrier plate by
the use of the sleeve and metal bush for the benefit of reducing wear and
separation, and preventing transmission of vibration to other parts of the
fitting, as taught by Brokaw (Col 1, lines 30-40)" (Non-final Act. 7). 1
Establishing a prima facie case of obviousness requires an apparent
reason to modify the prior art as proposed by the Examiner. See KSR Int 'l
Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007).
1 Citations herein are to the Non-final Action mailed June 20, 2016.
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Application 13/501,064
The Examiner's finding that "[ t ]ransverse waves can certainly occur
in metal bushes as metal can inherently vibrate in the transverse mode"
(Ans. 8) does not establish that it would have been apparent to one of
ordinary skill in the art to apply Brokaw's disclosure of a cable (24)
vibration-dampening sleeve (31) to Kiwior's eyelet (18) (which the
Examiner considers to be a metal bush (Non-final Act. 7)) for fastening an
acceleration sensor (12) to a printed circuit board (14 ). 2
We therefore reverse the rejection of claim 11.
DECISION/ORDER
The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103 of claims 1-9 over Kiwior in
view of Kalotay and claim 11 over Kiwior in view of Brokaw and
Winterhalter are reversed.
It is ordered that the Examiner's decision is reversed.
REVERSED
2 Winterhalter discloses a data storage disk having one side which "forms a
rotational bearing surface which lies directly opposite a stationary bearing
surface, whereby at least one of the bearing surfaces features a groove
pattern which is formed in such a way that vibrations in the storage disk
arising from its rotation are dampened or compensated" (i-f 8). "Due to the
groove pattern, concentric, annular areas on the storage disk are subjected to
a varying, hydrodynamically created, positive and/or negative pressure,
whereby the tendency to vibrate and the amplitude of the vibrations are
reduced" (i-f 9). "Due to the differential pressure zones, with the low
pressure preferably at the center and excess pressure at the edge of the
storage disk, stiffness of the storage disk is increased and the tendency to
vibrate is either reduced or shifted to an uncritical higher frequency region,
away from the essential frequencies of the system" (i-f 13).
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