Ex Parte Iguchi et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardMar 27, 2017

13132973 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 27, 2017)

United States Patent and Trademark Office 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 APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 13/132,973 06/06/2011 Tetsuya Iguchi SHIG CP05MY10EA 9421 27667 7590 HAYES SOLOWAY P.C. 4640 E. Skyline Drive TUCSON, AZ 85718 03/29/2017 EXAMINER KONERU, LAKSHMI S ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3675 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 03/29/2017 ELECTRONIC 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. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): admin@hayes-soloway.com nsoloway@hayes-soloway.com dlandau @hayes-soloway.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte TETSUYAIGUCHI, KAZUHIRO IWASHITA, and YASUHIRO KUROKI Appeal 2015-004803 Application 13/132,973 Technology Center 3600 Before JOHN C. KERINS, GEORGE R. HOSKINS, and SEAN P. O’HANLON, Administrative Patent Judges. O’HANLON, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Tetsuya Iguchi et al. (Appellants)1 appeal under 35U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner’s final decision rejecting claims 1—3 and 6.2 We have jurisdiction over this appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We REVERSE. 1 According to Appellants, the real party in interest is Eagle Industry Co., Ltd. App. Br. 2. 2 Claims 4, 5, and 7—11 are canceled. Id. at 4. Appeal 2015-004803 Application 13/132,973 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Appellants’ claimed invention relates to “a sealing device that increases the lubricity between sealing surfaces and prevents leakage of sealed fluids.” Spec. 1. Claim 1, reproduced below from pages 13—14 (Claims Appendix) of the Appeal Brief with paragraph structure added, is the sole independent claim on appeal and is representative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A sealing device having a contact-type mechanical sealing structure in which a stationary-side sealing element and a rotating-side sealing element slide intimately against each other between a seal housing and a rotating shaft inserted through an inner periphery of the seal housing, the format of the sealing device being adapted for sealing a fluid prone to leak from an outer periphery of a sealing surface toward an inner periphery; wherein the sealing device includes two or more groups of a plurality of dimples longitudinally arranged in a radial direction are formed around a circumferential direction on a sealing surface of the stationary-side sealing element or the rotating-side sealing element, the dimples have a dimple angle 9 at which their tips in the rotational direction are tilted toward the inner periphery, the angle 6 is expressed by the relation 5 < 6< 45°, land areas in the circumferential direction are formed between proximate tips of adjacent groups of the longitudinally arranged dimples, and dimples adjacent in the radial direction within one group of longitudinally arranged dimples are arranged so as to not overlap in the radial direction, and the dimples in individual rows of the dimples longitudinally arranged in the radial direction are aligned so that a gap ratio L1/L2, which represents the ratio between the length LI of a dimple along the circumference of a circle passing through the center of the dimple and the length L2, along the circumference of the same circle, of the land area 2 Appeal 2015-004803 Application 13/132,973 formed between adjacent dimples, is within the range indicated by the expression below: 0.001