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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/13/2025 has been entered.
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) 1-4, 8, 10-11, 14-15, 21 and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steingraber et al. (WO 2014066730) in view of Han (CN 100381083).
Regarding claims 1 and 23, Steingraber discloses an electronic smoking device (page 5, line 31 to page 6, line 9 and figs. 2-3) comprising: a primary and a secondary liquid reservoir; a primary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the primary liquid reservoir; a secondary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the secondary liquid reservoir (cartomizer, 34); a battery (38); an activation switch (35); an operation unit (36), electrically connected to the battery and the primary and secondary heating element respectively; and wherein, the operation unit is configured to non-simultaneously supply at least one pulse of power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch (page 12, line 3 to page 13, line 23, figs. 2-3; tables 4-6), and wherein the operation unit is configured to operate with a time interval between a pulse of power supplied to the primary heating element and a pulse of power supplied to the secondary heating element has a length of T (pages 11-13 and table 6). Steingraber discloses the user can control the percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge on the fly corresponding to the claimed the time interval can be configured to allow liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device (result in 0% mix; see table 6 and page 13, lines 15-18). Furthermore, Han discloses in a preferred embodiment the control circuit of an electronic smoking device can delay (example 2 seconds) after closing the output end then start the next smoking (see document). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have a delay unit configured to impose a delay between the pulse of power supplied to the primary heating element and the pulse of power supplied to the second heating element wherein the delay being of the time interval of length T; the delay thereby preventing the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir from exiting the electronic smoking device until after the liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir exits the electronic smoking device.
Regarding claim 2, Steingraber discloses the secondary liquid reservoir is configured to receive and store a base liquid and/or a flavored liquid and wherein the primary liquid reservoir is capable of configured to receive and store a concentrated nicotine-solution (page 5).
Regarding claim 3, Steingraber discloses wherein the primary liquid reservoir is further configured to receive a solid carrier material (wick) with the concentrated nicotine-solution adhering thereto (page 30).
Regarding claim 4, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to deliver a pulse of power to the primary heating element prior to delivering a pulse of power to the secondary heating element (table 5 and page 13).
Regarding claim 6, Steingraber discloses that the microcontroller has an embedded Pulse width modulation wave generator (pages 11-13) and the device can get up to 390 degree F in 2 seconds (page 30) which also is the average puff duration (page 14) and pulses are driven out of phase as shown in table 6; therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made that the microcontroller capable of setting the time T is 200ms.
Regarding claim 7. Steingraber discloses that the microcontroller has an embedded Pulse width modulation wave generator (page 11); therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made that the microcontroller capable of being configured to supply a pulse with a pulse width that is predefined and/or controllable by a user.
Regarding claim 8, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f1 to the primary heating element in response to an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30).
Regarding claim 10, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30).
Regarding claim 11, Steingraber discloses wherein f1 is equal to f2 and no pulse of power is supplied to the primary heating element when a pulse of power is supplied to the secondary heating element, and vice versa (pages 11 and 13).
Regarding claim 14, Steingraber discloses a mouthpiece with at least one air inhalation port therein, wherein the primary and the secondary liquid reservoirs each comprise a connection element configured to separately guide atomized liquid from the respective liquid reservoirs to the air inhalation port (page 5, figs. 1-3).
Regarding claim 15, Steingraber discloses the operation unit includes: a signal generation unit configured to provide operation signals to a control unit in response to an actuation of the activation switch, and a control unit configured to deliver power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to the received operation signals (page 30).
Regarding claim 21, in additions to features discussed above for claim 1, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f1 to the primary heating element in response to an actuation of the activation switch and supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30). Steingraber further discloses the time interval can be configured to allow liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device (result in 0% mix; see table 6 and page 13, lines 15-18); Steingraber discloses the user can control the percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge on the fly corresponding to a timing between a last pulse of power and the second pulse of power allows liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the second liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device.
Regarding claim 22, in addition to the features discussed above for claim 1, Steingraber discloses an electronic smoking device (page 5, line 31 to page 6, line 9 and figs. 2-3) comprising: a primary and a secondary liquid reservoir; a primary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the primary liquid reservoir; a secondary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the secondary liquid reservoir (cartomizer, 34); a battery (38); an activation switch (35); an operation unit (36), electrically connected to the battery and the primary and secondary heating element respectively; and wherein, the operation unit is configured to non-simultaneously supply at least one pulse of power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch (page 12, line 3 to page 13, line 23, figs. 2-3; tables 4-6), and wherein the operation unit is configured and arranged to non-simultaneously supply power pulses from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch, wherein a first plurality of power pulses with a predefined frequency of f1 are delivered to the primary heating element, and supply a second plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch; wherein f1 is equal to f2, and no pulse of power is supplied to the primary heating element when a pulse of power is supplied to the secondary heating element, and vice versa (see table 6). Furthermore, Steingraber also discloses the user can specify a percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge and the software will adjust the PWM duty cycle on the fly (page 13 and table 6) wherein 0% mixture is corresponding to the claimed allowing liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device. Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made wherein the user select a % for one cartridge and select another % for another cartridge (also see table 3, page 11) results in a pulse of power supplied to the primary heating element is equal to the distance that is less than the distance between two consecutive pulses of power supplied to the second heating element.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 8/13/2025 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
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/PHU H NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 1747