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 .
Response to Arguments
In light of amendments to Table I, the previous objection to the specification is withdrawn. Applicant’s arguments with respect to independent claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection provided here within.
Claim Status
Regarding claims 14-17, the dependency of claims 14-17 depend from claim 13 instead of claim 1. The dependency of claims 14-17 was confirmed with Attorney of Record on February 19, 2026, to depend from claim 1. Appropriate correction is required in response to the current Office Action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-6, 11, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasis (US 20210018210 A1) in view of Kim (US 8496737 B2).
For claim 1, Nasis discloses a method for detecting and filtering indoor polluted gas adapted to figure out a polluted gas in an indoor space for filtration, the indoor space comprises a plurality of areas, wherein the method steps comprises:
providing a plurality of gas detection devices to detect the polluted gas, wherein each of the gas detection devices arranged in the corresponding area to detect a data of the polluted gas of the corresponding area in the indoor space and output the data (“sensors”; pars [0077]-[0081]; Fig. 5A);
providing a plurality of filtration and purification devices to filter the polluted gas (pars [0011], [0132], [0135], [0166], claim 3), wherein each of the filtration and the purification devices receives a first control command through a wireless communication or a wired communication to enable filtration of the polluted gas (pars [0011], [0015], [0046], [0049], [0051], [0078], [0132], [0186]-[0187], [0189]-[0192], [0199], [0204]; Fig. 6), and
providing a connection device to perform intelligent computation, wherein the connection device receives and compares the data of the polluted gas detected by the gas detection devices, and then selects the data of the polluted gas detected by the gas detection devices in three detection areas to perform intelligent computation by a trilateration, so as to determine and figure out a location of the corresponding detection area containing the polluted gas in the indoor space and to intelligently and selectively transmit the first control command to a filtration and purification device at the location of the corresponding detection area of the indoor space containing the polluted gas (pars [0095]-[0096]);
wherein the filtration and purification device at the location of the indoor space containing the polluted gas is enabled to filter the polluted gas, allowing the polluted gas in the indoor space to become a clean, safe, and breathable gas (pars [0132], [0135]).
Nasis discloses one or more remedial devices, air purifiers, with filtering and air circulation (pars [0130], [0132], [0133], [0136], [0158] but does not explicitly indicate that each of the filtration and purification devices comprises a flow-guiding component and a filtration and purification module, the flow-guiding component guides the polluted gas to pass through the filtration and purification module for filtration and purification, wherein each of the detection areas is defined by a surrounding area consisting of the gas detection device and the filtration and purification device. Kim does disclose an air purification device with these features (a circulation fan 125, filters 124a, 124b in Figs. 3, 5; col. 3, l. 55 - col. 4, l. 3). At the effective filing date of the current invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the filtration and purification device of Kim for the air purification devices in the method for managing air quality of Nasis as equivalent structures for use in the air purification art, as the selection of known equivalents would have been within the level of ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP § 2144.06.
For claim 2, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above. Nasis discloses further discloses said method wherein the polluted gas comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of particulate matters, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, total volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, bacteria, fungi, and viruses (pars [0079]-[0081], [0189]-[0192]).
For claim 3, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above. Nasis discloses further discloses said method wherein the connection device intelligently and selectively transmits the first control command to and enable the filtration and purification device at the location containing the polluted gas; wherein the connection device intelligently and selectively transmits a second control command to and enable rest of the filtration and purification devices to accelerate the filtration of the polluted gas (i.e., enabling addition filtration and purification devices would apparently accelerate filtration since additional filtration and purifications devices would clean more polluted gas), allowing the polluted gas in the indoor space to become a clean, safe, and breathable gas (“automatically activating one or more air filtering devices” par [0011]; pars [0093]-[0096], [0128]-[0132]; “automatically controlling one or more devices to mitigate the adverse air quality event 580” Fig. 5D; “automatically control one or more devices” par [0135]; pars [0160]-[0169]).
For claim 4, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above. Nasis discloses further said method wherein each of the gas detection devices is disposed in the indoor space and is stationary or movable (“indoor”/“indoors” pars [0062], [0130], [0149]).
For claim 5, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon. Nasis further discloses said method wherein the connection device is in communication to the plurality of gas detection devices, and receives and compares the data of the polluted gas in the indoor space detected by at least three of the gas detection devices (pars [0050] –[0051], [0078]-[0081], [0103]-[0109]), the connection device intelligently computes the data having a highest value among the data to determine (pars [0103]-[0109]) and selectively figure out the location of the indoor space containing the polluted gas (see 112 section above).
For claim 6, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above, Nasis further discloses wherein each of the gas detection devices comprises a control circuit board, a gas detection main body, a microprocessor, and a communication device (pars [0055], [0087]-[0095]); the gas detection main body, the microprocessor, and the communication device are integrally packaged with the control circuit board and electrically connected to each other; the microprocessor controls the detection of the gas detection main body, the gas detection main body detection the polluted gas to output a detection signal, and the microprocessor receives the detection signal to perform computation to output the data of the polluted gas to the communication device for wirelessly transmitting outwardly (pars [0097]-[0100]).
For claim 11, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above. Nasis discloses further wherein the connection device is selected from the group consisting of a mobile device and a cloud processing device (Fig. 6; pars [0094], [0158], [0175]-[0176], [0199]).
For claim 12, the prior art to Nasis and Kim are relied upon as indicated above. Nasis discloses further wherein the wireless communication is achieved by one of a Wi-Fi module, a Bluetooth module, a radiofrequency identification module, and a near field communication module (Fig. 6; pars [0006], [0015], [0049], [0093], [0094], [0136]).
Claims 7-10, 14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasis (US 20210018210) and Kim (US 8496737 B2) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Mou (US 20210254845 A1).
For claim 7, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. The combined teaching of the prior art references to Nasis and Kim disclose the method for detecting and filtering indoor polluted gas according to claim 1. The prior art references teach filtration and purification devices but do not explicitly disclose the gas detection main body as recited at lines 3-49 of claim 7, but Mou does (Figs. 5A-D, 6A-B, 7, 8A-B, 9A-B, 10A-C; Claim 13; pars [0056]-[0066]) in order to solve air quality issues. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current invention to combine the method of Nasis in view of Kim with the filtration and purification devices disclosed in Mou in order to solve air quality issues.
For claim 8, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further wherein the particulate sensor is capable of detecting particulate matter (par [0059]).
For claim 9, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further wherein the gas sensor comprises a volatile organic compound detector capable of detecting carbon dioxide or total volatile organic compounds (par [0065]).
For claim 10, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further wherein the gas sensor comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a formaldehyde sensor, a bacterial sensor, and a virus sensor; the formaldehyde sensor is capable of detecting formaldehyde gas; the bacterial sensor is capable of detecting bacteria or fungi; the virus sensor is capable of detecting viruses (pars [0059], [0065]).
For claim 14, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further wherein the flow-guiding component is at least one selected from the group consisting of an electric fan, a cleaner, an air conditioner, and a fresh air purifier (pars [0039]-[0044]).
For claim 16, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou further discloses, wherein the filtration and purification module comprises a high-efficiency particulate air filter, HEPA (pars [0039]-[0043]).
For claim 17, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above, Mou discloses further the filtration and purification module is a combination of a high-efficiency particulate air filter and a catalyst unit (par [0040]).
For claim 18, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further that the HEPA filter is coated with at least one selected from the group consisting of a cleansing factor layer having chlorine dioxide and a layer of silver ions, wherein the cleaning factor layer and the layer of silver ions suppress viruses and bacteria in the polluted gas (par [0039]).
For claim 19, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further that the HEPA filter is coated with a herbal protection coating layer including the extracts of Rhus chinensis Mill and the extracts of Ginkgo biloba to form a herbal protection anti-allergy filter which can efficiently perform anti-allergy function and destroy cell surface proteins of influenza viruses passing through the herbal protection anti-allergy filter (par [0039]).
For claim 20, the prior art is relied upon as indicated above. Mou discloses further the filtration and purification module further comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a photo plasma unit, a negative ion unit, and a plasma ion unit (pars [0041]-[0043]).
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nasis (US 20210018210), Kim (US 8496737 B2), and Mou (US 20210254845 A1) in further view of Mou ‘55 (US 20220120655 A1).
For claim 15, as interpreted, the teaching of the prior art is set forth above. The combined teaching of the prior art references does not appear to disclose the features recited in claim 15. Mou ’55 does disclose wherein the volume of each of the filtration and purification devices in the indoor space is in a range between 16.5 and 247.5 m3, the number of the filtration and purification devices is in a range between 2 and 75, and the clean air delivery rate of the flow-guiding component of each of the filtration and purification devices is in a range between 200 m3/h and 1600 m3/h, so that the polluted gas is cleaned by each of the filtration and purification devices in one minute (pars [0026]-[0029], [0031]-[0037], and [0042]-[0047]), and Mou teaches that the gas flow rate and the volume of the indoor space, corresponds to the number of devices and that the number of devices can be adjusted according to requirements to maintain predictable air quality results (see Table 1) in the indoor space. Accordingly, one of ordinary skill would recognize the advantages of cleaning polluted gas from the volume of space to prevent exposure to polluted gas and optimize the result-effective variables that are the number of devices for the method to achieve predictable results without undue experimentation. Accordingly, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current invention to arrive at the results recited at lines 8-15 in claim 15, as the result of nothing more than routine experimentation, with a reasonable expectation of success. MPEP § 2144(II).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant should consider the prior art examples provided below in response to this Office Action.
US 20200156084 A1: gas purifier comprises a purifier main body, a filter, an air guiding device and a drive control module; gas detector comprises a gas detecting module, a particulate measuring module and a detector drive control module.
US 20230400209 A1: filtration device B, a fresh air fan B1, a gas guider 1, and a filtering and purifying module 2 shown in FIG. 2.
US 11719455 B2: method for preventing and handling indoor air pollution implemented in an indoor space and includes providing a cloud processing device 5 to receive and compare gas detection data; an indoor gas detector 3 and gas purifier 21, 22.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SONJI TURNER whose telephone number is (571)272-1203. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm (EST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jennifer Dieterle can be reached at (571) 270-7872. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SONJI TURNER/Examiner, Art Unit 1776 March 6, 2026
/Jennifer Dieterle/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1776