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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/05/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9-13, 15-17, and 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmerman (US 2003/0132848), in view of Gauer et al. (US 4722797), Soecknick (EP 2352589B1, refer English language machine translation for claim mapping), and Downs et. al. (US 20160052798).
Regarding claims 1, 15 and 17, Zimmerman teaches a water softener system (fig. 2), comprising:
a brine tank (58);
an outlet pipe (40);
a sensor device (77) coupled to the outlet pipe being configured to generate flow rate data in response to fluid moving through the outlet pipe (refer [0031]); and
a controller (72) in electronic communication with the water softener system, the controller being configured to:
determine a salt remaining value (refer [0011] disclosing tracking salt usage and determining the amount of salt remaining in the brine tank);
generate water usage data based on flow rate data (refer [0031] disclosing water meter 77 is placed in either pipe 36, or preferably pipe 40, to enable controller 72 to measure the amount of water flowing through resin tank 52);
determine a period between regenerations (refer [0015] disclosing average days between regenerations, table 1);
determine a time until salt refill using period between regeneration (refer table 1); and
initiate a regeneration cycle of resin bed responsive to an elapse of the time (refer fig. 6, 7 and [0050] indicating running of regeneration cycles until days to empty limit has reached”).
Zimmerman discloses that process for deciding whether it is time for a recharge (a period between regenerations) is known in the prior art (Refer [0047]). In [0037], Zimmerman discloses that controller 72 determines when to regenerate resin bed 50 and to what capacity, and further adds that various methods may be used for these determinations, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5544072 and 4722797. Zimmerman discloses using hardness of the water as one of the parameters in determining the period between regenerations (Refer [0037]).
US’979 to Gauer discloses a water softener system similar to that of Zimmerman, wherein the system comprises a brine tank (26), a resin tank (16), an outlet pipe (17), a sensor (28) coupled to the outlet pipe to generate water flow rate data in response to water moving through the outlet pipe; and a controller (micro-computer 30). The controller (30) uses data from sensor 28 to determine when to regenerate the resin bed (Refer C4/L10-21). Gauer further teaches that hardness of water is taken into consideration in determining the period between regenerations (refer C3/L65-C4/L9). Gauer also teaches selecting quantity of salt to be used during each regeneration and maximizes efficient use of the salt during each regeneration by selecting the quantity of salt needed to regenerate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of invention to apply teachings of Gauer in the system of Zimmerman to use capacity of brine tank, hardness, and water use in calculating/determining a period between regenerations to optimize salt use.
Zimmerman does not disclose predicting number of regenerations remaining and determining a time until salt refill using the number of regenerations remaining.
Soecknick teaches a water softener system comprising a controller that determines a salt quantity that is replenished, derives a total number of regenerations that can be carried out with the salt, and after each regeneration, a number of remaining regenerations is reduced by 1 (Refer [0014]-[0015]). Soecknick also discloses that the total determined number of regenerations can now be carried out at least before new filling of the storage vessel with regeneration salt is necessary (refer [0015]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of modified Zimmerman to predict number of regeneration cycles remaining and determining a time until salt refill using the number of regenerations remaining as taught by Soecknick to optimize salt use by monitoring degree of depletion of salt supply in a simple manner with improved accuracy.
Regarding the controller being IoT controller, Downs teaches a water softener system comprising a brine tank, a resin tank, a control system, a computer processor (refer [0033], [0056], claim 1). Downs also teaches that the system includes handshake protocol methods including, but not limited to, those used by short-range wireless communication devices, Bluetooth™ devices, WiFi Direct (e.g., Roku3™ WiFi Direct, WiFi peer-to-peer), ad-hoc WiFi, Google™ Chromecast™ Internet of things (IoT) devices, and connected home devices (refer [0098]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use IoT controller in the system of modified Zimmerman to enable wireless communication as taught by Downs.
Regarding claim 2, Zimmerman further teaches that the controller updates the estimated salt remaining value based on user input from the electronic device (Refer [0012] disclosing salt level value is received via user entering the value into the system via a user interface).
Regarding claim 3, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 1 as set forth above. Zimmerman further discloses that the controller determines number of days before salt is required in the brine tank based on salt level value, average salt per regeneration, average days between regenerations, and number of days since the last regeneration (refer [0012]-[0016]). In [0012], Zimmerman discloses that the step of determining the number of days before salt is required in the brine tank is calculate by dividing the estimated salt remaining value by a predefined salt dosage corresponding to an amount of salt expected to be used during a single regeneration operation. Soecknick discloses determining number of regenerations remaining is calculated based on quantiy of salt, average salt consumption per regeneration (Refer [0015]). One of ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at the claimed relationship based on routine mathematical manipulation of relationship between number of regenerations, salt dosage and salt usage.
Regarding claims 4-5, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 1 as set forth above. Gauer teaches that controller (30) uses data from sensor 28 to determine when to regenerate the resin bed (Refer C4/L10-21). Gauer further teaches that hardness of water is taken into consideration in determining the period between regenerations (refer C3/L65-C4/L9). Gauer also teaches selecting quantity of salt to be used during each regeneration and maximizes efficient use of the salt during each regeneration by selecting the quantity of salt needed to regenerate. One of ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at the claimed relationship based on routine mathematical manipulation of relationship between period between regenerations, salt quantity, resin capacity, salt use per regeneration, and water usage.
Regarding claim 6, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 1 as set forth above. Zimmerman discloses use of known/old average days between regeneration (refer table 1) in determining period between regenerations. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use default/known period between regenerations during lack of other data to continue regeneration cycles.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claims 1 and 15 as set forth above. Soecknick teaches updating the remaining regenerations counter after each regeneration to predict/monitor supply of salt during operation of the softening system (refer [0001], [0014]-[0022]).
Regarding claim 10, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 1 as set forth above. Zimmerman further teaches that the controller will alert the user of low salt condition, the user interface also includes days to empty indicator (fig. 7, [0039], [0050]).
Regarding claim 11, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 10 as set forth above. Zimmerman further discloses “electronic control circuit includes a manual input means for entering the amount of solid material available in the container in terms of the observed indicia most closely corresponding to the top surface of the solid material. The electronic control circuit includes means for electronically reducing, each time a quantity of regenerant solution is used to regenerate the liquid treatment medium, the electronically stored indication of the amount of solid material remaining in the container. The apparatus includes an alarm means which is actuated to provide an alarm when the electronically stored indication of the amount of solid material remaining in the container is less than a predetermined minimum amount” [0005].
Regarding claim 12, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 10 as set forth above. Zimmerman further discloses “from a default display, the program button 106 may be used to access the primary level options which include the Set Salt Level, Set Present Time, Set Hardness and Set Recharge Time. If the salt level option is selected such as shown in FIG. 4, the UP/DOWN buttons function as the salt increase key 86 and the salt decrease key 88, respectively. As the salt level is adjusted by the user, the salt level bar display 90 and the salt level numerical display 92 change accordingly” [0041], and “The user adjusts the salt level bar to match the indication inside the brine tank 10 after adding salt. Press and release the UP or DOWN button to have the number displayed increase or decrease by 0.5. The salt bars are incremented or decremented on whole numbers. Holding the UP or DOWN button causes the bars to increase or decrease at a rate of 1 bar every second. After adjusting the Salt Level Bars, the controller 72 assumes the salt is at the level indicated (in 1/2 increments) inside the container 10” [0042].
Regarding claim 13, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 1 as set forth above. Zimmerman further discloses “Outputs of the controller 72 include the salt level display bar 90, the salt level display 92, the low salt indicator 94, the low salt buzzer 96 and the days to empty display 98” [0040].
Regarding claim 16, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 15 as set forth above. Zimmerman discloses use of known/old average days between regeneration (refer table 1) in determining period between regenerations. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use default/known period between regenerations during lack of other data to continue regeneration cycles.
Regarding claim 20-21, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 15 as set forth above. Gauer discloses that the controller receives input from flow meter and automatically make necessary calculations to determine when to regenerate the resin bed and to determine the proper salt dosage fill time to brine tank prior each regeneration. The controller is programmed to receive and store water hardness of water being treated and to base its calculations thereon (refer C4/L10-21). Gauer also teaches considering available echange capacity of the resin bed in calculating regeneration period (Refer C3/L65-C4/L9). One of ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at the claimed relationship based on routine mathematical manipulation of relationship between time until salt refill, amount of softened water output, and resin capacity.
Regarding claim 22, modified Zimmerman teaches limitations of claim 15 as set forth above. Zimmerman discloses determine an estimated time until salt refill based on the estimated salt remaining value, determine whether the estimated time until salt refill is below a predetermined threshold (Refer claim 1), and responsive to determining that the estimated time until salt refill is below a threshold, generate and transmit an alert to an electronic device alerting a user of salt condition (refer [0049]).
Conclusion
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/PRANAV N PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777