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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 8/19/2025 has been entered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/19/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding applicant’s arguments towards Yasui, the examiner respectfully considers the claims of the instant application to be broad enough to be taught by Yasui. The method of initiated a frequency sweep and testing for fluctuations is taught by Yasui as rejected below.
In the interest of compact prosecution, the examiner included a rejection in view of US20190191499A1 Guatta which also teaches initiating a frequency sweep and determining a state of liquid for pop corn based on feedback by detecting a coefficient of variation of the reflected energy and adjusting a power level of electromagnetic radiation accordingly.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-9, and 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US20100224623A1 Yashui.
Regarding claim 1, Yashui teaches, A microwave treatment device comprising: a heating chamber [heating chamber 10] configured to accommodate a heating target [object to be heated 11, fig. 1]; a microwave generator [first oscillator 2a and second oscillator 2b] configured to generate a microwave [par. 80 teaches the operation of the apparatus of Yashui]; a feeder [feeding parts 8a through 8d] configured to supply the microwave to the heating chamber [par. 82 teaches “The microwave power signals divided by the first power divider part 3 a and the second power divider part 3 b are outputted as the microwave power from the four first feeding parts 8 a, 8 b, 8 c, and 8 d and radiated into the heating chamber 10 through the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d operated in parallel, and the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d”]; a detector [power detector parts 6a through 6d] configured to detect a reflected microwave power returned to the microwave generator [par. 86 teaches “The power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d provided between the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d and the circulators 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, and 7 d, respectively detect a reflected power amount transmitted from the inside of the heating chamber 10 toward the microwave generator part in a detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHs to 2500 MHz), and extracts a detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount. When the control part 12 receives the detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount, it selects an oscillation frequency in which the reflected power is the minimum value in the detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz)”]; a controller [control part 12] configured to control the microwave generator [par. 86 teaches “In this selecting operation of the oscillation frequency, the control part 12 gradually varies the oscillation frequencies of the first oscillator part 2 a and the second oscillator part 2 b under the condition that the phase differences generated between the first feeding parts 8 a and 8 b, and the first feeding parts 8 c and 8 d are set to 0 degree, by the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, from an initial value of 2400 MHz to the higher frequency at a pitch of 1 MHz, for example, up to 2500 MHz, which is an upper limit in the frequency variable range. The reflected power during this operation is detected by the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d and the detection signals are inputted to the control part 12”]; and a memory that stores a level of the reflected microwave power detected by the reflected- microwave-power detector together with a frequency of the microwave supplied to the heating chamber and an elapsed time after a start of heating the heating target (par. 151 teaches “At this time, the control part sets the phase difference such that the electromagnetic field becomes intense at a low temperature part of the object to be heated to be uniformly heated, based on the relation between the phase difference and the electromagnetic field distribution stored in the embedded memory. Thus, the object to be heated can be uniformly heated with high efficiency by adjusting the phase difference” where embedded memory is a form of memory), wherein the controller is configured to cause the microwave generator to execute a frequency sweep over a specified frequency band [par. 86 teaches “In this selecting operation of the oscillation frequency, the control part 12 gradually varies the oscillation frequencies of the first oscillator part 2 a and the second oscillator part 2 b under the condition that the phase differences generated between the first feeding parts 8 a and 8 b, and the first feeding parts 8 c and 8 d are set to 0 degree, by the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, from an initial value of 2400 MHz to the higher frequency at a pitch of 1 MHz, for example, up to 2500 MHz, which is an upper limit in the frequency variable range. The reflected power during this operation is detected by the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d and the detection signals are inputted to the control part 12”], and the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on a temporal change in a value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power at each frequency [Yashui teaches monitoring the rejected energy to achieve a heating condition for the object to be heated, it is obvious that Yashui is able to detect a state of boiling or not boiling by setting the heating condition for the object to be heated to a desired temperature, par. 101-104 in summation, as noted above, the examiner notes that regarding a boiling state, the examiner interprets broadly as to what a boiling state or boiling is meant to be as the manner of detecting any temperature the examiner considers to be a detection of a boiling state or boiling and this is the reason that the art of Yuri stands. The examiner concludes that the determination of a heating state of the heating target to be in a boiling state would have been obvious to determine by measuring the temperature of the heating target because being in state of boiling is dependent upon a number of physical characteristics of the heating target such as water content of a heating target and the material of the heating target and its associated phase change characteristics], and wherein the controller is configured to cause the microwave wave generator to execute the frequency sweep after the heating target in a liquid state has been placed in the heating chamber and a time necessary for fluctuations of a surface of the heating target to stop has elapsed after a start of heating the heating target (step 302 and par. 99 teaches sweeping frequency and detecting reflected power).
Regarding claim 2, Yashui teaches, wherein the detector is further configured to detect an incident microwave power of the microwave generated by the microwave generator, and a proportion of the reflected microwave power to the incident microwave power is used as the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power [power detector parts 6a through 6d, par. 86 teaches “The power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d provided between the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d and the circulators 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, and 7 d, respectively detect a reflected power amount transmitted from the inside of the heating chamber 10 toward the microwave generator part in a detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHs to 2500 MHz), and extracts a detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount. When the control part 12 receives the detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount, it selects an oscillation frequency in which the reflected power is the minimum value in the detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz)”, the examiner notes that par. 38 of the specification of the instant application discloses “Detector 6 is configured, for example, by a directional coupler. Detector 6 detects the incident microwave power and the reflected microwave power and informs controller 7 of the levels of the detected incident microwave power and the detected reflected microwave power. In other words, detector 6 functions as both an incident-microwave-power detector and a reflected-microwave-power detector”, therefore, it is obvious that the power detectors 6a through 6d are also functionally capable of being incident microwave power detectors, further, par. 64 of Yashui teaches “the first power divider parts 3 a and the second power divider part 3 b may be same-phase dividers that do not generate a phase difference between the outputs such as a Wilkinson type divider, or may be dividers that generate a phase difference between the outputs such as a Branch-line type or a Rat-Race type” where the examiner considers the Wilkinson type divider to have the same structure as the disclosed incident power detector of the instant application].
Regarding claim 3, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on either a change in a variance of the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power in a predetermined time or a change in a frequency average of the variance [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time].
Regarding claim 4, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on either a change in a standard deviation of the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power in a predetermined time or a change in a frequency average of the standard deviation [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time].
Regarding claim 5, Yashui teaches, wherein the predetermined time is equal to or longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)] .
Regarding claim 6, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as detecting a power and time and threshold in steps 304 a, 307, and 308 a power and time, par. 101 teaches “The control part 12 compares the reflected power (Pr(n)) detected at this time with the reflected power (Pr(n−1)) detected at last time and when the reflected power detected at this time is lower (Pr(n)≦Pr(n−1)), the present oscillation frequency is maintained (step 308). Thus, the sign (+) of the variation width Δf is maintained as it is (step 309), and the process proceeds to the next step 301. At this time, when the heating condition for the object to be heated 11 is satisfied, the heating operation is completed and at the same time, the local minimum reflected power tracking operation is also completed (step 312).”].
Regarding claim 7, Yashui teaches, wherein a bandwidth of the frequency sweep is equal to or wider than 30 MHz [par. 90 teaches a frequency sweep from Fmin at 2400 MHz to Fmax at 2500 MHz which is wider than 30MHz].
Regarding claim 8, In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 Where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. Yashui discloses the claimed invention except for wherein a frequency interval of the frequency sweep is equal to or narrower than 10 MHz. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to choose a frequency sweep to be equal to or narrower than 10MHz, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. One would have been motivated to choose a frequency sweep in a desired range for the purpose to calculate one frequency characteristic curve to detect the frequency showing the minimum reflected power par. 90.
Regarding claim 9, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is in the boiling state in a case where the change in the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power exceeds a threshold value at least twice [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)].
Regarding claim 11, Yashui teaches, wherein the predetermined time is equal to or longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)].
Regarding claim 12, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
Regarding claim 13, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
Regarding claim 14, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
In the alternative, Claim(s) 1-9, and 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US20100224623A1 Yashui in view of US20190191499A1 Guatta.
Regarding claim 1, Yashui teaches, except where struck through, A microwave treatment device comprising: a heating chamber [heating chamber 10] configured to accommodate a heating target [object to be heated 11, fig. 1]; a microwave generator [first oscillator 2a and second oscillator 2b] configured to generate a microwave [par. 80 teaches the operation of the apparatus of Yashui]; a feeder [feeding parts 8a through 8d] configured to supply the microwave to the heating chamber [par. 82 teaches “The microwave power signals divided by the first power divider part 3 a and the second power divider part 3 b are outputted as the microwave power from the four first feeding parts 8 a, 8 b, 8 c, and 8 d and radiated into the heating chamber 10 through the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d operated in parallel, and the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d”]; a detector [power detector parts 6a through 6d] configured to detect a reflected microwave power returned to the microwave generator [par. 86 teaches “The power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d provided between the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d and the circulators 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, and 7 d, respectively detect a reflected power amount transmitted from the inside of the heating chamber 10 toward the microwave generator part in a detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHs to 2500 MHz), and extracts a detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount. When the control part 12 receives the detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount, it selects an oscillation frequency in which the reflected power is the minimum value in the detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz)”]; a controller [control part 12] configured to control the microwave generator [par. 86 teaches “In this selecting operation of the oscillation frequency, the control part 12 gradually varies the oscillation frequencies of the first oscillator part 2 a and the second oscillator part 2 b under the condition that the phase differences generated between the first feeding parts 8 a and 8 b, and the first feeding parts 8 c and 8 d are set to 0 degree, by the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, from an initial value of 2400 MHz to the higher frequency at a pitch of 1 MHz, for example, up to 2500 MHz, which is an upper limit in the frequency variable range. The reflected power during this operation is detected by the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d and the detection signals are inputted to the control part 12”]; and a memory that stores a level of the reflected microwave power detected by the reflected- microwave-power detector together with a frequency of the microwave supplied to the heating chamber and an elapsed time after a start of heating the heating target (par. 151 teaches “At this time, the control part sets the phase difference such that the electromagnetic field becomes intense at a low temperature part of the object to be heated to be uniformly heated, based on the relation between the phase difference and the electromagnetic field distribution stored in the embedded memory. Thus, the object to be heated can be uniformly heated with high efficiency by adjusting the phase difference” where embedded memory is a form of memory), wherein the controller is configured to cause the microwave generator to execute a frequency sweep over a specified frequency band [par. 86 teaches “In this selecting operation of the oscillation frequency, the control part 12 gradually varies the oscillation frequencies of the first oscillator part 2 a and the second oscillator part 2 b under the condition that the phase differences generated between the first feeding parts 8 a and 8 b, and the first feeding parts 8 c and 8 d are set to 0 degree, by the phase variable parts 4 a, 4 b, 4 c, and 4 d, from an initial value of 2400 MHz to the higher frequency at a pitch of 1 MHz, for example, up to 2500 MHz, which is an upper limit in the frequency variable range. The reflected power during this operation is detected by the power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d and the detection signals are inputted to the control part 12”], and the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on a temporal change in a value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power at each frequency [Yashui teaches monitoring the rejected energy to achieve a heating condition for the object to be heated, it is obvious that Yashui is able to detect a state of boiling or not boiling by setting the heating condition for the object to be heated to a desired temperature, par. 101-104 in summation, as noted above, the examiner notes that regarding a boiling state, the examiner interprets broadly as to what a boiling state or boiling is meant to be as the manner of detecting any temperature the examiner considers to be a detection of a boiling state or boiling and this is the reason that the art of Yuri stands. The examiner concludes that the determination of a heating state of the heating target to be in a boiling state would have been obvious to determine by measuring the temperature of the heating target because being in state of boiling is dependent upon a number of physical characteristics of the heating target such as water content of a heating target and the material of the heating target and its associated phase change characteristics],
The difference between the prior art and the claimed invention is that Yashui does not teach: wherein the controller is configured to cause the microwave wave generator to execute the frequency sweep after the heating target in a liquid state has been placed in the heating chamber and a time necessary for fluctuations of a surface of the heating target to stop has elapsed after a start of heating the heating target.
Some teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention.
Further, there were design incentives for implementing the claimed variation. Specifically, Guatta teaches a method and device for electromagnetic cooking, and more specifically, to a method and device for determining and controlling the resonant modes within a microwave oven (Guatta par. 1) wherein the controller (controller 14) is configured to cause the microwave wave generator to execute the frequency sweep after the heating target in a liquid state has been placed in the heating chamber (par. 183 and par. 196 through 201 teach performing a frequency sweep) and a time necessary for fluctuations of a surface of the heating target to stop has elapsed after a start of heating the heating target (par. 197 teaches “Specifically, the controller 14 may control the system such that it generates RF excitations at a specified frequency and phase shifts from the plurality of RF feeds 26A-D, 226A-D (step 722) for a predetermined period of time (e.g., 0.5 to 4.0 seconds) in accordance with a heating strategy as discussed above” , par. 200 and 201 teach performing frequency sweeps and par. 204 to 205 teach measuring a coefficient of variation based on these frequency sweeps to detect a heating state of a liquid).
Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to modify Yashui with the frequency sweeps of Guatta to determine a heating state of a liquid (Guatta par. 204).
Regarding claim 2, Yashui teaches, wherein the detector is further configured to detect an incident microwave power of the microwave generated by the microwave generator, and a proportion of the reflected microwave power to the incident microwave power is used as the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power [power detector parts 6a through 6d, par. 86 teaches “The power detector parts 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d provided between the power amplifier parts 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d and the circulators 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, and 7 d, respectively detect a reflected power amount transmitted from the inside of the heating chamber 10 toward the microwave generator part in a detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHs to 2500 MHz), and extracts a detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount. When the control part 12 receives the detection signal proportional to the reflected power amount, it selects an oscillation frequency in which the reflected power is the minimum value in the detection target frequency band (for example, 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz)”, the examiner notes that par. 38 of the specification of the instant application discloses “Detector 6 is configured, for example, by a directional coupler. Detector 6 detects the incident microwave power and the reflected microwave power and informs controller 7 of the levels of the detected incident microwave power and the detected reflected microwave power. In other words, detector 6 functions as both an incident-microwave-power detector and a reflected-microwave-power detector”, therefore, it is obvious that the power detectors 6a through 6d are also functionally capable of being incident microwave power detectors, further, par. 64 of Yashui teaches “the first power divider parts 3 a and the second power divider part 3 b may be same-phase dividers that do not generate a phase difference between the outputs such as a Wilkinson type divider, or may be dividers that generate a phase difference between the outputs such as a Branch-line type or a Rat-Race type” where the examiner considers the Wilkinson type divider to have the same structure as the disclosed incident power detector of the instant application].
Regarding claim 3, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on either a change in a variance of the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power in a predetermined time or a change in a frequency average of the variance [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time].
Regarding claim 4, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling based on either a change in a standard deviation of the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power in a predetermined time or a change in a frequency average of the standard deviation [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time].
Regarding claim 5, Yashui teaches, wherein the predetermined time is equal to or longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)] .
Regarding claim 6, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as detecting a power and time and threshold in steps 304 a, 307, and 308 a power and time, par. 101 teaches “The control part 12 compares the reflected power (Pr(n)) detected at this time with the reflected power (Pr(n−1)) detected at last time and when the reflected power detected at this time is lower (Pr(n)≦Pr(n−1)), the present oscillation frequency is maintained (step 308). Thus, the sign (+) of the variation width Δf is maintained as it is (step 309), and the process proceeds to the next step 301. At this time, when the heating condition for the object to be heated 11 is satisfied, the heating operation is completed and at the same time, the local minimum reflected power tracking operation is also completed (step 312).”].
Regarding claim 7, Yashui teaches, wherein a bandwidth of the frequency sweep is equal to or wider than 30 MHz [par. 90 teaches a frequency sweep from Fmin at 2400 MHz to Fmax at 2500 MHz which is wider than 30MHz].
Regarding claim 8, In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 Where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. Yashui discloses the claimed invention except for wherein a frequency interval of the frequency sweep is equal to or narrower than 10 MHz. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to choose a frequency sweep to be equal to or narrower than 10MHz, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. One would have been motivated to choose a frequency sweep in a desired range for the purpose to calculate one frequency characteristic curve to detect the frequency showing the minimum reflected power par. 90.
Regarding claim 9, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is in the boiling state in a case where the change in the value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power exceeds a threshold value at least twice [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)].
Regarding claim 11, Yashui teaches, wherein the predetermined time is equal to or longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep [par. 98 through 102 teach measuring reflected power in a predetermined time period, with regards to the time being longer than twice a period of the frequency sweep, the applicant the examiner respectfully believes it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have determined the optimum values of the relevant process parameters through routine experimentation in the absence of a showing of criticality. In re Aller, USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955)].
Regarding claim 12, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
Regarding claim 13, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
Regarding claim 14, Yashui teaches, wherein the controller is configured to determine that the heating target is boiling in a case where the temporal change in the value exceeds a threshold value at two or more frequencies [fig. 7 steps S3030 through S309 as a power and time, par. 101].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADAM M ECKARDT whose telephone number is (313)446-6609. The examiner can normally be reached 6 a.m to 2:00 p.m EST Monday to Friday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Edward Landrum can be reached at (571) 272-5567. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
ADAM MICHAEL. ECKARDT
Assistant Examiner
Art Unit 3761
/ADAM M ECKARDT/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/ELIZABETH M KERR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761