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 .
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.
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) 71 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanaka (“Development of the current bypassing methods into the transverse direction…”). In view of Morita (US 6344956)
Tanaka teaches a no-insulation magnet (2. Experiment and setup) comprising a superconducting coil having electrical terminals for coupling to a power supply, wherein receipt of a current from the supply through the terminals causes the coil to generate a magnetic field (fig. 1: a pancake HTS coil with current leads A and B), a heating element disposed in proximity to a portion of the superconducting coil wherein operation of the element causes the portion to lose its superconducting characteristic and become resistive, thereby inducing a quench of the NI magnet,
Tanaka fails to teach a resistive bypass wire coupled between the terminals of the coil.
Morita, however, teaches a superconducting coil (abstract; col. 5, lines 35-47) wherein a bypass is placed between two terminals of the superconducting coil for the purpose of providing quench protection (provided on the elemental line, therefore between the terminals of the coil; col. 4, lines 20-65, col. 5, lines 35-47)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide bypass wire placed between two terminals of the superconducting coil of Tanka in order to provide quench protection as taught by Morita.
Additionally, it appears that any material contemplated by Morita meets the limitation of resistive as every material has some amount of resistivity.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 20-38 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art of record fails to teach or suggest a superconductive bypass wire between terminals which is activated by a cooler. Specifically, Morita teaches a bypass, but fails to teach that the bypass attached to the terminals is superconducting. See above citations.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL A WARTALOWICZ whose telephone number is (571)272-5957. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9 am - 5 pm.
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/PAUL A WARTALOWICZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1735
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