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
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-3, 6-7, 12-13, 16-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The term “farther” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “farther” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Particularly, the use of the term as “farther on the left side” “farther on the right side” and “farther on the front side” are unclear. It is not defined in the claim as to what the left and right-side frame structures are “farther” from. For the purposes of examination, the examiner will interpret the claim as the left and right-side frame structures as being farther on the front side than the point of the bifurcation of the center frame and the left-side frame structure being on the left side of a center line and the right-side frame structure being on the right side of a center line.
Claims 2-3, 6-7, 12-13, 16-17 and 20 are rejected based on their dependency to claim 1.
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) 1-3, 6-7, 12-13, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Almori (FR 2903936 A1) in view of Hasselbach (DE 102020108534 B3)(Cited in previous office action).
Regarding claim 1, Almori teaches of:
A vehicle-body structure (Fig. 1), the vehicle-body structure comprising:
a center frame having a hollow shape (Fig. 1, 1), and extending in a vehicle front-rear direction (Fig. 1, 2 is positioned at the front of the vehicle and 1 extends from 2 in a front-rear directions; Pg. 10, lines 13-15 “Such a device 2 is notably located at the front of the passenger compartment, and includes a plurality of air outlets to ventilate specific areas”); and
an air introducing duct (Fig. 1, 3+4) that provides communication between a vent portion provided to an air-conditioner and inside of the center frame and through which air-conditioned air vented out of the vent portion is introduced into the center frame (Fig. 1, air is provided from an opening in 2 to the air introducing ducts 3+4 that then enters the center frame 1),
wherein the center frame includes a left-side frame structure (Fig. 1, 5) and a right-side frame structure (6) constituting a front portion of the center frame (5+6 are a front portion of 1), each of the left-side frame structure and the right-side frame structure has a duct shape (5 and 6 are ducts), and
the left-side frame structure and the right-side frame structure are provided at an interval from each other in a right-left direction (5 and 6 are at an interval in the left-right direction), in a plan view, the left-side frame structure is positioned farther on the left side at a position farther on the front side, and the right-side frame structure is positioned farther on the right side at a position farther on the front side so that the front portion of the center frame has a shape bifurcated in the right-left direction (5 and 6 are in a left-right direction and further in front then 7 which is where the frame 1 bifurcates).
Almori fails to explicitly teach:
An electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure of an electric vehicle including a traveling motor and a battery that supplies electric power to the traveling motor, the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure comprising:
a floor panel constituting a floor of an occupant space including a seat on which a passenger sits;
a center frame having a hollow shape, disposed to be higher than and away from the floor panel at a vehicle-width-direction central portion of the occupant space,
Hasselbach teaches of:
An electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure of an electric vehicle including a traveling motor (Fig. 4, 8) and a battery that supplies electric power to the traveling motor (Fig. 4, 7), the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure comprising:
a floor panel (Figs. 2-3, 11) constituting a floor of an occupant space including a seat on which a passenger sits (Fig. 4, passenger 14 sits in a seat on 11);
a center frame having a hollow shape (Fig. 3, 10 is hollow as it accommodates ducts 30 within it; ¶ [0073] “it can also be provided that the air guide channels 30 run along the support device 10, wherein the support device 10 is preferably designed as a hollow profile at least in some areas”), disposed to be higher than and away from the floor panel at a vehicle-width-direction central portion of the occupant space (Fig. 2, 10 is higher than and away from 11)
The primary reference can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
position the frame of Almori above the floor panel of the vehicle in which it is positioned and further modify the vehicle to be an electrical vehicle with a traveling motor and a battery
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
by modifying the vehicle to be an electric vehicle leg space can be freed up and the central air supply ducts can be raised off the floor (Hasselbach, ¶ [0005] “However, particularly in motor vehicles with an electrical energy storage device designed as a high-voltage storage device, such as electric vehicles, efforts are being made to dispense with the center tunnel, which is typically present in a motor vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. By omitting the center tunnel, a comparatively large amount of legroom can be provided in the footwell of the passenger compartment”)
Regarding claim 2, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein a first partition wall structure (Almori, Fig. 2, 22) for separating an upper path (Almori, Figs. 1-2, 11) from a lower path (Almori, Figs. 1-2, 9) is provided inside the center frame (22 is in 7 which is a part of 1) and extends in a vehicle width direction and the vehicle front-rear direction (22 extends in both width and front-rear directions),
an upper-side air sending structure (Almori, Fig. 2, 17) for sending air-conditioned air in the upper path to an upper side is provided at a part of an upper wall portion of the center frame (17 is at an upper wall of 1), the part being separated on a vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (17 is separated from 3+4), and
a lower-side air sending structure (Almori, Fig. 2, 15) for sending air-conditioned air in the lower path to a lower side is provided at a part of a lower wall portion of the center frame (15 is at a part of a lower wall portion of 1), the part being separated on the vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (15 is separated from 3+4).
Regarding claim 3, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 2, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein a second partition wall structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for separating a left path on a vehicle-width-direction left side from a right path on a vehicle width direction right side is provided inside the center frame and extends in an up-down direction and the vehicle front-rear direction (the second partition wall structure separates a left path and a right path and extends in an up-down and front-rear direction of the vehicle),
a left-side air sending structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for sending air-conditioned air in the left path is provided at a part of an upper wall portion of the center frame (the second partition wall structure extends in the up-down direction along the entire height of 7 to partition 7 into left and right paths and is therefore provided at a part of an upper wall portion of 1), the part being separated on a vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (the structure is separated from 3+4), and
a right-side air sending structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for sending air-conditioned air in the right path is provided at a part of the upper wall portion of the center frame (the second partition wall structure extends in the up-down direction along the entire height of 7 to partition 7 into left and right paths and is therefore provided at a part of an upper wall portion of 1), the part being separated on the vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (the structure is separated from 3+4).
Regarding claim 6, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle body structure according to claim 1, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein a second partition wall structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for separating a left path on a vehicle-width-direction left side from a right path on a vehicle width direction right side is provided inside the center frame and extends in an up-down direction and the vehicle front-rear direction (the second partition wall structure separates a left path and a right path and extends in an up-down and front-rear direction of the vehicle),
a left-side air sending structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for sending air-conditioned air in the left path is provided at a part of an upper wall portion of the center frame (the second partition wall structure extends in the up-down direction along the entire height of 7 to partition 7 into left and right paths and is therefore provided at a part of an upper wall portion of 1), the part being separated on a vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (the structure is separated from 3+4), and
a right-side air sending structure (see annotated version of Fig. 2 of Almori below) for sending air-conditioned air in the right path is provided at a part of the upper wall portion of the center frame (the second partition wall structure extends in the up-down direction along the entire height of 7 to partition 7 into left and right paths and is therefore provided at a part of an upper wall portion of 1), the part being separated on the vehicle rear side from the air introducing duct (the structure is separated from 3+4).
Regarding claim 7, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein the center frame includes a bend structure (Almori, Fig. 1, there is a bend structure between 7 and 9) that bends in an up-down direction at a front-rear direction intermediate portion (the bend is in an up-down direction and intermediate portion in the front-rear direction).
Regarding claim 12, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the air- conditioner includes a cooler, a heater, an air mix damper for generating the air-conditioned air at a desired temperature by changing the mixed ratio of cool air having passed through the cooler and warm air having passed through the heater, and a vent direction switching damper for distributing the generated air-conditioned air to each component of a vehicle cabin.
However, a further embodiment of Figs. 7-8 of Almori teaches of:
wherein the air-conditioner includes a cooler (Fig. 8, 41), a heater (Fig. 8, 40), an air mix damper (Fig. 8, 44) for generating the air-conditioned air at a desired temperature by changing the mixed ratio of cool air having passed through the cooler and warm air having passed through the heater (Fig. 8, 44 controls the flow of air from 41 into mixing chamber 39 and therefore can generate air at a desired temperature by controlling the ratio of heated air out of 40 and cooled air out of 41), and a vent direction switching damper for distributing the generated air-conditioned air to each component of a vehicle cabin (Fig. 8, 49+50+51 are vent direction switching dampers that control the flow of air to different components of the vehicle cabin).
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
replace the air conditioner 2 of the first embodiment with the air conditioner 2 of the further embodiment shown in 8 and further add additional air duct 36 to the system of Fig. 1 as shown in Fig. 7 so that the left and right-frame structures are maintained
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would allow for air to be supplied to particular areas within the passenger compartment (Almori, Pg. 14, lines 23-27 “Such a conduit 36 is capable of being used for supplying air to a specific ventilation module, and in particular but not exclusively a ventilation module 8 of the present invention, but is also capable of being used in isolation to convey air to areas to be ventilated in the passenger compartment which are distant from the heat treatment device 2.”
Regarding claim 13, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 12, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the cooler and the air mix damper are positioned closer to the powertrain than the vent direction switching damper.
However, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the combined teachings to meet the claimed limitations recited above based on the following rationale:
It has been found that the simple rearrangement of parts is not patentably significant if the only difference between the prior art and the claimed invention is the location of the part and if the location of the part does not modify the operation of the device (see MPEP 2144.04VI.C.). In the instant case, position the air conditioner of the combined teachings so that the cooler and air mix damper are closer to the powertrain would not modify the functional of the combined teachings and further applicant has placed no criticality on the proximity of the cooler and air mix damper to the powertrain.
Regarding claim 16, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1, and the combined teachings further teach;
wherein the air introducing duct is a structure that constitutes part of the center frame (Almori, Fig. 1, 3+4 constitute part of the center frame 1)
Regarding claim 20, the combined teachings teach of:
The electric vehicle comprising the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1 (see rejection made in claim 1 above, the combined teachings teach of an electric vehicle comprising the center frame of claim 1)
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Almori (FR 2903936 A1) in view of Hasselbach (DE 102020108534 B3)(Cited in previous office action) and in further view of JP H04201668 A hereinafter referred to as Ref. 1 (Cited in the previous office action)
Regarding claim 17, the combined teachings teach of the electric-vehicle vehicle-body structure according to claim 1, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the center frame includes no heat insulation material.
Ref. 1 teaches of:
wherein the center frame includes no heat insulation material (Figs. 1-2, 2 has no insulation; Page. 2, “Furthermore, the double structure, in which the outer surface of the air duct is covered with insulating material, creates the problem of complicated installation work. The object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioning duct for a vehicle that provides a comfortable in-vehicle environment through conditioned air and radiant heat transfer, enables an air conditioning duct with a simple structure, and allows the installation of a small air conditioning unit for the entire vehicle. [Means for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, the device is installed in the ceiling or side wall of the vehicle body, conditioned air from the air conditioning unit flows inside, and part of the outer panel is exposed to the passenger compartment.”)
The primary reference can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
modify the center duct to have no insulation
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would allow for heat transfer to occur between the air flowing through the ducts in the center frame and the occupant space of the vehicle, reducing discomfort for users and improving efficiency (Ref. 1, Pg. 3, “Therefore, the conditioned air does not directly cool or heat the vehicle more than necessary, and the required sensible temperature can be obtained, providing a comfortable in-vehicle environment. This reduces the amount of conditioned air generated, which determines the capacity of the air conditioning system, and allows for smaller machines to be installed, leading to a lighter vehicle body and lower power consumption”)
Annotated Figures
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Annotated Fig. 2 of Almori
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL J GIORDANO whose telephone number is (571)272-8940. The examiner can normally be reached M-Fr 8 AM - 5 PM EST.
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, Helena Kosanovic can be reached at (571) 272-9059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL JAMES GIORDANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3762
/HELENA KOSANOVIC/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3762
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