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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, Species I to claims 1-10 in the reply filed on 10/30/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 9/16/2025 and 10/30/2025.
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.
Claim 9 is 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.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the catalyst" in line 2, “the conductive agent” in line 7 and “the adhesive” in line 9. There are insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim.
It is noted that if claim 9 was too dependent on claim 8, these issues would be resolved. For the purpose of examination, claim 9 will be examined as if dependent on claim 8.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 8 and10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN1249361A of Li et al, published in 2000 (machine translation is provided).
As to claim 1, Li teaches of a device for generating oxygen (Li, p. 1 lines 2-3), comprising:
a container having an inlet and an outlet (Li, p. 1 lines 28-35, p. 3 line 34 thru p. 4 line 17 and Fig. 1) ;
a cathode accommodated in the container and being in contact with an environmental oxygen in an atmospheric environment as well as being disposed at the inlet (Li, p. 1 lines 28-35, p. 2 lines 4-12, p. 3 line 34 thru p. 4 line 17 and Fig. 1);
an anode accommodated in the container and disposed at a position opposite to the cathode (Li, p. 1 lines 28-35 and Fig. 1);
an electrolyte accommodated in the container and immersing therein the cathode and the anode (Li, p. 2 line 37 thru p. 3 line 13 and Fig. 1);
a moisture removal unit disposed at the outlet having an outlet position (Li, p. 3 lines 25-31, p. 4 lines 12-14 and Fig. 1); and
a gas permeable element disposed at the outlet, wherein the gas permeable element is disposed at a position closer to the outlet position than the moisture removal unit (Li, p. 3 lines 25-31, p. 4 lines 14-17 and Fig. 1).
PNG
media_image1.png
662
512
media_image1.png
Greyscale
As seen in Fig. 1 and described in Li, the air cathode (1) is in contact with an atmospheric environment (i.e. air) comprising oxygen such that oxygen is used as a raw material. The anode (2) reforms oxygen within the electrochemical cell such that out of the entire housing there is an outlet (10) through which the oxygen forms. Before the outlet, there are components 8 (porous gas-liquid separation plate) and 9 (hydrophobic gas-liquid separation film, thus disclosing the general structures of a moisture removal unit (i.e. 8) and a gas permeable element (i.e. 9) of the claim limitations.
As to claim 2, Li teaches a power supply connected to the cathode and anode (Li, p. 2 lines 34-36, p. 4 lines 28-32, p. 5 lines 10-15 (also see bottom of p. 3 to top p. 4 for reactions of the foreign patent)).
As to claim 3, Li teaches the gas permeable element (i.e. 9 of Li) consisting of PTFE (Li, p. 4 lines 14-15) and the moisture removal unit (i.e. 8 of Li) consisting of a metal material or plastic (Li, p. 4 lines 12-14).
As to claim 8, Li teaches the cathode comprises a catalyst; a conductive agent; and an adhesive (Li, p. 2 lines 8-12).
As to claim 10, Li teaches the anode is selected from the group consisting of nickel (Li, p. 2 lines 12-13).
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN1249361A of Li et al.
As to claim 9, Li teaches the cathode comprises a catalyst consisting of cobalt oxide or manganese oxide; a conductive agent consisting of activated carbon; and an adhesive consisting of PTFE (Li, p. 2 lines 8-12).
Li does not specifically teach the conductive agent is carbon black, acetylene black or carbon nanofibers, however, this would be obvious in view of Li.
Li teaches that within the air cathode the waterproof membrane comprises PTFE and acetylene black (Li, p. 2 lines 4-7). The acetylene black is used as a conductive agent which the same as how the activated carbon within the cathode catalyst composition is utilized (Li, p. 2 lines 8-9).
Therefore it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as per Li to substitute the activated carbon with the acetylene black in providing a predictable result for the cathode catalytic composition by the utilization of a carbon composition to improve conductivity of the composition at hand.
Claims 4-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of CN102274695A of Lv, published 2011 (machine translation provided).
As to claims 4-7, Li teaches to the system of claim 3.
Li teaches the moisture removal unit is made of a material from the group consisting of a first metal or a plastic.
Li does not teach the composition of the metal or plastic.
Lv teaches of membrane compositions for air purification and liquid separation (Lv, p. 1 lines 3-7).
Lv teaches that such materials include plastics of PTFE as they have excellent acid and alkali resistance (Lv, p. 1 lines 9-10).
Lv teaches that the composition of the membrane has a thickness of between 0.05 to 1 mm (50-1000 µm), a porosity of 30 to 80 % and a pore diameter of 0.1 to 10 microns (Lv, p. 2 lines 6-9), (see MPEP 2144.05 I).
Lv additionally teaches that such membrane compositions can include more than one coating (Lv, p. 5 lines 11-21) to improve the hydrophobicity of the membrane.
As Li teaches a multi-component system (Li, Fig. 1), it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li as per Lv so as to substitute the type of hydrophobic plastic used in producing a predictable result in facilitating gas/liquid separation with a composition with excellent corrosion resistance.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Other art that is useful and pertinent to the applicant’s disclosure includes:
US 2007/0026687 of Kim which discloses moisture removal by use of PE membrane having different pore sizes to remove the water content from wet oxygen (Kim, [0023] and Fig. 2).
US 4,110,392 of Yamazaki which teaches pore size for gas separators comprising PTFE (Yamazaki, col 1lines 7-22 and col 1 lines 61-63).
US 4,539,086 of Fujita which teaches an oxygen generator, but no moisture removal unit or gas permeable element (Fujita, Abstract and Fig. 1).
US 2009/0008261 of Kotzeva which discloses an oxygen generator. The structure of the cell system is similar, but not identical, to Applicant’s (Kotzeva, [0044] – [0050] and Fig. 1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN W COHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7961. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9 am to 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, Duane Smith can be reached at 571-272-1166. 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.
BRIAN W. COHEN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1759
/BRIAN W COHEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759