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 with traverse of claims 11-20 in the reply filed on 10/6/25 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no undue burden because of overlapping nature of the invention. This is not found persuasive because of the different inventive categories, requiring different searches and the very crowded subject matter field..
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
Claims 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.
Claim 17: “a perforated plate located the membrane to collect vapors” is an incomplete phrase, making it indefinite.
Claim 20 recites “plural perforated plates” which are shown in figure 5B as 514-1, stacked between membrane 218-1 and thermal conduction layer 208-1. The corresponding disclosure says: “[t]he first perforated plate 510-1 includes
plural perforations or through holes or pores 512, see Figure 5C, for collecting the
vapors from the corresponding membrane, i.e., the generated vapor condenses in
the pores 512 and the condensed water is collected at the channel 216, which sits
on the platform 209 of the first thermal conduction layer 518.” The problem is, the membrane, the perforated plate 510 and the conduction layer 518 are flat sheets, and any liquid collected in the pores 512 has no way to flow out, but is locked in the holes. Therefore, it is unclear how this perforated plate 510-1 would function as required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 and 103
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.
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) 11, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Prince et al (US 2015/0114818).
Prince teaches the claimed invention substantially as claimed, as can be seen in the annotated figure 14 copied herein.
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The stack comprises thermal conduction layers 110, perforated plates 1401 (perforations – mesh), gasket layers filled in with mesh 1410 (see [0080]), membranes 105, and gasket layers 1420. Prince differs from the claims in having screws 1430 in place of bolts and nuts. However, having bolts in place of screws is not a patentable invention, but obvious equivalents. Therefore the claims are not patentable. As is clear from the figure, new stage can be added or removed by opening up the screws.
Claim(s) 11-13 and 19 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Rodgers (US Re 27,982).
Rodgers teaches the claimed invention as shown in the figures copied herein. Fig. 2 shows the stack as in claim 1, parts are labelled. The assembly is by plurality of bolts and nuts – see fig. 1. This anticipates claims 11 and 19.
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The assembly of multiple stacks as in claim 2 is seen in Fig. 3, which is stacking the assembly of fig. 2. Fig. 3 also shows the direction of heat transfer, and the top portion labeled “heat transfer” is the cooling end or cooling device, which is plate 14 exposed to the environment. (Note: top vs. bottom – makes no difference. Just orientation) Please note that applicant has no particular definition of the cooling device, and it can be a heat transfer surface. Alternately, it would also have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to provide a cooling device such as fins or a cooling jacket to enhance heat transfer on surface 14.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, after correcting for any 112 issues.
Claim 14 recites a “single port” on the plural first gaskets. The corresponding disclosure is seen in fig. 3B. This design is unique in the sense that the prior arts have multiple ports on each gasket as seen in the sited references. This single port (distillate) is connected to a single outlet tube as shown in fig. 3C. This results in an outlet tube for each gasket as seen in fig. 3C. Similarly, the inlet and outlets on the feed side (plural second gaskets) also have singular inlet and outlet tubes as shown in fig. 3D. These designs are novel and unobvious over the prior arts.
Claim 17 elaborates the cooling device (stack 520, fig. 5B) as a perforated plate on the membrane. The disclosure states in [0035] that the evaporation through this side of the membrane is released to the environment to make it work as a cooler. This is also novel and unobvious over the prior arts.
Conclusion
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/KRISHNAN S MENON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777