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
Claims 6-18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected groups II-IV, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 10/17/2025.
Applicant's election with traverse of group I, claims 1-5 in the reply filed on 10/17/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that groups share technical feature of having two hall sensors configured to read information about the consumable container. This is not found persuasive because Moloney (WO 2019185744) discloses a vaporizer with hall sensors configured to read information about the consumable container; therefore the technical feature is not a special feature as it does not make a contribution over the prior art.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moloney et al. (WO 2019185744).
Regarding claim 1, Moloney discloses a vaporizer configured to be connected to a consumable container for vaporizing a consumable contained in the consumable container, the vaporizer comprising a detector configured to detect at least two magnetic properties of the consumable container located at different regions of the consumable container when the vaporizer is connected to the consumable container, and determine information about the consumable container based on the detected magnetic properties, wherein the detector comprises at least two hall sensors (pages 6-7, 13 and fig. 3). Moloney discloses an example wherein the one or more sensors 122a, 122b configured to sense the market 126 may be arranged adjacent to one side of the chamber 112 and may have a limited detection range (page 8). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have the hall sensors positioned along an axis transverse to an insertion direction of the consumable container into the vaporizer, each of which is configured to detect one of the magnetic properties. Furthermore, the sensors can either be positioned along an axis transverse to an insertion direction of the consumable container into the vaporizer or positioned along the insertion direction; therefore it would have been obvious to try either direction. Rearrangement of parts was held to be an obvious matter (see In re Kuhle, 526 F.2d 553, 188 USPQ 7 (CCPA 1975)).
Regarding claim 2, Moloney discloses wherein the at least two hall sensors (hall sensors detect magnetic fields by responding to magnetic flux) are configured to read information about the consumable container from a combination of the detected magnetic properties of the consumable container.
Regarding claim 3. Molony discloses wherein the detector (hall sensors detect magnetic fields corresponding to the claimed region) is configured to detect a region in which a magnet or a ferritic unit made of ferritic material of a predetermined magnetic property is located in the consumable container.
Regarding claim 4, Moloney discloses wherein the magnetic property is a magnetic flux density (hall sensors detect magnetic fields by responding to magnetic flux density).
Regarding claim 5, Moloney discloses wherein the at least two hall sensors are arranged in the proximity of a surface of the consumable container being connected to the vaporizer when the vaporizer is connected to the consumable container (pages 6-7, 13 and fig. 3).
Conclusion
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/PHU H NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 1747