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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1, 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 6,189,346 to Chen in view of US Patent 4,777,737 to Wolens.
In Reference to Claim 1 and 7-8
Chen discloses A drying installation, in particular for drying objects such as items of clothing and equipment items, wherein the objects are suspendable or placeable on drying hangers, wherein the drying hangers (Fig. 4, 66) are arranged in a thermally insulated drying cabinet which, in addition, is heatable, wherein the drying cabinet comprises a bottom (Fig. 4, annotated by the examiner), a top (Fig. 4, annotated by the examiner), left and right side walls (Fig. 4, annotated by the examiner), a rear wall (Fig. 4, annotated by the examiner) and an openable and closable front wall (Fig. 4, 16a), wherein the drying hangers (Fig. 4, 66) in the drying cabinet are suppliable or are supplied with warm air by a warm air blower (Fig. 4, 60), the drying hangers (11, 12) being provided with one or more air outlet openings (Col. 6, Line 1-5, since the hanger has inlet receiving air and has a hollow body, obviously, the hanger has outlet in order to keep an air flow) along their extent, and wherein further a heating device (Fig. 4, 36) is arranged inside the drying cabinet for heating said drying cabinet.
Chen discloses an air blower on the top. Chen does not teach air blower deliver the heated air.
Wolens teaches an air blower (Fig. 1, a blower on the top of cabinet) supplies heated air (Fig. 1, air heated by electric coil element 11b) to the cabinet.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate teachings from Wolens into the design of Chen. Doing so, would result in a heating element being incorporated into the design of Chen. Both inventions of Chen and Wolens are in the same field of invention, Wolens provides a method of improving heated air to dry the garment (Col. 2, Line 1-5), so the heating efficiency would been improved.
In Reference to Claim 6
Chen discloses wherein the heating device (Fig. 5, 36) is provided in the bottom region of the drying cabinet (As showed in Fig. 4).
In Reference to Claim 9 and 10
The combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claims 9 and 10 discloses the dryer with heat air blower.
The combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claims 9 and 10 does not teach the temperature range.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to control the temperature within the recited temperature range, since Wolens teaches the hot air cannot be too hot, the hot air can shrink the garment (Col. 2, Lines 1-5). The temperature of the hot air is merely controlled parameter based on the garment material.
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Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US Patent 5,953,830 to Jannach.
Chen discloses the dryer cabinet comprising air blower.
Chen does not teach the warm air blower (7) is arranged on the outside, preferably on the top (3)
Wolens teaches the warm air blower (Fig. 1, the air blower is positioned outside the cabinet) is arranged on the outside, preferably on the top (As showed in Fig. 1),
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate teachings from Wolens into the design of Chen. Doing so, would result in the warm air blower being positioned outside of the cabinet of Chen. Both inventions of Chen and Wolens are in the same field of invention, Wolens provides a method of improving heated air to dry the garment (Col. 2, Line 1-5), so the heating efficiency would been improved.
The combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claim 4 teaches air duct only.
Jannach an air duct (Fig. 1, 8) is connected to an air distribution duct (Fig. 1, 1) to which the drying hangers (Fig. 1, 2) inside the drying cabinet (1) are connected or can be connected.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate teachings from Jannach into the combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claim 4. Doing so, would result in the air distribution system of Jannach being used in the design of Chen. Both inventions of Jannach and Chen teach a method of applying air to dry garment, Jannach provides a design to evenly distribute air to plurality of hangers to improve the efficiency of the drying process.
Claims 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US Patent Publication 2002/0133969 to Cassella.
In Reference to Claims 11-13
Chen discloses the dryer comprising the heat air blower to supply hot air to the cabinet.
The combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claim 11 does not teach the dryer having a thermostats.
Cassella teaches the control system of the dryer comprising a thermostats (Fig. 3, 54) and timer (Fig. 4, 104)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate teachings from Cassella into the combination of Chen and Wolens as applied to Claim 11. Doing so, would result in a controller with thermostats and timer being used to control the operation of the dryer. Both inventions of Cassella and Chen are in the same field of endeavor, Cassella provides a method of proving an optimized volume of hot air to the cabinet. So the efficiency is improved.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen.
In Reference to Claim 16
Chen discloses a method for drying and decontaminating objects such as items of clothing and equipment items, using the drying installation according to claim 1, wherein the objects are arranged on the drying hangers (As showed in Fig. 4) in the cabinet and the cabinet is closed; wherein the heating device (Fig. 4, 36) is used to bring the cabinet temperature to a temperature which is sufficient to eliminate pathogens; wherein the heating device (Fig. 1, 61/69, a cycle controller) is switched off after a period of time which is sufficient to eliminate the pathogens; wherein the warm air blower (Fig. 4, 34)) is switched on and the drying process is continued and completed.
The Office considers “to eliminate the pathogen" as functional language. The use of the function language only requires that apparatus is capable of performing the function, and does not add any specific structural limitations to the apparatus. Since dyer of Chen meets the requirement of the recited structure, it is capable to remove pathogen which meets the functional limitation. Furthermore, “apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does.”
Conclusion
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DEMING . WAN
Examiner
Art Unit 3762
/DEMING WAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 2/24/26