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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1 are amended. Claims 2-14 are as previously presented. Therefore, claims 1-14 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on December 10, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 5-7, filed on 12/10/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-14 under U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of applicant’s amendment pertaining the water entering the inner pot separately from the rice and where the rice flour is separated and discharged by intake pressure and newly found prior art regarding those features.
Examiner notes that due to the new limitations added, the cyclone rice separator includes a separate channel from a water outlet. The examiner now relies primarily on the newly reference Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A) for the separate two outlet feature, where the Zhou reference is used for the valve features within a rice separator.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. KR10-2021-0151736, filed on 11/05/2021.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U, hereinafter Wang 211) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele).
Regarding claim 1, Zhou discloses a rice input structure of an automatic electric pressure cooker (Page 15, Para. 4 from end, “Of course, not limited to the cooker, also can be electric cooker, electric cooker, electric steamer and so on.”, where electric pressure cookers are similar to the cookers listed and would be included in the ‘and so on’ part) that automatically adds rice (Page 15, Para. 2 from end, “cooking appliance is fully automatic rice cooker, pot cover pot upper end, there is annular sealing ring; the pot cover is a rice washing cabin structure”) and water for cooking (Claim 1, “spraying device that is set on the cleaning cavity and itis connected with said water inlet pipe and said cooking chamber for water into the cooking chamber.”), the rice input structure comprising:
a rice inlet having a cyclone rice separator (Page 15, Para. 2 from end, “rice spiral cyclone, the cleaned rice into the pot through the bottom discharge”, where the rice inlet is connected to the air intake pipe 211, Page 15, Para. 2 from end, “the air inlet connected with the rice inlet pipe”) mounted on a lid (Page 15, Para. 2 from end, “pot cover pot upper end, there is annular sealing ring; the pot cover is a rice washing cabin structure”, where the cover includes the rice washing cabin) and having an opening/closing hole for putting rice into an inner pot (Page 15, Para. 2 from end ,”rice washing chamber bottom discharge opening is sealed, and then it can be used for rice, rice; when the bottom sealing mechanism is reduced, a rice washing cabin are connected through the bottom port and pot.”);
an air intake pipe connected to one side of the cyclone rice separator and generating an intake pressure (Page 14, Para. 6 from end, “opening connected with the inlet passage 211 of the gas source (such as a fan or air pump) air to the air intake passage 211”, and Page 7, Para. 6 from end, “the air inlet passage air again, using high pressure air flow spiral is pressed down”);
a rice transfer pipe connected in a tangential direction of the cyclone rice separator and connected to a rice container (Page 7, Para. 5, “cooking appliance also includes a storage bin, a storage bin through a feeding pipe connected with the air inlet channel, realizes the automatic feeding of the cooking appliance, improves the automation degree of the cooking appliance”, where the material being automatically fed would be the rice that needs to be cleaned);
a valve passing through an axial direction of the cyclone rice separator to open and close the opening/closing hole (Page 9, Para. 4 from end, “spraying device 3set at the discharge opening and can open or close the discharge port, the overflow spray device 3serves as a discharge valve, a overflow-proof function and sealing functions, smart design, and further simplifies the structure of the product”); and
an actuator for the valve (Page 15, Para. 2 from end, “a motor 230, the motor 230 drives the gear 240 to rotate gear 240 drives the rack slider 250 to move up and down; rack slider 250 the inlet pipe 220 to move up and down, the water inlet pipe 220 other one end connected with the bottom sealing mechanism, the motor 230 drives the inlet tube 220 move up and down along with the rack so as to drive the bottom sealing mechanism up and down”)
Zhou does not disclose:
a valve opening/closing device having a link pressing an upper end of the valve and an actuator rotating the link;
a water outlet mounted on the lid spaced apart from the rice inlet for inputting water into the inner pot separately from the rice;
wherein the water is input into the inner pot via the water outlet separately from the rice and the rice is input into the inner pot via the rice inlet and the cyclone rice separator, and
wherein rice flour is separated from rice in the cyclone rice separator and discharged into the inner pot together with the air from the cyclone rice separator, by the intake pressure.
However, Hase discloses, in the similar field of automatic rice input structures (Page 1, Para. 2, “a rice washing machine that is provided with a rice storage and a rice washing tank and that pre-treats rice by washing a predetermined amount of white rice.”), where a valve opens and closes based on a link that presses on an upper end of the valve with an actuator rotating the link (Page 4, Para. 2, “The action lever 24 is provided with an elastic member 25 such as a compression spring on the inner side thereof, and is connected to the lifting arm 22 via the elastic member 25, and the outer part is opened and closed having a cam action only within a predetermined angle range. By providing the cam 26 so that it can be controlled to rotate by the drive shaft 26 a, when the operating lever 24 tilts in response to the cam stroke of the opening / closing cam 26, the drop valve 11 b rises via the elastic member 25 and the lifting arm 22, When the drop valve 11b comes into contact with the valve seat of the drop port 11a, which is the upper end position of the lift stroke S, the drop valve 11b is tightly sealed by the elastic force of the elastic member 25.”, where the link on the upper end of the valve is the action lever 24, where the drive shaft would be connected to an actuator). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the valve and actuator in Zhou to include the lever and drive shaft driven by an actuator as taught by Hase.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a valve configuration that allows for the rice to be shaken off of the valve so that it can enter into the cooking chamber, as stated by Hase, Page 4, Para. 4, “Then, the dropping valve 11b vibrates in the vertical direction via the support shaft 11c by the reaction force of the buffer member 27, so that the rice grains adhering to the dropping valve 11b and the support shaft 11c can be shaken off.”.
Oya discloses, in the similar field of rice cookers (Abstract, “a rice cooker”), where there is a water outlet mounted to the rice cooker that is spaced apart from the rice inlet for inputting water into the inner pot separately from the rice (Page 13, last Para., “As shown in FIG. 3, the water supply unit 310 includes a water supply channel 311 for transferring water from the water container 300 to the pot 2,”, and Fig. 24 shows that the water supply channel 311 is located near the bottom of the rice cooker, where the rice inlet is separate, Page 22, last Para., “The rice feeding unit 110 pushes the rice into the rice feeding path 111 for transferring the rice from the rice container to the pot”), where the water is input separately from the rice and the rice is input into the inner pot via the rice inlet and cyclone rice separator (Page 11, Para. 2 from end, “Specifically, the rice separator 150 separates rice and air by a cyclone configuration. That is, as shown in FIG. 17, in the intake port 151, the course of rice and air is perpendicular to the central axis of the main body 153, and the rice and air flow into the cylindrical wall surface of the main body 153 instead of near the central axis.”, where water and rice are entered separately through their respective inlets of the water supply channel 311 and the rice feeding path 111 that goes into the cyclone rice separator 150). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the rice separator system in modified Zhou to include the separate water outlet and rice separator outlets as taught by Oya.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to control the water and rice entered into the pot in a precise manner so that rice cooking can be done with greater accuracy, as stated by Oya, Page 16, Para. 3, “The rice cooker 1 is an automatic rice cooker, and the rice in the rice container 100 and the water in the water container 300 are input in response to the input of the rice cooking instruction from the user received via the user interface 40 or the communication interface 25.”, and Page 18, Para. 3 from end, “By using the water level sensor 313 that detects the static water level compared to the flow rate sensor that measures the dynamic flow rate of water, it is possible to accurately detect the specified amount of water and put it into the pot 2.”.
Regarding the positioning of the water outlet being on the lid of the inner pot instead on a bottom side, it has been held that mere rearrangement of parts is an obvious modification to make. In re Japikse, 181 F.2d 1019, 86 USPQ 70 (CCPA 1950). It is the Examiner’s position that the water connection to the inner pot is still able to achieve the same end result of delivering water to the inner pot regardless of where the connection is done. As a result, the water connection position would be a mere matter of user design choice, where certain positions can reduce the complexity of the system such as a top connection using gravity to deliver water and not needing to rely on a pump.
Wang 211 discloses, in the similar field of rice separators (Abstract, “rice flour and rice separator”), where a rice separator can separate rice flour and rice (Page 3, Para. 1, “the rice grain, using the principle of different weight, the broken rice, rice powder into the powder separating net 5, realizing automatic rice flour, the rice separation, liberating the low efficiency work of the previous hand separation, improving the quality and yield and reducing the cost.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the rice separator input feed material in modified Zhou to include rice with rice flour as taught by Wang 211, where the cyclone separator would be able to separate these two materials due to the different in weights.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to take processed rice and directly use it for cooking, where using this feed material can be efficient for a user as there is no need to further process the feed material before using it, as stated by Wang 211, Page 1, last Para., “Rice is the first large grain species in China; the annual production is about 1.85 million tons; accounting for the 42 % grain output of the whole country; the rice is processed to obtain rice hull and brown rice; in the processing process, there is a certain amount of broken rice and rice powder in the rice, wherein a part is broken rice caused by grinding and processing and so on”.
Regarding the use of rice with rice flour in a rice separator, it is the Examiner's position that one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to try as there are a limited amount of rice feed material combinations that could be fed into a rice separator. In the different feed material combinations, the same end result of cyclonic separation would still be achieved and the use of a specific feed material would be a user’s design choice.
Further, Steele discloses, in the similar field of rice flour (Para. 0038, “rice flour”), where rice flour can be used as an additive that has high fiber content and no glutens (Para. 0038, “In order to make a bulking system extrudable, one adds flour or a flour analog…A type of flour that
may be used is Konjac flour which has a high fiber content (such as 95%). The use of rice flour or starch are other possibilities. The preference is to use a flour that has no glutens.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the rice separator discharge enter into the inner pot in modified Zhou to allow for rice flour to be added to the food product as taught by Steele.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use rice flour to increase the fiber content of the rice while still providing no glutens for user’s with gluten allergies, as stated by Steele, Para. 0038, “A type of flour that may be used is Konjac flour which has a high fiber content (such as 95%). The use of rice flour or starch are other possibilities. The preference is to use a flour that has no glutens.”.
Regarding claim 9, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
further comprising an elastic member having both ends supported by an upper surface of the cyclone rice separator and an upper end of the valve, and acting force in a direction in which the valve is closed.
However, Hase discloses where there is an elastic member with an end supported by the upper surface of the rice separator and an end supported by the upper end of the valve, where an acting force occurs to close the valve (Page 4, Para. 5, “By connecting the tension spring 31 for lowering the support shaft 11c to the ceiling plate 18 of the rice washing tank 3, the dropping valve 11b is moved down vigorously, and the rice grains are shaken off from the washing rice tank 3 by the impact at the lower limit position. Rice can be lost.”, where Fig. 6 shows that the elastic tension spring 31 is connected to the 18 of the rice separator and the top of the valve with the action lever 24, where putting upward force on the elastic spring will bring the valve to a closed position). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the valve in modified Zhou to include the tension spring as taught by Hase.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage being able to bring the valve to a position where extra rice can be emptied into the cooking chamber, as stated by Hase, Page 4, Para. 5, “By connecting the tension spring 31 for lowering the support shaft 11c to the ceiling plate 18 of the rice washing tank 3, the dropping valve 11b is moved down vigorously, and the rice grains are shaken off from the washing rice tank 3 by the impact at the lower limit position. Rice can be lost.”.
Claims 2-3, 5, and 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Wang et al. (CN 112806821 A, hereinafter Wang).
Regarding claim 2, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses wherein the cyclone rice separator includes a hopper-type first part (Zhou, Page 15, Para. 4, “washing chamber 210”), a second part to which a rice transfer pipe is connected (Zhou, Page 14, Para. 3, “a storage bin and a feeding pipe 260”, where from Fig. 1, the feeding pipe 260 that transfers the rice is located on a side of the hopper structure 210), and a sealing material attached to a lower end of the first part to form an opening/closing hole (Zhou, Page 15, last Para., “bottom sealing mechanism can realize the spray overflow function, the sealing mechanism comprises a spray cover 310, a lower cover of the spray 320, spray joint spring 350, spray and cover sealing ring, a nozzle sealing rubber ring 360 and so on”), and the second part is connected to the air intake pipe and the hopper (Zhou, Page 14, Para. 3, “a storage bin for storing the material feeding pipe 260 is connected with the input end and the output end are respectively connected with the storage box and an air inlet channel 211, to utilize the wind feeding pipe in the material 260 into the cleaning chamber 210”, where the rice transfer pipe is connected to an air flow pipe which is connected to a hopper).
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
a third part to which an air intake pipe is connected,
and the second part includes a communication hole connecting the first part to the third part.
However, Wang discloses, in the similar field of automatic rice input (Page 1, last Para., “automatic rice feeding function”), where a third part has an air intake pipe connected (Page 7, Para. 2 from end, “the quantitative chamber 13 of the air outlet direction is provided with another fan (which can be suction fan). when the two fans operate, wherein one fan blows the material into the quantitative chamber 13, and the other fan pumps the material into the quantitative chamber 13.”), where the second part has a communication hole that connects the first part to the third part (Modified Fig. 3, where the second part is shown to include a communication hole that connects the first part of the hopper to the third part of the suction fan; where the hole allows for fluid flow from the second part to the first part to the third part, meaning that a first to third part connection is achieved from the second part). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the air intake pipe configuration in modified Zhou to include the additional configuration as taught by Wang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use an air intake suction fan that allows for negative pressure to allow for rice to enter into the cleaning chamber, where this can be used in addition to positive air flow pressure from the second part to assist with rice transfer, as stated by Wang, Page 7, Para. 5 from end, “fan is the material into the quantitative chamber 13. quantitative chamber 13 connected between the storage chamber 111 and the fan, fan operation, the air passage 131, the quantitative chamber 13 and feeding material tube 15 to form negative pressure, absorbing the material in the storage chamber 111 through the feeding material 15 into the quantitative chamber 13.”.
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Modified Figure 3, Wang
Regarding claim 3, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 2, as set forth above, discloses wherein the cyclone rice separator is defined by the second part and the third part (Teaching from Wang, modified Fig. 3, where the cyclone rice separator would include the entrance of the rice transfer second part, the hopper of the first part, and the exit of the suction fan third part), and has a discharge flow that creates a cyclone (Zhou, Page 14, Para. 1, “In other words, inlet passage 211 forming the helical channel can realize the spiral inlet, high speed airflow is cleaned, the cleaning chamber 210 under the pressure of the spiral along the wall of the cleaning cavity 210 spiral lower pressure, in the process of high-speed air flow drives the stacking or sticky rice on the inner wall face of the cleaning chamber 210 materials such as spiral descending”, where the airflow can be induced to be a spiral).
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
has a ring-shaped discharge flow forming space connected to the air intake pipe and the communication hole.
However, Wang discloses where the air intake pipe and communication hole have a ring shaped discharge flow forming space between them (Modified Fig. 2, where the ring shaped discharge is shown, where the center portion of the ring is where the valve is located). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the hopper in modified Zhou to include the additional air intake pipe with the ring shape discharge space as taught by Wang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use an air intake suction fan that allows for negative pressure to allow for rice to enter into the cleaning chamber, where this can be used in addition to positive air flow pressure from the second part to assist with rice transfer, where the ring shape discharge shape still allows for cyclonic movement of the rice as it enters the cleaning chamber, as stated by Wang, Page 7, Para. 5 from end, “fan is the material into the quantitative chamber 13. quantitative chamber 13 connected between the storage chamber 111 and the fan, fan operation, the air passage 131, the quantitative chamber 13 and feeding material tube 15 to form negative pressure, absorbing the material in the storage chamber 111 through the feeding material 15 into the quantitative chamber 13.”.
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Modified Figure 2, Wang
Regarding claim 5, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 2, as set forth above, discloses wherein the first part is connected to the air intake pipe (Teaching from Wang, modified Fig. 3, where the entrance of the rice transfer second part, the hopper of the first part, and the exit of the suction fan third part are all connected; this would mean that the first part of the hopper is connected to the air intake pipe of the suction fan in the third part).
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
the cyclone rice separator further includes an inner part mounted inside the first part and having a plurality of perforated holes.
However, Wang discloses where the cyclone rice separator hopper includes a part mounted to the inside of the hopper with a plurality of holes (Page 7, Para. 4 from end, “In addition, the air duct 131 is provided with a filter screen 161 for preventing material from passing through. Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 2, the material along feeding material tube 15 is conveyed to the quantitative chamber 13, quantitative chamber 13 along the air passage 131 is connected to the power component 16, air passage 131 is provided with a filter screen 161.”, where the filter has holes to allow for air to pass through but not material like rice). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the hopper in modified Zhou to include the filter screen as taught by Wang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage preventing damage to the suction fan while still allowing for air flow to occur, as stated by Wang, Page 7, Para. 3 from end, “Specifically, when the material enters the quantitative chamber 13, has a trend of entering the air passage 131 in the quantitative chamber 13, by setting a filter screen 161 for preventing the material from passing through, which can avoid the material entering the air passage 131 and enter into the power component 16. Therefore, it can prevent the material blocking in the power component 16, damage the power component 16, but can make the air through, so that the conveying of the material is smooth.”.
Regarding claim 7, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 5, as set forth above, discloses wherein the air intake pipe branches at a predetermined position to be connected to both the first part and the third part (Teaching from Wang, modified Fig. 3, where the air intake pipe is connected to the hopper first part and the third part that includes the suction fan; where the air intake pipe branches in order to have a connection of an entrance of the pipe to the hopper and an exit of the pipe to the suction fan).
Regarding claim 8, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses wherein the cyclone rice separator includes a hopper-type first part (Zhou, Page 15, Para. 4, “washing chamber 210”), a second part to which a rice transfer pipe is connected (Zhou, Page 14, Para. 3, “a storage bin and a feeding pipe 260”, where from Fig. 1, the feeding pipe 260 that transfers the rice is located on a side of the hopper structure 210), and a sealing material attached to a lower end of the first part and forming an opening/closing hole (Zhou, Page 15, last Para., “bottom sealing mechanism can realize the spray overflow function, the sealing mechanism comprises a spray cover 310, a lower cover of the spray 320, spray joint spring 350, spray and cover sealing ring, a nozzle sealing rubber ring 360 and so on”).
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
where the hopper-type first part has an air intake pipe connected, and
an inner part mounted inside the first part and having a plurality of perforated holes.
However, Wang discloses where an air intake pipe is connected to a hopper (Page 7, Para. 2 from end, “the quantitative chamber 13 of the air outlet direction is provided with another fan (which can be suction fan). when the two fans operate, wherein one fan blows the material into the quantitative chamber 13, and the other fan pumps the material into the quantitative chamber 13.”), where the cyclone rice separator hopper includes a part mounted to the inside of the hopper with a plurality of holes (Page 7, Para. 4 from end, “In addition, the air duct 131 is provided with a filter screen 161 for preventing material from passing through. Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 2, the material along feeding material tube 15 is conveyed to the quantitative chamber 13, quantitative chamber 13 along the air passage 131 is connected to the power component 16, air passage 131 is provided with a filter screen 161.”, where the filter has holes to allow for air to pass through but not material like rice). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the air intake pipe configuration in modified Zhou to include the additional configuration and filter screen as taught by Wang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use an air intake suction fan that allows for negative pressure to allow for rice to enter into the cleaning chamber, where this can be used in addition to positive air flow pressure from the second part to assist with rice transfer, as stated by Wang, Page 7, Para. 5 from end, “fan is the material into the quantitative chamber 13. quantitative chamber 13 connected between the storage chamber 111 and the fan, fan operation, the air passage 131, the quantitative chamber 13 and feeding material tube 15 to form negative pressure, absorbing the material in the storage chamber 111 through the feeding material 15 into the quantitative chamber 13.”, and where the filter prevents damage to the suction fan while still allowing for air flow to occur, as stated by Wang, Page 7, Para. 3 from end, “Specifically, when the material enters the quantitative chamber 13, has a trend of entering the air passage 131 in the quantitative chamber 13, by setting a filter screen 161 for preventing the material from passing through, which can avoid the material entering the air passage 131 and enter into the power component 16. Therefore, it can prevent the material blocking in the power component 16, damage the power component 16, but can make the air through, so that the conveying of the material is smooth.”.
Claims 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Wang et al. (CN 112806821 A, hereinafter Wang) and Deng et al. (CN 102814983 A, hereinafter Deng).
Regarding claim 4, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 2, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the first part includes a spiral groove.
However, Deng discloses, in the similar field of hoppers (Para. 0008, “feeding device comprises a hopper”), where a hopper can include a spiral groove (Para. 0026, “The hopper and the spiral track inside can be processed directly by the NC machine tool”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the hopper in modified Zhou to include the spiral groove as taught by Deng.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage being able to lower the changing action of inertia force, which can lower the amount of heat transfer occurring onto the hopper and improve reliability of the system, as stated by Deng, Para. 0017, “the recovery of deformation elastic force directly acts on the groove, in fact to feed high-frequency inertial forces. Because the groove is spiral, lower the changing action of inertia force, plastic piece surface along its inclined plane gradually upwards movement. Because the suction of electromagnet, break action frequency is high, so the plastic component under the inertial forces of the high frequency driving slowly moves upwards along the inclined plane, enters to reach heater… can avoid the heating does not take out caused by damage, and prevent taking out after cooling cannot be assembled, thereby improving the reliability of the assembly.”.
Claims 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Wang et al. (CN 112806821 A, hereinafter Wang) and Yoshioka et al. (JP 2017128101 A, hereinafter Yoshioka).
Regarding claim 6, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 5, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the inner part has a raised pattern to shake off rice flour.
However, Yoshioka discloses, in the similar field of hoppers (Page 2, Para. 2, “vibrations are applied to a powder hopper and air is discharged into the hopper to remove residual powder attached to the inner surface of the hopper”), where a surface can be raised in order to prevent flour from adhering (Page 2, Para. 5 from end, “The arithmetic average roughness Ra is defined in JIS B 0601. If the arithmetic average roughness Ra is less than 0.2 μm or the arithmetic average roughness Ra is larger than 1.6 μm, the powder tends to adhere, which is not preferable. By setting the arithmetic average roughness Ra of the uneven surface 11 to 0.2 μm or more and 1.6 μm or less, it is possible to prevent the powder from adhering to the uneven surface 11. The arithmetic average roughness Ra is preferably 0.2 μm or more and 1 μm or less, more preferably 0.2 μm or more and 0.8 μm or less.”, where having the uneven raised pattern with the roughness as stated would suppress flour from sticking, where any flour that has overcome this suppressive effect can still be shaken off the hopper through vibrations). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the filter in modified Zhou to include the raised uneven surface with the roughness values as taught by Yoshioka.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage maintaining the strength of the filter, where the powder adhesion suppression allows the strength of the filter to be maintained, as stated by Yoshioka, Page 2, Para. 3, “The powder adhesion suppressing member according to this embodiment suppresses the adhesion of powder while ensuring the strength of the surface in contact with the powder.”.
Claims 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Pang et al. (WO 2013183868 A1, hereinafter Pang).
Regarding claim 10, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the valve includes a shaft portion penetrating through the cyclone rice separator, a stopper coupled to a lower end of the shaft portion to be in close contact with the cyclone rice separator to close the opening/closing hole, and a grippable handle coupled to the shaft portion through the stopper.
However, Hase discloses where the valve includes a shaft that penetrates through the rice separator (Page 4, Para. 5, “the inner portion of the seesaw operation type action lever 24 is connected to the support shaft 11c of the drop valve 11b”), where a stopper is at the lower end of the shaft to close the opening hole (Page 4, Para. 2, “When the drop valve 11b comes into contact with the valve seat of the drop port 11a, which is the upper end position of the lift stroke S, the drop valve 11b is tightly sealed by the elastic force of the elastic member 25”, where the drop valve 11b is the stopper). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the valve in modified Zhou to include the features as taught by Hase.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a valve configuration that allows for the rice to be shaken off of the valve so that it can enter into the cooking chamber, as stated by Hase, Page 4, Para. 4, “Then, the dropping valve 11b vibrates in the vertical direction via the support shaft 11c by the reaction force of the buffer member 27, so that the rice grains adhering to the dropping valve 11b and the support shaft 11c can be shaken off.”.
Further, Pang discloses, in the similar field of stoppers (Page 3, Para. 4 from end, “the stopper and consists of a circular bottom opening and closing portion for opening and closing the food filling space by the suction and discharge pressure of air.”), where there is a grippable handle coupled to the shaft (Page 6, Para. 3, “stopper 230 formed in the interior of the food filling body 200 to be described later to form a structure that is easy to grip the food opening and closing device 300 in a circular shape to form a narrower width toward the upper portion of the handle 310”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the stopper in modified Zhou to include the grippable handle as taught by Pang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of allowing a user to grip onto the stopper so that it can be manually moved easier, as stated by Pang, Page 6, Para. 3, “easy to grip the food opening and closing device 300 in a circular shape to form a narrower width toward the upper portion of the handle 310 Easy to fit, or to be described later, the top opening and closing part 330 may be stably supported.”.
Regarding claim 11, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 10, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the stopper has a parabolic antenna shape with a center protruding upwardly and an outer periphery inclined downwardly.
However, Hase discloses where the stopper has a parabolic antenna shape with a center protruding upwards an outer periphery inclined downwards (Modified Fig. 2.1, where the stoppers center and outer periphery surfaces are shown). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the stopper in modified Zhou to include the shape as taught by Hase.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a valve configuration that allows for the rice to be shaken off of the valve so that it can enter into the cooking chamber, as stated by Hase, Page 4, Para. 4, “Then, the dropping valve 11b vibrates in the vertical direction via the support shaft 11c by the reaction force of the buffer member 27, so that the rice grains adhering to the dropping valve 11b and the support shaft 11c can be shaken off.”.
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Modified Figure 2.1, Hase
Claims 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Pang et al. (WO 2013183868 A1, hereinafter Pang) and Groezinger et al. (CN 102307501 A, hereinafter Groezinger).
Regarding claim 12, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 11, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the stopper is formed of stainless steel.
However, Groezinger discloses, in the similar field of valves with stoppers (Abstract, “operating valve for pressure cooker, the operating valve has a movable spherical sealing member”), where the material the valve is made of is stainless steel (Para. 0028, “Preferably, the core 3 is made of metal, especially bright stainless steel. the valve core (3) extends to upper part area of at least passes through opening 12. in the valve case 2 of the upper part area”, and Para. 0032, “the spherical sealing member is made of metal, preferably made of bright stainless steel.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the stopper and valve from modified Zhou to be made from stainless steel as taught by Groezinger.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage being able to use the specific properties of stainless steel, as stated by Groezinger, Para. 0012, “If the spherical sealing member and a conical surface made by metal, especially stainless steel, it is more beneficial to the response characteristic.”.
Regarding the specific material, it is the Examiner's position that one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to try as there are a limited amount of material options to choose from in the cooking art. There are advantages and disadvantages with each type of material, however a valve can be made from different materials and still have the ability to be function properly. As a result, the selection of stainless steel would be a mere matter of user design choice.
Claims 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Pang et al. (WO 2013183868 A1, hereinafter Pang) and Norio et al. (JP 3918630 B2, hereinafter Norio).
Regarding claim 13, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 11, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the cyclone rice separator includes a cylindrical sealing material forming an opening/closing hole at a lowermost end thereof, and the sealing material has a diameter that is large at a lower end and narrowed upwardly to be in close contact with the stopper.
However, Norio discloses, in the similar field of automatic rice cookers (Para. 0001, “automatic rice cooker”), where a cylindrical sealing material creates an opening at the lower end (Para. 0016, “A rice feed valve packing 77 is provided at the lower end of the rice feed path 76, and the upper surface is brought into contact with the rice feed path 76 and the lower face is brought into contact with the inner lid 74, so that the steam generated from the pot enters the lid body 75.”) and where the sealing material has a diameter that is larger at the lower end and narrows upward to be in contact with a stopper (Modified Fig. 7, where the sealing material diameter being larger at the lower end and narrowing upwards to be in contact with a stopper is shown). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the stopper and valve system in modified Zhou to include the features as taught by Norio.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage being able to fully seal and close off the channel when the valve is closed, where the packing allows for a tight seal to be made, as stated by Norio, Para. 0016, “The rice feed valve 80 is biased upward by a rice feed spring 78 and abuts the rice feed valve packing 77 to close the rice feed path 76.”.
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Modified Figure 7, Norio
Claims 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (CN 108567348 A, hereinafter Zhou) in view of Hase et al. (JP 2013022523 A, hereinafter Hase) and Oya et al. (JP 202115167 A, hereinafter Oya) and Wang (CN 211330168 U) and Steele et al. (US 20080026038 A1, hereinafter Steele) in further view of Norio et al. (JP 3918630 B2, hereinafter Norio).
Regarding claim 14, modified Zhou teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above.
Modified Zhou does not disclose:
wherein the cyclone rice separator includes a cylindrical sealing material forming an opening/closing hole at a lowermost end thereof, and the sealing material includes two or more sealing ribs protruding toward the valve.
However, Norio discloses where there is a cylindrical sealing material forming an opening hole at the lower end (Para. 0016, “A rice feed valve packing 77 is provided at the lower end of the rice feed path 76, and the upper surface is brought into contact with the rice feed path 76 and the lower face is brought into contact with the inner lid 74, so that the steam generated from the pot enters the lid body 75.”), and where the sealing material includes two or more sealing ribs protruding toward the valve (Modified Fig. 7, where the sealing ribs are shown to be the part of the sealing material that extends outwards toward the valve, where there are at least two ribs shown on either side of the valve). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the stopper and valve system in modified Zhou to include the features as taught by Norio.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage being able to fully seal and close off the channel when the valve is closed, where the packing allows for a tight seal to be made, as stated by Norio, Para. 0016, “The rice feed valve 80 is biased upward by a rice feed spring 78 and abuts the rice feed valve packing 77 to close the rice feed path 76.”.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Liu et al. (CN 207046246 U, hereinafter Liu) discloses a similar spiral groove, however it is located underneath a hopper.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/KEVIN GUANHUA WEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
03/19/2026
/IBRAHIME A ABRAHAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3761