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 and Species D in the reply filed on 2026 May 06 is acknowledged.
Claims 10, 12, and 16-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and/or species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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.
Claims 1-9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TW M419065 U (herein “Tan”) in view of US 11,060,312 B1 (herein “Hill”).
Regarding claim 1.
Tan discloses a system (Fig. 1) comprising: a subterranean system (below 10) to be disposed at least partially below ground level; a data center (10); and a geothermal heat pump system (20, 30, and 40) to regulate a temperature of ambient air in the data center.
Tan does not disclose a subterranean vault in which the data center is located.
Hill discloses a system (Fig. 1A and 1C) comprising a subterranean vault (at 170) and a data center (140) located in the vault.
Hill provides that the subterranean data center system can shorten a timeline from the beginning of construction to customer availability (col. 5, ln. 24-34), and that the subterranean data center system can move networking equipment out of computer rooms and free up space for other devices (col. 5, ln. 35-40). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Tan with the subterranean vault data center teachings of Hill.
Regarding claim 2.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 1, wherein the geothermal heat pump system includes a ground loop to be disposed in the ground (Tan: 30 and 40).
Regarding claim 3.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 2, wherein the geothermal heat pump system includes: a pump (60); a radiator (air conditioner end 20) providing cooling to the data center (Tan: 10) in the vault (Hill: data center located in subterranean vault); and a fluid circuit (Tan: between 10 and 30) to fluidly couple the pump, the radiator, and the ground loop, the fluid circuit containing a fluid (Tan: [0009] circulating medium, refrigerant).
Regarding claim 4.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 3, wherein the fluid is water (Tan: [0014] fluid includes a mixture of the circulating medium and cold water).
Regarding claim 5.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 3, wherein the fluid is a refrigerant (Tan: [0009]), and wherein the geothermal heat pump system includes an expansion valve (Tan: 33) coupled to the fluid circuit.
Regarding claim 6.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 3, wherein the geothermal heat pump system includes a fan to direct the ambient air across the radiator (Tan: [0002] air conditioner end provides cold air flow).
Regarding claim 7.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 3, wherein the edge data center includes one or more edge servers (Tan: [0009]) (Hill: 140), and wherein the fluid circuit includes a secondary circuit to route the fluid to the one or more edge servers (Tan: air conditioner 20 provides cold air to the data center) (Hill: Fig. 1C; cold air fluid circuit routes air to the servers).
Regarding claim 8.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 7, wherein the secondary circuit is to route the fluid through one or more heat exchangers (Hill: heat exchangers transferring heat from the heat generating devices of the server to the cold air).
Regarding claim 9.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 1, wherein the subterranean vault is cuboid shaped (Hill: Figs. 1C and 4).
Regarding claim 11.
The combined teachings disclose the system of claim 1, wherein the geothermal heat pump system is a closed loop system (Tan: refrigeration loop of 30).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jon T. Schermerhorn Jr. whose telephone number is (571)270-5283. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Len Tran can be reached at (571) 272-1184. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JON T. SCHERMERHORN JR./Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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