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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 2 October 2025 has been entered. Claims 1-4 and 6-8 remain pending in the application. Applicant's amendments to the Claims have overcome each and every rejection previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action dated 7 July 2025; however, upon further consideration new rejections are set forth as explained below.
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, 4, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whaling (US 2020/0047014) in view of Delost (US 2016/0258137) and De Groff (US 2,247,608).
Regarding claim 1, Whaling discloses a wildfire suppression assembly (100) for facilitating an aircraft to be filled with rainwater thereby facilitating the aircraft to subsequently release the rainwater onto a wildfire (fig. 1), said assembly comprising:
an aircraft (102) having a water reservoir integrated into said aircraft (par. 26 – “a holding tank in the helicopter”) wherein said water reservoir is configured to contain water, said aircraft having a spraying unit being attached to said aircraft (fig. 6; par. 22), said spraying unit being in fluid communication with said water reservoir wherein said spraying unit is configured to spray the water onto a wildfire over which said aircraft is flying for suppressing the wildfire (fig. 6);
a primary reservoir (104) being configured to be filled with water (par. 24);
a fill hose (103) being fluidly attachable between said primary reservoir and said water reservoir in said aircraft wherein said fill hose is configured to fill said water reservoir with the water stored in said primary reservoir (fig. 3; par. 24); and
a plurality of storage reservoirs (par. 26 – “one or more water pipes”; fig. 3 – one branch of pipe 110 connects to water source 114, and another branch for connecting to another water source is shown) each of said plurality of storage reservoirs being in fluid communication with said primary reservoir wherein each of said plurality of storage reservoirs is configured to supply said primary reservoir with the water (fig. 3; par. 26), and wherein the storage reservoir can be a “lake” (par. 26)
Whaling does not explicitly disclose wherein each of said storage reservoirs is configured with the structural elements recited.
Delost teaches a water storage reservoir (100) having a plurality of fill openings (130, which is a permeable material that has “openings”, see par. 18) being exposed (fig. 1) wherein each of said fill openings in each of said storage reservoirs is configured to capture precipitation thereby facilitating each of said storage reservoirs to be filled with the precipitation (par. 18) each of said storage reservoirs has a lower wall (fig. 1 – interpreted to be the unlabeled wall forming the base), an upper wall (120) and an exterior wall (fig. 1 – interpreted to be the vertical wall forming the side, including fascia 210) extending upwardly from said upper wall (fig. 4A), said exterior wall having a top edge (fig. 4A), said upper wall having a perimeter edge (220 and the adjacent horizontal portion of 120) being bonded to an interior surface of said exterior wall at a point being spaced downwardly from said top edge (fig. 4A) wherein said upper wall is configured to collect the precipitation (fig. 4A); and said upper wall slopes upwardly from said perimeter edge such that said upper wall forms a pyramid (fig. 1), wherein said upper wall is configured to direct the precipitation toward said perimeter edge (fig. 1, 4A), wherein each of said fill openings associated with a respective one of said storage reservoirs extends through said upper wall associated with said respective storage reservoir (par. 18), each of said plurality of fill openings associated with said respective storage reservoir extending from said perimeter edge of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir toward an apex of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir (fig. 4A), said plurality of fill openings being spaced apart from each other (fig. 4A – inherent, or they would all form a single opening) and being distributed around said perimeter edge of said upper wall (figs. 1, 2).
It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the wildfire suppression assembly of Whaling to further include the water storage reservoir configured with the recited structural elements, as taught by Delost, since this was storage reservoir configured to provide a free source of renewable water, which the wildfire suppression assembly could then use for firefighting. Further, including a plurality of these storage reservoirs would have been obvious since it would provide a greater volume of water to be used for firefighting.
Whaling in view of Delost still does not disclose wherein each of said plurality of fill openings associated with said respective storage reservoir extending from abutting said perimeter edge of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir toward an apex of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir.
De Groff teaches a water storage reservoir comprising a plurality of fill openings (16), wherein each of said plurality of fill openings extends from abutting a perimeter edge (19) of said upper wall of the storage reservoir toward an apex of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir (col. 1, ln. 46-47; fig. 1).
It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the wildfire suppression assembly of Whaling in view of Delost to arrange the plurality of fill openings associated with said respective storage reservoir extending from abutting said perimeter edge of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir toward an apex of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir, as taught by De Groff. Such an arrangement would provide the fill openings at the lowest point of the upper wall and ensure that all the collected rainwater drains through the fill openings and into the reservoir.
Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff further does not disclose that said upper wall curves upwardly from said perimeter edge such that said upper wall forms a dome.
Nevertheless, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to comprise an upper wall that curves upwardly from said perimeter edge such that said upper wall forms a dome, since it has been held that a change in the shape of the element involves only routine skill in the art. In re Dailey, 149 USPQ 47 (CCPA 1966). Both a pyramid and dome would provide a pitched roof so that rain water will flow outwardly from the peak toward the peripheral openings.
Regarding claim 4, Whaling in view of Delost and De Graff discloses the assembly described regarding claim 1, and Delost further teaches wherein each of said storage reservoirs has an exhaust port (170) extending through said exterior wall at a point being located adjacent to said lower wall (fig. 3 – pipe extends from the exterior wall in a location in which there are no structures arranged between it and the lower wall).
Regarding claim 6, Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff discloses the assembly described regarding claim 4, and further comprising: a plurality of exhaust conduits (Whaling, fig. 3 – conduit 110 splits into two other conduits), each of said exhaust conduits having a primary end being fluidly coupled to said exhaust port in said exterior wall of a respective one of said storage reservoirs wherein each of said plurality of exhaust conduits is configured to receive the water in said respective storage reservoirs (Whaling, par. 26); and a manifold having a plurality of inlets and an outlet (fig. 3 – 110 in interpreted to be a manifold since it has two inlets and just one outlet), a secondary end of each of said plurality of exhaust conduits being fluidly coupled to a respective one of said plurality of inlets of said manifold wherein said manifold is configured to receive the water from said plurality of exhaust conduits (fig. 3).
Claims 2 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff, and further in view of Voss (US 2005/0178565).
Regarding claim 2, Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff discloses the assembly described regarding claim 1, and further wherein said aircraft has a filling port being integrated into an outer wall of said aircraft (fig. 3), said filling port being in fluid communication with said water reservoir (fig. 3). But, Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff does not disclose wherein said spraying unit including a central shaft extending downwardly from a bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft, said spraying unit including a plurality of vanes radiating outwardly from a central shaft such that said vanes are spaced from said bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft.
Voss teaches an aircraft wildfire suppression assembly (10, see fig. 2) comprising a spraying unit (62, see fig. 5) including a central shaft (20) extending downwardly from a bottom side of an outer wall of said aircraft (fig. 2), said spraying unit including a plurality of vanes (60) radiating outwardly from the central shaft such that said vanes are spaced from said bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft (fig. 5).
It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the wildfire suppression assembly of Whaling in view of Delost to use the spraying unit including a plurality of vanes radiating outwardly from a central shaft such that said vanes are spaced from said bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft of Voss. Such a spraying unit structure was known to provide a uniform distribution of the fire suppressant in a 360° pattern (Voss, par. 34).
Regarding claim 3, Whaling in view of Delost, De Groff, and Voss discloses the assembly described regarding claim 2, and, as indicated in the annotated figure below, further wherein: said primary reservoir (202, see par. 50, fig. 8) has a top wall, a bottom wall and an outer wall extending upwardly from said bottom wall, said outer wall curving outwardly between said top wall and said bottom wall, each of said top wall and said bottom wall lying on a plane being oriented parallel with each other, said primary reservoir having an outlet port (224) being integrated into said outer wall at a point being positioned closer to said bottom wall than said top wall (fig. 8), said primary reservoir having an inlet port (connection with 206) being integrated into said outer wall at a point being located closer to said top wall than said bottom wall (fig. 8), said outlet port being positioned on an opposing side of said outer wall with respect to said inlet port (fig. 8); and said fill hose has a first end being fluidly attached to said outlet port in said outer wall of said primary reservoir (fig. 3 – when the first end of the fill hose 103 is placed in the primary reservoir it is “fluidly attached” to the outlet port), said fill hose having a second end being fluidly attachable to said filling port in said outer wall of said aircraft (fig. 3).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff, and further in view of Bisson (US 5,135,055).
Regarding claim 7, Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff discloses the assembly described regarding claim 6, and, as indicated in the annotated figure, further wherein: said primary reservoir has an outer wall, said primary reservoir having an inlet port being fluidly integrated into said outer wall; said assembly includes an intake pipe (206) having a first end being fluidly coupled to said outlet of said manifold wherein said intake pipe is configured to receive the water from said manifold (figs. 3, 8),
Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff does not disclose that said assembly includes a pump having an intake and an exhaust, said pump having a direction of flow moving from said intake toward said exhaust when said pump is turned on; a second end of said intake pipe being fluidly coupled to said intake of said pump wherein said pump is configured to urge the water outwardly through said exhaust of said pump when said pump is turned on; and said assembly includes a supply pipe having a first end being fluidly coupled to said exhaust of said pump wherein said supply pipe is configured to receive the water from said pump, said supply pipe having a second end being fluidly coupled to inlet port in said outer wall of said primary reservoir wherein said pump is configured to pump the water into said primary reservoir.
Bisson teaches a wildfire suppression system (fig. 1) comprising a pump (21) having an intake and an exhaust (these are inherent elements of all pumps), said pump having a direction of flow moving from said intake toward said exhaust when said pump is turned on (this is an inherent property of all pumps); an intake pipe (fig. 1 – conduit between 22 and 23) being fluidly coupled to said intake of said pump (fig. 1), wherein said pump is configured to urge the water outwardly through said exhaust of said pump when said pump is turned on; and said assembly includes a supply pipe (fig. 1 – the conduit between 21 and 24) having a first end being fluidly coupled to said exhaust of said pump wherein said supply pipe is configured to receive the water from said pump (fig. 1), said supply pipe having a second end (24) being fluidly coupled to inlet port in said outer wall of said primary reservoir wherein said pump is configured to pump the water into said primary reservoir.
It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the assembly of Waling in view of Delost and De Groff to further include a pump arranged between the storage reservoirs and the primary reservoir, as taught by Bisson, since this would provide a means for moving water from the storage reservoirs into the primary reservoir. Such a modification would result in the pump being arranged as recited.
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Annotated Figure 8 of Whaling for Claims 3 and 7
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff, and further in view of Voss and Bisson.
Regarding claim 8, Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff discloses the wildfire suppression assembly described above regarding claims 1 and 3-6 for facilitating an aircraft to be filled with rainwater thereby facilitating the aircraft to subsequently release the rainwater onto a wildfire, said assembly comprising:
an aircraft having a water reservoir integrated into said aircraft wherein said water reservoir is configured to contain water, said aircraft having a spraying unit being attached to said aircraft, said spraying unit being in fluid communication with said water reservoir wherein said spraying unit is configured to spray the water onto a wildfire over which said aircraft is flying for suppressing the wildfire;
a primary reservoir being configured to be filled with water, said primary reservoir having a top wall, a bottom wall and an outer wall extending between said top wall and said bottom wall, said outer wall curving outwardly between said top wall and said bottom wall, each of said top wall and said bottom wall lying on a plane being oriented parallel with each other, said primary reservoir having an outlet port being integrated into said outer wall at a point being positioned closer to said bottom wall than said top wall, said primary reservoir having an inlet port being integrated into said outer wall at a point being located closer to said top wall than said bottom wall, said outlet port being positioned on an opposing side of said outer wall with respect to said inlet port;
a fill hose being fluidly attachable between said primary reservoir and said water reservoir in said aircraft wherein said fill hose is configured to fill said water reservoir with the water stored in said primary reservoir, said fill hose having a first end being fluidly attached to said outlet port in said outer wall of said primary reservoir, said fill hose having a second end being fluidly attachable to said filling port in said outer wall of said aircraft;
a plurality of storage reservoirs, each of said storage reservoirs having a plurality of fill openings being exposed wherein each of said fill openings in each of said storage reservoirs is configured to capture precipitation thereby facilitating each of said storage reservoirs to be filled with the precipitation, each of said plurality of storage reservoirs being in fluid communication with said primary reservoir wherein each of said plurality of storage reservoirs is configured to supply said primary reservoir with the water, each of said storage reservoirs having a lower wall, an upper wall and an exterior wall extending upwardly from said upper wall, said upper wall having a top edge, said upper wall having a perimeter edge being bonded to an interior surface of said exterior wall at a point being spaced downwardly from said top edge wherein said upper wall is configured to collect the precipitation, said upper wall curving upwardly from said perimeter edge such that said upper wall forms a dome wherein said upper wall is configured to direct the precipitation toward said perimeter edge, each of said fill openings associated with a respective one of said storage reservoirs extending through said upper wall associated with said respective storage reservoir, each of said plurality of fill openings associated with said respective storage reservoir extending from abutting said perimeter edge of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir toward an apex of said upper wall of said respective storage reservoir, said plurality of fill openings being spaced apart from each other and being distributed around said perimeter edge of said upper wall, each of said storage reservoirs having an exhaust port extending through said exterior wall at a point being located adjacent to said lower wall;
a plurality of exhaust conduits, each of said exhaust conduits having a primary end being fluidly coupled to said exhaust port in said exterior wall of a respective one of said storage reservoirs wherein each of said plurality of exhaust conduits is configured to receive the water in said respective storage reservoirs;
a manifold having a plurality of inlets and an outlet, a secondary end of each of said plurality of exhaust conduits being fluidly coupled to a respective one of said plurality of inlets of said manifold wherein said manifold is configured to receive the water from said plurality of exhaust conduits;
Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff, and further in view of Voss discloses said aircraft described regarding claim 2 having a filling port being integrated into an outer wall of said aircraft, said filling port being in fluid communication with said water reservoir, said spraying unit including a central shaft extending downwardly from a bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft, said spraying unit including a plurality of vanes radiating outwardly from a central shaft such that said vanes are spaced from said bottom side of said outer wall of said aircraft.
Whaling in view of Delost and De Groff, and further in view of Bisson discloses said aircraft described regarding claim 7 having a pump having an intake and an exhaust, said pump having a direction of flow moving from said intake toward said exhaust when said pump is turned on; an intake pipe having a first end being fluidly coupled to said outlet of said manifold wherein said intake pipe is configured to receive the water from said manifold, a second end of said intake pipe being fluidly coupled to said intake of said pump wherein said pump is configured to urge the water outwardly through said exhaust of said pump when said pump is turned on; and a supply pipe having a first end being fluidly coupled to said exhaust of said pump wherein said supply pipe is configured to receive the water from said pump, said supply pipe having a second end being fluidly coupled to inlet port in said outer wall of said primary reservoir wherein said pump is configured to pump the water into said primary reservoir.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CODY J LIEUWEN whose telephone number is (571)272-4477. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 8-5, Friday varies.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arthur Hall can be reached at (571) 270-1814. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CODY J LIEUWEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3752