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 .
Claims 1-20 are currently pending. Claims 13-17 and 19-20 are allowed. Claims 1-12 and 18 are rejected.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on March 24, 2023 and July 24, 2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-12 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Claim 1, Lines 1-2 recite “An electric heating temperature control apparatus, using an AC power supply and connected with an electric heating wire”. It is unclear what structure the preamble of the claim is with respect to. Does it require just the electric heating temperature control apparatus, or a combination of the apparatus with the power supply and/or electric heating wire? Applicant may clarify this by revising to use the language “configured to” or similar terminology if it is just the apparatus, or the language “combination”/”system” or similar terminology if the combination is required. Please note that however Claim 1 is amended, additional changes would be required.
If the intention of the preamble is to recite just the apparatus, there would be indefiniteness issues because portions of Claim 1 and the claims that depend upon it appear to positively require structure of the electric heating wire. This leads to a question of if the electric heating wire is required structure of the apparatus or not.
If the intention of the preamble is to recite the combination, dependent Claims 2-12 would also need their preambles amended for proper dependency. There would also be an issue regarding some claims being substantial duplicates with Claims 13-18 and 20.
Regarding Claims 6 and 18, Lines 6 and 8 of Claim 6 and Lines 6 and 8 of Claim 18 refer to the “second resistance”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claims, since it has not been previously recited. It is also unclear what resistance the claims refer to. It is believed the reference to the “second resistance” may have been intended to recite “second resistor”.
Claims 2-5 and 7-12 are subsequently rejected for their dependencies upon a previously rejected claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 and 18, as far as they are definite and understood, would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 13-17 and 19-20 are allowed.
Regarding Claim 1, Figure 7 and paragraphs [0060-0067] of Kim et al. (US 2010/0193503 A1), hereinafter Kim, teaches an electric heating temperature control apparatus, using an AC power supply (see paragraph [0072]) and connected with an electric heating wire (see whole wire in Figure 1, includes Heating wire), the electric heating wire comprising a temperature sensing conductor (Sensing wire), an insulating layer (see layer between Heating wire and Sensing wire) and a heating conductor (Heating wire), the temperature sensing conductor (Sensing wire) being used for sensing a temperature of the heating conductor (Heating wire), the insulating layer being used for insulation between the heating conductor (Heating wire) and the temperature sensing conductor (Sensing wire), and the insulating layer being used for changing its resistance or resulting in a short circuit between the temperature sensing conductor (Sensing wire) and the heating conductor (Heating wire) when a local or overall temperature of the heating conductor changes (Heating wire) (see paragraph [0064]), and the heating conductor (Heating wire) being used for heating; wherein the electric heating temperature control apparatus comprises a temperature detecting circuit, a heating switching circuit and a temperature parameter setting circuit (VRa); the temperature detecting circuit comprises a temperature sensing voltage dividing and sampling unit, an AC voltage dividing and sampling unit and a differential signal processing unit (Ua); a first terminal (left end) of the temperature sensing voltage dividing and sampling unit is connected to a second terminal (right end) of the temperature sensing conductor (Sensing wire), a second terminal (see terminal at Ca adjacent the ground) of the temperature sensing voltage dividing and sampling unit is grounded, an output terminal (right end) of the temperature sensing voltage dividing and sampling unit is connected to the differential signal processing unit (Ua), and the temperature sensing voltage dividing and sampling unit is used for converting a signal flowing through the temperature sensing conductor into a temperature voltage signal and output it to the differential signal processing unit (Ua); a first terminal (top end) of the AC voltage dividing and sampling unit is connected to the live wire of the AC power supply, a second terminal (see bottom end adjacent ground) of the AC voltage dividing and sampling unit is grounded, an output terminal (right end) of the AC voltage dividing and sampling unit is connected to the differential signal processing unit (Ua), and the AC voltage dividing and sampling unit is used for converting an input signal of the AC power supply into a reference voltage signal and output it to the differential signal processing unit (Ua); the differential signal processing unit is used for performing a differential comparison between the temperature voltage signal (- end) and the reference voltage signal (+ end) and outputting a stop-heating signal or a heating signal according to the differential comparison between the temperature voltage signal and the reference voltage signal; the heating switching circuit (SCRa) is connected to the temperature detecting circuit and to the heating conductor (Heating wire), and is used for turning off a power supply circuit of the heating conductor (Heating wire) when receiving the stop-heating signal, and turning on the power supply circuit of the heating conductor (Heating wire) when receiving the heating signal, so as to control the heating conductor (Heating wire) to heat or to stop heating; and the temperature parameter setting circuit (VRa) is connected to the temperature detecting circuit (via Ua) for setting a temperature parameter (see paragraphs [0063-0066]). See annotated Figure 7 below. Note the multiple resistors with a connection to ground satisfies the interpretation of “voltage dividing”.
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Kim does not expressly teach the combination with a first terminal of the temperature sensing conductor is connected to a live wire of the AC power supply. Rather, in the circuit of Kim, the temperature sensing conductor (sensing wire) receives voltage from the heating conductor across the insulating layer. Meanwhile, the sensing conductor of the instant invention receives power from the AC power supply as seen by conductor (210) in Figure 3 of the instant application. Thus, the sampling unit is measuring the voltage change due to the live wire crossing through the conductor and a changing resistance (S1) compared to Kim. Paragraphs [0004-0005] of the Specification filed March 24, 2023 note the overall circuit solves the problem of local overheating by providing precise temperature detections. Please note that this interpretation requires incorporation of aspects of the combination discussed in the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) section.
Zhou (US 2023/0036804 A1) also teaches an electric heating temperature control apparatus. Where Zhou differs, as shown in Figure 4, is that the differential signal processing unit (120) uses a reverse input terminal for receiving of a reference voltage [0054-0056]. As such, the AC voltage dividing and sampling unit of Zhou is different than that of the claimed invention.
Claim 13 is of similar scope to Claim 1 and is considered allowable for the same reasons set forth above.
Claims 2-12 and 14-20 subsequently depend upon Claims 1 and 13, respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELTON K WONG whose telephone number is (408)918-7626. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00AM - 5:00PM PST.
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/ELTON K WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745