DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Upon further consideration, the restriction requirement dated 8/6/25 is hereby withdrawn and all present claims are fully examined for patentability.
Claim Objections
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informalities: “wherein the sump cover configured” should be “wherein the sump cover is configured”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication 20250027261 by Kang et al.
As to claim 1, Kang discloses a clothes care apparatus comprising a main body including a care room 220 to accommodate clothes, and a machine room 300 below the care room and partitioned from the care room (fig. 3); a heat exchanger (evaporator 341) inside the machine room (fig. 15); a water collecting duct 321 to guide water condensed in the heat exchanger and discharged from the care room (fig. 9); and a sump 326 in the water collecting duct to store water guided by the duct (fig. 9).
As to claim 2, Kang discloses that the water collecting duct 321 is below the heat exchanger and is configured to support the heat exchanger 341 (fig. 15).
As to claim 3, Kang discloses that the water collecting duct is configured to guide water discharged from the care room directly to the sump and guide water condensed in the heat exchanger directly to the sump (fig. 15, para. 193, note that water discharged from the care room through base cover 360 into water collecting duct 321 would flow directly into the sump 326).
As to claim 4, Kang discloses that the water collecting duct 321 comprises an inclined surface inclined downward toward the sump 326 to guide water to the sump (fig. 11).
As to claim 5, Kang discloses that the sump 326 is integrated into the water collecting duct 321 (fig. 9).
As to claim 6, Kang discloses that the sump 326 protrudes from a bottom surface of the water collecting duct 321 toward a bottom of the machine room (fig. 10).
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 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 20250027261 by Kang et al. in view of KR20100099431A by Moon et al. and U.S. Patent Application Publication 20160177490 by Park et al.
As to claims 7 and 8, Kang teaches that its sump outlet may direct water to a drain container (para. 164) but is silent as to a means to do so and how such means is operated. However, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to have a floating magnet in the sump for the purpose of facilitating water transfer to the drain container. Moon teaches a clothes care apparatus with a sump 29 that collects water from a heat exchanger and a care room (para. 70), but due to the arrangement of a drain container 95 above the heat exchanger so that it is in the machine room and detachable, a pump is used to pump water from the sump 29 to the drain container 95 (paras. 74-75). Moon teaches that the sump may include a water level sensor to control the drain pump (para. 73) but does not teach any particular structure of such sensor. However, Park teaches a clothes care apparatus using a floating magnet 102 in a container that moves up and down according to a water level and a sensor 104 outside the container to sense the magnet (fig. 7, paras. 69-70).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to configure the apparatus of Kang with a floating magnet in the sump and a sensor outside the sump in order to detect a water level in the sump to activate a pump when necessary to transfer water to its drain container 302. Moon teaches a similar structural arrangement as Kang and that a pump and sensor are used to transfer the water, and Park teaches a particular embodiment of a floating magnet and sensor that demonstrates its known and established use in a clothes care apparatus for the purpose of detecting a water level.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious at its effective filing date.
As to claim 9, Kang teaches a drain container 302 detachably coupled to the main body to receive water stored in the sump (fig. 3). As discussed above, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to have a drain pump in view of the teachings of Moon (paras. 74-75).
As to claim 10, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious that the drain pump would transfer the water when an upward movement of the magnet is sensed. Park teaches that a sensed upward movement of a floating magnet indicates that a container is full (paras. 107-108), and thus one of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that a signal indicating that the sump is full would initiate a transfer of water from the sump to the drain container.
Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 20250027261 by Kang et al. in view of KR20100099431A by Moon et al. and U.S. Patent Application Publication 20160177490 by Park et al. as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 20100083532 by Klug et al.
As to claims 11 and 12, Kang does not teach a filter to filter water stored in the sump and a filter accommodating bracket coupled to the water collecting duct to be positioned in the sump, the bracket having a filter accommodating groove to accommodate the filter and positioned to correspond to a drain hole that discharges the water in the sump. However, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to have a filter and a corresponding filter bracket. Klug teaches a laundry treating apparatus having a condensate reservoir 22 and a pump 16 to pump water from the reservoir, the reservoir having a filter 26 in which water passes as it is delivered to the pump (fig. 1, para. 39). One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to have a filter at the drain hole (at drain pipe 3263) of Kang (fig. 9) for its known and established purpose of filtering condensed water before the water enters a pump, as evidenced by the teachings of Klug. One of ordinary skill in the art would have further recognized as obvious to provide a bracket coupled to the water collecting duct inside the sump, the bracket having a groove to accommodate the filter. A bracket or the like would have been necessary in order to secure a filter to the drain hole, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have employed routine skill to provide a bracket with a groove to accommodate the filter. Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious at its effective filing date.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: As to claim 13, the prior art of record does not teach a filter accommodating bracket with a stopped above a floating magnet to limit an upward movement range of the magnet. Nothing in the prior art of record suggests a bracket having the structure and function of both accommodating a filter and a stopper for a floating magnet that is used to sense a water level within a sump. As to claim 14, the prior art of record does not teach a filter accommodating bracket that also has a sump cover to cover an upper side of the sump, and nothing in the prior art of record suggests a filter bracket that also has a portion that covers a sump.
Conclusion
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/SPENCER E. BELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711