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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on November 19, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s amendment filed on November 19, 2025.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 12 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 21 is 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.
Claim 21 recites the limitation "the position plate" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It appears that the limitation is referred to “the loading surface” in claim 1.
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, 2, and 4-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schulze et al. (US 2019/0041414 A1) in view of Bozeman et al. (US 3,667,425)
With regard to claims 1 and 12, Schulze discloses an injector testing device (Fig. 2), comprising: a gas supply; an injection needle blowoff device (Fig. 2), comprising: a loading surface (see annotated figure below) having a first side configured to contact an injector (Fig. 2) and having a second side opposite the first side; an adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) adjacent to the second side of the loading surface (see annotated figure below), the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) comprising: a gas inlet (Fig. 2) configured to be coupled to the gas supply; and a gas outlet (Fig. 2) configured to direct gas from the gas inlet towards a location of a needle of the injector (2).
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Schulze does not explicitly disclose that the gas outlet being adjustable in a direction along the second side of the loading surface to adjust a distance from the second side of the loading surface at which the gas outlet blows on the nozzle.
Bozeman teaches a blowoff apparatus comprising a gas outlet, wherein the gas outlet (Fig. 1) configured to direct gas from an gas inlet (23) towards a location of an object (10), the gas outlet (17) being adjustable in a direction along a second side of a loading surface (11/12) to adjust a distance from the second side of the loading surface at which the gas outlet blows on the object (Col. 3 lines 5-7).
It is noted by the Examiner that the prior art to Bozeman and the instant invention are directed to blowing gas out of nozzles to an object. In accordance with MPEP 2141.01(1), a reference is analogous art to the claimed invention if: (1) the reference is from the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention (even if it addresses a different problem); or (2) the reference is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor (even if it is not in the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention). In this instant case, the prior art to Bozeman is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the injection needle blowoff apparatus of Schulze, by incorporating the adjustable mechanism on the nozzles as taught by Bozeman, doing it would allow adjustment of the distances and angle of the nozzles from the opposite side of the needle to achieve various impingement of the gas stream against the needle (Col. 1 lines 35-37).
With regard to claim 2, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that the loading surface comprises a positioning plate having an aperture (see annotated figure above), extending from a first side of the positioning plate to a second side of the positioning plate (see annotated figure above), wherein the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) is configured to have an adjustable distance from the aperture along a plane of the second side of the loading surface (taught by Bozeman).
With regard to claim 4, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that the adjustable blowoff nozzle is configured to have an adjustable distance from a tip of the needle in a direction parallel to the needle (movement of the needle 2).
With regard to claims 5 and 6, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that the loading surface comprises a positioning plate having an aperture (see Fig. 2), extending from a first side of the positioning plate to a second side of the positioning plate (see annotated figure above), wherein the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) is positioned on a first side of the aperture (left side), and further comprising a second adjustable blowoff nozzle positioned on a second side of the aperture (right side).
With regard to claim 7, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 6 above. Schulze further discloses that the second adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) comprises: a second gas inlet configured to be coupled to the gas supply; and a second gas outlet configured to direct the gas towards the location of the needle (2), the second gas outlet being adjustable to blow on the needle within the range of distances (Fig. 2).
With regard to claim 8, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 5 above. Schulze further discloses that the aperture has at least one dimension smaller than a corresponding dimension of a body of the injector (Fig. 2 shows the aperture is smaller than the holder 9 of the injector).
With regard to claim 9, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 6 above. Schulze further discloses that the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) is configured to have an adjustable angle of the gas outlet (Par. 0078).
With regard to claim 10, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) comprises a body defining a channel (tapering portion of 7 as shown in Fig. 2) between the gas inlet and the gas outlet, the channel configured to increase at least one of a flow speed of the gas or a pressure of the gas between the gas inlet and the gas outlet (tapering portion of 7 increases flow speed).
With regard to claim 11, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that control circuitry configured to automatically control a blowoff actuator to adjust a location of the blowoff nozzle (the control unit controls movement of the needle 2 in resulting of adjusting location of the blowoff nozzle in relationship to the needle).
With regard to claim 13, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 12 above. Schulze further discloses that an injector positioner (9) configured to position the injector, wherein the control circuitry (central control unit) is configured to control the injector positioner to position the injector (movement of the needle 2).
With regard to claim 14, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 13 above. Schulze further discloses that the injector positioner (9) is configured to move a body of the injector into contact with the loading surface (Fig. 2).
With regard to claim 15, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 12 above. Schulze further discloses that an injector actuator configured to actuate the injector to expel contents of the injector via the needle while the needle of the injector is adjacent the adjustable blowoff nozzle, wherein the control circuitry is configured to control the injector actuator to actuate the injector (Par. 0074).
With regard to claim 16, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 15 above. Schulze further discloses that the injector actuator is configured to actuate the injector when the body of the injector is in contact with the loading surface (Par. 0074).
With regard to claim 17, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 15 above. Schulze further discloses that a collection container (lower section of the device shown in Fig. 2) configured to collect the contents expelled from the injector.
With regard to claim 18, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 11 above. Schulze further discloses that the loading surface comprises a positioning plate having an aperture (see annotated figure above), extending from a first side of the positioning plate to a second side of the positioning plate (see annotated figure above), and wherein the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) is configured to have an adjustable distance from the aperture along a plane of the second side of the positioning plate (Par. 0078), the gas outlet is configured to blow at an angle away from the second side of the positioning plate (Fig. 2), and the gas outlet is configured to blow on the needle at the location based on the distance between the adjustable blowoff nozzle and the distance from the aperture in a direction parallel to the second side of the positioning plate (Par. 0078).
With regard to claim 19, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 11 above. Schulze further discloses that a second adjustable blowoff nozzle configured to direct gas towards the needle (Fig. 2).
With regard to claim 20, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 11 above. Schulze does not disclose that the gas supply comprises a compressed gas source, a pneumatic pump, or a blower.
Bozeman further teaches that a blower as a gas supply (23 and Col. 2 line 62).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Schulze, by incorporating the blower as the gas supply as taught by Bozeman, doing it would provide a consistent and sufficient air pressure to the nozzles.
With regard to claim 21, the device of Schulze as modified by Bozeman discloses the invention as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1 above. Schulze further discloses that the adjustable blowoff nozzle (7) is attached to the second side of the position plate (Fig. 2 shows nozzle and the loading surface are connected together).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOEL ZHOU whose telephone number is (571)270-1163. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ARTHUR HALL can be reached at 5712701814. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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JOEL . ZHOU
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3752
/QINGZHANG ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3752