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 .
Notice of Appeal
This Non-Final Office Action is mailed in response to Applicant’s Notice of Appeal and Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Request filed 12/29/2025. The previous prior art rejections are withdrawn and new rejections under 35 USC 102 are set forth below. The claim objection and rejection under 35 USC 112 are maintained. Claims 3-7 are indicated as containing allowable subject matter. Claims 1-9 and 11-13 remain pending and are examined herein.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments in the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Request with respect to the prior art rejections 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 Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because it recites “a preheating member arranged in the liquid storage cavity, the preheating member being arranged in the liquid storage cavity”, which is redundant.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 13 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 13 is unclear for two reasons. First, “when the vent tube is punched to form the liquid inlet hole” is a method step rather than a structural limitation. Second, “wherein the liquid pass hole is formed at a position corresponding to the preheating member” does not make sense because claim 1 already recites that the liquid pass hole is provided in the preheating member. The claim language is totally unclear on its face. The claim language is found in the specification at [0044-46] (amended claim 1 at [0044-45] and new claim 13 at [0046]). The language repeated in the specification at [0046] is similarly unclear but one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize from the disclosure and Fig. 3 that the liquid pass hole 163 is a gap between the preheating member 16 and vent tube 13, and the liquid pass hole 163 is in communication with the liquid inlet hole 130 punched in the vent tube 13. For purposes of this office action and in view of the specification at [0046] and Fig. 3, claim 13 is interpreted as reciting “The vaporizer of claim 1, wherein the liquid pass hole is in fluidic communication with the liquid inlet hole”. The Examiner recommends that the Applicant amend the claim and specification to clarify the structural relationship and amend the claim to place structural limitations (not manufacturing steps) on the claim elements. The interpreted language would be an acceptable clarification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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 1-2, 8-9, and 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Qiu (US 2020/0120988 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Qiu is directed to an electronic cigarette and method for pre-heating the electronic cigarette (Title). The electronic cigarette includes:
a liquid storage assembly 3 (“liquid storage assembly”) having a liquid storage chamber 35 (“liquid storage cavity”) [0100] and a tobacco liquid intake opening 262 (“liquid inlet hole”) ([0101-0102], Fig. 4);
an atomizing head 25 (“heating assembly”) which is part of an atomizing assembly 2 inserted in the liquid storage assembly 3 and in communication with the liquid storage chamber 35 via the tobacco liquid intake opening 262 ([0100-0102], Fig. 4);
a tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 (“preheating member”) arranged in the liquid storage chamber 35 adjacent to the tobacco liquid intake opening 262 ([0100, 0102], Fig. 4);
the liquid storage chamber 35 has an outer supporting bracket 32 (“vaporization tube”) and a ventilation tube 23 (“vent tube”) ([0101, 0103], Fig. 4);
the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 is annular and arranged around the ventilation tube 23, is spaced apart from the ventilation tube 23, and has a passageway (“liquid pass hole”) allowing liquid to flow past and enter the tobacco liquid intake opening 262, all of which is shown in Fig. 4
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Regarding claim 2:
the liquid storage chamber 35 is located between the bracket 32 and ventilation tube 23, as shown in Fig. 4;
The tobacco liquid intake opening 262 is located on a lower end of an atomizing head assembly base 26 connected to the ventilation tube 23 ([0101], Fig. 4), which reads on “wherein a tube wall of the vent tube is provided with the liquid inlet hole”;
The atomizing head 25 is arranged in the ventilation tube 23 as shown in Fig. 4;
The tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 is located between the bracket 32 and the ventilation tube 23.
Regarding claim 8, the electronic cigarette includes an atomizing base 31 (“connecting base”) which connects a heating member 251 of the atomizing head 25 and the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 to a battery or external power source (“main unit”) ([0102], Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 9, the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 is located on the atomizing base 31 ([0102], Fig. 4). The ventilation tube 23 is fixedly connected to a housing 253 of the atomizing head 25 ([0102], Fig. 4), which reads on “wherein the vent tube is thermally connected to the heating assembly”.
Regarding claim 11, the electronic cigarette includes the components set forth above in the discussion of claim 1, which together form the claimed “vaporizer”. The electronic cigarette further includes a battery and a main controller (together a “main unit”) for energizing and controlling the electronic cigarette [0006].
Regarding claim 12, the tobacco liquid intake opening 262 is “coaxially aligned” with the passageway adjacent to the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 as shown in Fig. 4, shown particularly by the dashed lines indicating the liquid flow direction.
Regarding claim 13, the tobacco liquid intake opening 262 is in fluidic communication with the passageway adjacent to the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 as shown in Fig. 4, shown particularly by the dashed lines indicating the liquid flow direction, which reads on “wherein the liquid pass hole is in fluidic communication with the liquid inlet hole” (see rejection of claim 13 under 35 USC 112(b) above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 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:
Qiu’s tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 is physically separated from the ventilation tube 23 and housing 253 as shown in Fig. 4, and thus Qiu fails to disclose “wherein the preheating member is thermally connected to the vent tube” per claim 3. Qiu discloses that in an alternative embodiment, the tobacco liquid auxiliary heating member 312 can be positioned in the atomizing chamber 254 or in other positions within the atomizing head 25 adjacent to the tobacco liquid intake opening 262 [0102], but any such positioning would not be “annular and arranged around the vent tube” and “spaced apart from the vent tube” per claim 1. Thus, the prior art of record fails to teach or suggest all the limitations of claim 3. Claims 4-7 similarly contain allowable subject matter at least due to their dependency on claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL PATRICK MULLEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2373. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-7 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael H. Wilson can be reached at (571) 270-3882. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL PATRICK MULLEN/Examiner, Art Unit 1747
/Michael H. Wilson/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1747