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 .
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 1-9 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.
Examiner notes that numbering was added in to aid with distinguishing features based on drawings, numbers are not present in the claims.
Claim 1 recites “N air inlet openings (35) and N air outlet openings (36)
running through the anode surface and the cathode surface of the bipolar plate” in lines 51-52 last paragraph of pg. 21. It is unclear if running through indicates that there is a through hole formed in the bipolar plate 9 between the anode surface and cathode surface or another structure. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 in lines 58-59, pg. 22 first paragraph recites “a primary flow channel communicating the air inlet with the air outlet is inscribed between the air inlet opening and the air outlet opening”. It is unclear if this is referring the ““N air inlet openings and N air outlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 lines 60-61, pg. 22 first paragraph recites “a width of the primary flow channel progressively decreases from the air inlet to the air outlet”. It is unclear if this is referring the ““N air inlet openings and N air outlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 lines 70-74, pg. 22 first paragraph recites “air inlet opening” and “air outlet opening” and it is unclear if this is referring the ““N air inlet openings and N air outlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 line 81, pg. 23 first paragraph recites “impeller provides additional power to the air”. It is unclear how an impeller can provide additional power to air. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 line 98, pg. 23 third paragraph recites “when an amount of the generated cathode water is small, the cathode water gathers at a bottom of the cathode flow channel network and forms a liquid water membrane at the bottom, the water membrane forms a liquid-gas mixed phase with the air”. It is unclear which structure forms the membrane part since a membrane requires a solid structure. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 line 124, pg. 24 second paragraph recites “the hydrogen enters the anode surface through the air inlet opening” and it is unclear if this is referring the “N air inlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 line 131-132, pg. 24 second paragraph recites “is transferred to an anode surface of a next cell through the air outlet opening” and it is unclear if this is referring the “N air outlet openings in lines 51-52”. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 1 recites in line 137, pg. 25 “the main stream channel”. This term lacks antecedent basis. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 2 recites “a fixing plate” in line 2. It is unclear if this is related to “a front fixing plate” or “a rear fixing plate” in line 2 or claim 1, or is another fixing plate. If this is the front fixing plate as recited in claim 1 please change every instance of fixing plate to the front fixing plate. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 8 in lines 2-4 recites multiple instances “the air inlet opening” and “air outlet opening”. It is unclear if this is referring the “N air inlet openings and N air outlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 9 line 52, pg. 28 second paragraph recites “the hydrogen enters the anode surface through the air inlet opening” and it is unclear if this is referring the “N air inlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 9 line 59-60, pg. 28 second paragraph recites “is transferred to an anode surface of a next cell through the air outlet opening” and it is unclear if this is referring the “N air outlet openings” in lines 51-52. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Claim 9 recites in line 65, pg. 28 second paragraph “the main stream channel”. This term lacks antecedent basis. Further clarification and appropriate correction required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 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.
The closest prior art of record includes Leger (US 20150180079 A1) and Zhao (CN 113451600 A, Machine Translation).
Leger discloses a fuel cell (see Figs. 1-17 [0060]-[0063]) comprising an air inlet (see Fig. 3, oxidant in [0069]), a front fixing plate (see Fig. 2, plates attached at either end of sealing volute ), a stack (120, see Fig. 1[0060]-[0063]), a motor ([0060]), a sealing volute (110, see Fig. 1[0060]-[0063]), an impeller (130, see Fig. 1[0060]-[0063]), a rear fixing plate (1460, [0098] and see Fig. 2, plates attached at either end of sealing volute), and an air outlet (See Fig. 3, oxidant out); wherein the sealing volute (See Fig. 1) is a cylindrical structure having no upper bottom but having a lower bottom; the air outlet (180, see Fig. 2a, [0061]) is arranged in a side wall of the sealing volute along a direction parallel to an axis of the sealing volute; the impeller (see Fig. 1 130) is coaxially arranged inside the sealing volute, the stack in a circular columnar structure (see Figs. 4 and 5). Leger discloses cathode (Figs. 7-10 [0077]-[0084]) with various microchannel configurations and an anode surface (Fig. 11 [0086]) which also has a microchannel configuration.
Zhao discloses an air-cooled fuel cell module (Abstract, Figs. 1 and 2) comprising: an air inlet (air channel will have inlet and outlet, see Fig. 1, pgs. 5-6), a front fixing plate (2 see pg. 8), a stack (5, see pg. 8 ), a motor (1, fan has motor see pg. 8), an impeller (1, fan see pg. 8), a rear fixing plate (7 see pg. 8), and an air outlet (air channel will have inlet and outlet, see Fig. 1, pgs. 5-6), the front fixing plate (2) is coaxially connected to the impeller (1), a plurality of long bolts and nuts (See Fig. 1) are axially evenly distributed around the stack, the long bolts (3 see pg. 8) and nuts fixedly connected to the front fixing plate and the rear fixing plate. The anode surfaces (15) and cathode surfaces (13) of the stack both contain flow passages (see pgs. 8-9).
No teaching, suggestion, or motivation can be found to be modify the prior art to have all the entirety of claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEVINA PILLAY whose telephone number is (571)270-1180. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:30-6:00.
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DEVINA PILLAY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1726
/DEVINA PILLAY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726