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 .
Response to Arguments
The applicant’s amendments overcome the rejections of claims 1 and 16 overcome the 35 U.S.C 103 rejection dated 11/03/2025, therefore the rejection is withdrawn, however, a new grounds of rejection is presented over Jang et. al (US 2021/0144286 A1) in view of Jang et. al (US 2018/0058702 A1, hereinafter Jang ‘702).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jang et. al (US 2021/0144286 A1) in view of Jang et. al (US 2018/0058702 A1, hereinafter Jang ‘702).
With respect to claim 1 Jang discloses a cooking appliance comprising: a main body [reference character 10] including a cooking chamber [reference character 20]; a door [reference character 30] positioned at a front of the main body configured to open and close the cooking chamber; a camera [reference character 210] disposed toward the cooking chamber configured to obtain a photograph of an inside of the cooking chamber; a camera cooling fan [reference character 230] configured to intake external air to cool the camera; and an air guide [reference characters 110 and 120] configured to form a flow path such that external air is provided toward the camera by the camera cooling fan.
Jang does not disclose that the air guide is configured to guide air passed through the camera to be discharged toward a front of the camera cooling fan through a front outlet of an exhaust duct and toward a printed circuit board (PCB).
Jang ‘702 discloses an oven including a camera [reference character 140] a camera cooling fan [reference character 120], and an air guide [reference characters 110 and 130] where the air guide is configured to guide air passed through the camera to be discharged toward a front of the camera cooling fan through a front outlet [see annotated Fig. below] of an exhaust duct and toward a printed circuit board (PCB) [see annotated Fig. below].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the invention to move the outlet to the front of the duct relative to the fan and discharge the air toward a PCB, as taught by Jang ‘702, in order to provide backside cooling to the PCB.
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With respect to claim 2 Jang discloses a suction duct [see annotated Fig. below] in which the camera is provided, the suction duct being configured to form a suction flow path of air; and wherein the exhaust duct [see annotated Fig. below] connected to the suction duct, the camera cooling fan is provided in the exhaust duct [see annotated Fig. below], and the exhaust duct is configured to form an exhaust flow path of air.
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With respect to claim 3 the combination of Jang and Jang ‘702 discloses that the front outlet is open toward the front of the camera cooling fan.
With respect to claim 4 Jang discloses that the suction duct includes an upper housing [reference character 110] and a lower housing [reference character 120] provided on a lower side of the upper housing, and the upper housing is adjacent to the front outlet and is configured to guide the air discharged from the front outlet.
With respect to claim 5 Jang discloses that the upper housing includes a guide surface [see annotated Fig. below] obliquely facing upward in a direction forward from the front outlet.
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With respect to claim 6 Jang discloses a control panel formed on the front of the main body and on which the printed circuit board (PCB) is mounted [reference characters 40-41, where a PCB is considered a structure implicit to an electronic control panel with display], wherein the front outlet is open toward the control panel [see annotated Fig. below].
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Claim(s) 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jang et. al (US 2021/0144286 A1) in view of Jang et. al (US 2018/0058702 A1, hereinafter Jang ‘702).
With respect to claim 16 Jang discloses a cooking device comprising: a cooking chamber [reference character 20]; a door [reference character 30] configured to open and close the cooking chamber; a camera [reference character 210] disposed toward the cooking chamber configured to obtain a photograph of an inside of the cooking chamber; a camera cooling fan [reference character 230] configured to intake external air to cool the camera; and an air guide [reference characters 110 and 120] configured to form a flow path such that external air is provided toward the camera by the camera cooling fan.
Jang does not disclose that the air guide is configured to guide air passed through the camera to be discharged toward a front of the camera cooling fan through a front outlet of an exhaust duct toward a printed circuit board (PCB).
Jang ‘702 discloses an oven including a camera [reference character 140] a camera cooling fan [reference character 120], and an air guide [reference characters 110 and 130] where the air guide is configured to guide air passed through the camera to be discharged toward a front of the camera cooling fan through a front outlet [see annotated Fig. below] of an exhaust duct and toward a printed circuit board (PCB) [see annotated Fig. below].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the invention to move the outlet to the front of the duct relative to the fan and discharge the air toward a PCB, as taught by Jang ‘702, in order to provide backside cooling to the PCB.
With respect to claim 17 Jang discloses a suction duct [see annotated Fig. above] in which the camera is provided, the suction duct being configured to form a suction flow path of air; wherein the exhaust duct [see annotated Fig. above] is connected to the suction duct, the camera cooling fan is provided in the exhaust duct [see annotated Fig. above], and the exhaust duct is configured to form an exhaust flow path of air.
With respect to claim 18 Jang does not disclose that the front outlet is open toward the front of the camera cooling fan. Jang does disclose that the exhaust duct is provided with an outlet on the side on the side of the cooling fan [see annotated Fig. above].
However, moving the outlet from the side of the exhaust duct to the front of the exhaust duct is interpreted to be a mere instance of rearrangement of the parts of the invention, since the structure disclosed by Jang would function equally well with the outlet either in the side or front of the exhaust duct relative to the fan.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the invention to move the outlet to the front of the duct relative to the fan, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
With respect to claim 19 Jang discloses that the suction duct includes an upper housing [reference character 110] and a lower housing [reference character 120] provided on a lower side of the upper housing, and the upper housing is adjacent to the front outlet and is configured to guide the air discharged from the front outlet.
With respect to claim 20 Jang discloses that the upper housing includes a guide surface [see annotated Fig. below] obliquely facing upward in a direction forward from the front outlet.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7-15 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIVEK K SHIRSAT whose telephone number is (571)272-3722. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:20AM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Steven B McAllister can be reached at 571-272-6785. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VIVEK K SHIRSAT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762