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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-19 are pending and subject to this Office Action. Claims 13-19 have been withdrawn. This is the First Action on the merits of the claims.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-12, in the reply filed on 02 January 2026 is acknowledged.
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.
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.
Claims 1 and 3-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, et al (WO2018201561A1, hereinafter referring to the English machine translation provided) and further in view of Boham (US20220312854A1).
Regarding claim 1, Liu teaches a composite ceramic heater and atomizer comprising a first body and a second body that are integrally formed. The first body comprises a conductive heating path and a second body for liquid conduction. [0006] Liu teaches that the first body is a ceramic material and that the heating path located on or in the first body is made from a ceramic powder material. [0011-0012] The second body is formed of a porous ceramic material. [0015] The first body of Liu is considered to read on the electrical heater of the instant claim and the second body is considered to read on the transfer component for delivering an aerosol generating material to the heating element.
Liu is silent with respect to the specific use of the ceramic transfer component being used to transfer a source liquid to the heating body or the use of thermocouples in the heating carrier.
Boham, directed to the design of aerosol provisioning systems with heaters, teaches that a porous ceramic substrate may may provide a wicking function to draw liquid from a reservoir (not shown) towards the surface of the porous ceramic substrate on which the electric heater is formed for heat vaporization to form an aerosol. [0051]
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu by using the ceramic transfer element to transfer the source liquid from a reservoir/ storage container to the heating surface as taught by Boham because both Liu and Boham are directed to aerosol generating devices, Boham teaches this allows fluid to be transferred to the heating surface to be vaporized to form a usable aerosol [0051], and this involves the use of known technique to improve similar devices in the same way.
Further Boham teaches a heater that comprises a thermocouple junction that is located along the path of the heating element configured to take measurements of the temperature. (Abstract) the thermocouple is connected to control circuitry for monitoring and controlling the operation of the heating element. [0040-0042] Boham teaches that the junction can be on the surface but also acknowledges that the junction may not be visible. [0052]
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu by using a thermocouple along the heating element as taught by Boham because both Liu and Boham are directed to aerosol generating devices, Boham teaches this allows control circuitry to be configured to take measurements of temperature for the electric heater using the thermocouple junction (Abstract), and this involves the use of known technique to improve similar devices in the same way.
Regarding claim 3, Liu teaches that the second body of the heating element can contain a porous ceramic material.( [0015], [0025], [0034])
Regarding claim 4, Liu teaches that the second body is integrally formed with the first body (heating portion) and is a porous ceramic used for transporting a liquid. [0006]
Regarding claim 5, As discussed in claim 1, Liu teaches that the atomizer is a composite ceramic heater that is formed for a porous body that is used for liquid conduction and a first body that contains the conductive path for heating and has a glazed side for allowing heat transfer while preventing liquid transport to the first body. Liu teaches that these two bodies are integrally formed. [0006]
Regarding claim 6, Liu teaches the resistance portion can be a layer that completely or partially covers the surface of the first body or the resistance layer can be placed inside the first body. ([0006], [0013]) The resistance layer being located in the first body is considered to read on the embedded limitation of the claim.
Boham teaches the thermocouple is located a position along the heating element. As such the thermocouple of Liu as modified by Boham could be located inside the first body.
Regarding claim 7, as discussed in claim 1, Liu teaches a composite ceramic atomizer where the second body is a porous ceramic material that is used for liquid conduction/transport. [0006]
Regarding claim 8, Liu teaches that the heating portion of the is wholly or partially formed of ceramic and that conductive path is composed of a ceramic powder combined with tungsten manganese slurry. ([0011-0012] The resistance portion can be a layer that completely or partially covers the surface of the first body or the resistance layer can be placed inside the first body. ([0006], [0013]) The teaching of the resistance layer that is located inside the first ceramic body is considered to read on the resistant heating element being embedded.
Liu does not specifically teach that the ceramic portion is of the first body is electrically insulating.
Boham, directed to the design of heaters for use with aerosol provision systems, teaches that the resistive material is formed on an electrically insulating ceramic substrate. [0051]
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu by using a thermocouple along the heating element as taught by Boham because both Liu and Boham are directed to aerosol generating devices, Boham teaches the resistive material is formed on an insulating substrate allows for the resistive heater to have a meandering/zig-zag pattern [0051], and this involves the use of known technique to improve similar devices in the same way.
Regarding claim 9, Liu teaches the conductive heating path is made from a ceramic material ([0006], [0011-0012]) and has a first contact portion and a second contact portion for connection to a power source. ([0006], [0014])
Regarding claim 10, Liu as modified by Boham teaches various possible locations for the thermocouple junction and specifically that the thermocouple junction can be located around the middle of the electric heater. (claim 13, [0043])
Regarding claim 11, Liu as modified by Boham teaches that the heating element can be made of multiple types of material and as such can have multiple thermocouple junction points [0038] where the different materials are joined.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, et al (WO2018201561A1) and Boham (US20220312854A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Althorpe, et al (US20170367407A1).
Regarding claim 2, Liu teaches that the heating carrier portion is made entirely of a dense ceramic material [0035], [0043] and is then fired. However, Liu does not explicitly teach that the ceramic of the first body is non-porous.
Althorpe, directed to the design of heater for an electronic nicotine delivery device, teaches an electric heater that is encapsulated within a non-porous ceramic material. [0056]
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu and Boham by encapsulating the heating element portion of the heater as taught by Althorpe because both Liu and Boham and Althorpe are directed to aerosol generating devices, Althorpe teaches this minimizes the formation of localized hot spots on the electric heater surface that contact the nicotine solution. [0056-0057], and this involves the use of known technique of encapsulating the heating element portion of a heating device to improve similar devices in the same way.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, et al (WO2018201561A1) and Boham (US20220312854A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Alarcon, et al (US20180020728A1).
Regarding claim 12, Boham teaches that the thermocouple can be attached to control circuitry but is silent with respect to the specifics of what constitutes the control circuitry.
Alarcon, directed to the design of electronic smoking articles, teaches a substrate that is comprised of a heating element and a thermopile (e.g., two or more thermocouples), including an upstream thermopile (or thermocouple) and a downstream thermopile (or thermocouple). [0056] The two thermopiles are positioned upstream and downstream of the heater element and generates an output voltage that is proportional to the temperature gradient between its hot and cold junctions generating an output voltage proportional to the temperature gradient across the substrate.[0057]
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu and Boham by encapsulating the heating element portion of the heater as taught by Alarcon because both Liu and Boham and Alarcon are directed to aerosol generating devices, Alarcon teaches the difference between the thermopiles is used to generate the voltage output that is proportional to the temperature gradient [0056], and this involves the use of known technique of encapsulating the heating element portion of a heating device to improve similar devices in the same way.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIRGINIA R BIEGER whose telephone number is (703)756-1014. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th: 7:30-4:30.
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/V.R.B./Examiner, Art Unit 1755 /PHILIP Y LOUIE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1755