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 .
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.
Claim Objections
Claims 7 and 8 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 7, line 8, “anaxial” should be --an axial--.
In claim 8, line 4, “forma” should be --form a--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tan et alia (CN110934492(A)), hereinafter “Tan”.
Re claim 1, Tan discloses an appliance coupler water pumping apparatus, used for a liquid heater (kettle) having a detachable inner container, a bottom of the inner container is provided with a first through hole (where the top of 2 extends through the bottom on the kettle’s inner container as shown in Fig. 3), wherein the appliance coupler water pumping apparatus comprises a water inlet pipe assembly (including top inlet pipe 21 leading into the container, see paragraph [0088]) and a water pumping pipe assembly (the pump leads to pipe 51, see paragraph [0107]), the water inlet pipe assembly is communicated with an inner portion of the inner container through the first through hole (see Fig. 3); the water pumping pipe assembly is used to match with the water inlet pipe assembly and extract the liquid in the inner container when it is communicated with the water inlet pipe assembly (see Fig. 3 and compare applicant’s Fig. 2 with Fig. 3 in Tan).
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568
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Re claim 2, Tan discloses the appliance coupler pumping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the water inlet pipe assembly comprises a water inlet pipe (21 and the structure surrounding 241, 24, 26, 28, and 29) and a water sealing sliding block (241, 24); an end of the water inlet pipe facing the inner container is communicated with the inner portion of the inner container; the water sealing sliding block is slidably arranged in the water inlet pipe to seal an end of the water inlet pipe away from the inner container (see Figs. 3 and 5 and paragraphs [0090] and [0091]).
Re claim 3, Tan discloses the appliance coupler pumping apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the water inlet pipe assembly further comprises a first sealing sleeve (26, 28), the first sealing sleeve is arranged at the end of the water inlet pipe away from the inner container (see Figs. 3 and 5), and the first sealing sleeve is embedded in the water inlet pipe; the first sealing sleeve is provided with a second through hole (leading to 51) along an axis of the water inlet pipe, and an end of the second through hole facing the water sealing sliding block forms a sealing groove matching with the water sealing sliding block (at the interface of 24 and 26).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-16 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:
Re claim 4, Tan discloses the appliance coupler pumping apparatus according to claim 3. However, it would not have been obvious to modify Tan such that an end of the water sealing sliding block facing the first sealing sleeve is fixedly provided with a sealing ball; the sealing groove of the second through hole is a spherical surface groove matched with the spherical surface of the sealing ball. This describes the spherical surface at 611 and ref. no. 94 being fixedly attached to the ball (53) as shown in Fig. 3.
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Re claim 6, Tan discloses the appliance coupler pumping apparatus according to claim 2. However, it would not have been obvious to modify Tan such that an inner wall and an outer wall of the end of the water inlet pipe close to the inner container extend radially along the water inlet pipe to form a first supporting part and a second supporting part respectively; a spring is arranged between the first supporting part and the second supporting part; one end of the spring abuts against the first supporting part, and another end thereof abuts against the water sealing sliding block. This describes the location and placement of applicant’s upper spring (4). It would not have been obvious to relocate the spring of Tan to meet the claim language.
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Melzer and Liu disclose similar apparatus and valve placement.
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/ERIC KEASEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753