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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group 1 (claims 1-5) in the reply filed on January 26, 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is lack of unity because the groups do not share a common technical feature. This is not found persuasive because unity is broken with Batista (WO2020245338A1).
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
(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.
Claim(s) 1-3, and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Batista (WO2020245338A1).
In regards to claim 1, Batista discloses an oxygen-depleting heating smoking set (an aerosol generating device 10) comprising:
a heating section with a cigarette accommodating cavity (a heating chamber 62) is configured to receive the aerosol generating article 18 (Page 24; paragraph 2),
a smoke extraction member (a second portion of the main body 12b and a mouthpiece 14 that is arranged separately) comprises:
a hollow smoke extraction cone (inlet portion 22) and smoke transmission pipe (outlet portion 24 that is detachable connected to the inlet portion 22),
a taper hole (third air inlet 32; is located on the side wall of the cone body),
a through hole (second air inlet 30; is located on the smoke transmission pipe 24),
the axial distance of said at least one through hole from a bottom surface of the cone body is smaller than that of the taper hole from the bottom surface of the cone body (the distance between the third air inlet 32 and the inlet portion 22 is smaller compared to the second air inlet 20 to the inlet portion).
In regards to claim 2, Batista teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein a sleeve section (first part 20a) extending axially is provided at a bottom end of said cone body of the smoke extraction cone (inlet portion 22; the first part 20a is located at the bottom end of the inlet portion 22);
one end of the smoke transmission pipe (mouthpiece 14) far away from said cone body (inlet 22) is provided with an inner diameter expansion section (outlet portion 24) which is axially extended (the outlet portion 24 is located on the opposite end of the inlet portion 22 and is extended axially).
In regards to claim 3, Batista teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein a heating element (heating pin 50) that is arranged in the cigarette accommodating cavity (heating chamber 62; cigarette shaped substrate) and the cavity is on top of the heating element, which reads on claim 3.
In regards to claim 5, Batista teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein the smoke extraction member (a second portion of the main body 12b and a mouthpiece 14 that is arranged separately) is designed to be inserted into the cone body (inlet portion 22) (Figure 3B).
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by Shang (WO2021218025A1, English Translation: EP4005422A1).
In regards to Claim 1, Shang discloses an oxygen-depleted heating smoking set (a plug-in oxygen deficient heating smoking set) comprises:
a heating section (heating element 5) with a cigarette accommodating cavity (cigarette accommodating cavity 3) [0041],
a smoke extraction member (smoke extraction element 6 that can be detached from the smoking set [0007]) comprises:
a hollow smoke extraction cone (smoke extraction cone 6-1) and a smoke transmission pipe (mainstream smoke forming tube 6-2 that is fixed or detachedly sleeved on the periphery of the cone body 6-1-1 of the smoke extraction cone 6-1 [0008]),
a taper hole (has a tapered structure, the top and/or the side wall of the hollow smoke extraction cone 6-1 [0009]),
at least one through hole (at least one through hole 6-2-3 is disposed on the circumferential side wall of the mainstream smoke forming tube 6-2 [0010]),
the axial distance of said at least one through hole from a bottom surface of the cone body is smaller than that of the taper hole from the bottom surface of the cone body (the axial distance between the through hole 6-2-3 and the bottom surface of the cone body 6-1-1 is less than that between the cone hole 6-1-2 and the bottom surface of the cone body 6-1-1 [0010]).
In regards to claim 2, Shang teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein a sleeve section extending axially is provided at a bottom end of said cone body of the smoke extraction cone (the bottom end of the cone of the smoke extraction cone 6-1 is provided with an axially extending sleeve section 6-1-3 [0050]),
one end of the smoke transmission pipe (2-2) far away from said cone body is provided with an inner diameter expansion section (2-2-3) which is axially extended (one end of the mainstream smoke forming tube 6-2 away from the cone body 6-1-1 has an axially extending inner diameter enlarged section 6-2-4 [0040]).
In regards to claim 3, Shang teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein heating elements are provided at the bottom and/or at the circumferential side wall of said cigarette accommodating cavity (4-1) (a heating element 5 is provided on the bottom surface and the circumferential side wall of the cigarette accommodating cavity 3 [0041]).
In regards to claim 5, Shang teaches the oxygen-depleted heating smoking set of claim 1, wherein the shape of said smoke extraction member (2) is suitable for the inside of the cigarette accommodating cavity (4-1) in which the smoke extraction member is accommodated (the shape of the smoke extraction element 6 is suitable for being accommodated in the cigarette accommodating cavity 3 [0017]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 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 the allowable subject matter:
The closest prior art of record is over Batista (WO2020245338A), which discloses the aerosol generating device of claim 1 as set forth above.
In regard to claim 4, Batista does not teach a cap to the device as recited and it is unclear how one of ordinary skill in the art could modify Batista to arrive at the claimed
invention to include one without the benefit of hindsight. Although element 14 of Batista displays the features of the cap, element 14 represents the smoke-transmission pipe.
Conclusion
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/H.C.N./Examiner, Art Unit 1747
/Christopher M Rodd/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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