DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
2. Claims 16-19 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on April 20th 2026.
3. Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-15 in the reply filed on April 20th 2026 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 7/8/23 and 8/6/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the references cited therein are considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
5. 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.
6. Claim 12 is 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.
Claim 12 recites the phrase “…wherein a width of the hopper plate along a lateral direction is about equal to a width of the container…”. This claim is deemed indefinite because it is unclear if the hopper plate width is equal to the width of the container or not.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 1-15 are allowed.
Regarding claim 1, the most relevant prior art is Wei et al. (CN 2834666 Y; “Wei”)
Wei discloses a dust collector (Fig. 1), comprising:
a container (1) defining an interior volume (Fig. 1) and an opening (area of the container that opens into trough 8; Fig. 1);
a scraper (3) positioned within the interior volume of the container (1; Fig. 1), an edge of the scraper (3) positioned adjacent an inner surface of the container (1; Fig. 1);
a collection motor (see annotated diagram 1 below) coupled to the container (1; Fig. 2).
Wei fails to discloses the collection motor operable to rotate the container about an axis of rotation between at least a first orientation and a second orientation, the container positioned and oriented for collecting dust within the interior volume of the container via the opening of the container in the first orientation, the container positioned and oriented for discharging dust from the interior volume of the container via the opening of the container in the second orientation.
It would not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Wei with the aforementioned limitation because the motor of Wei would need to be reconfigured to allow the container to rotate. This reconfiguration would render the apparatus inoperable.
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Diagram 1
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EYAMINDAE JALLOW whose telephone number is (571)270-1927. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday from 7:30am-5:00pm and alternating Fridays from 7:30am-4:00pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SHELLEY SELF, can be reached on (571)272-4524. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
9. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/EYAMINDAE C JALLOW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3731
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