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 1-2, 4, and 6-7 are amended. Claims 3 and 5 are cancelled. Therefore, claims 1-2, 4, and 6-7 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on June 18, 2026 has been entered. Applicant’s amendments now provide sufficient structure for the 35 U.S.C. 112(f) interpretations.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 5-10, filed on 06/18/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-7 under U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of applicant’s amendment regarding how the air flows during the door opened and closed positions and newly found prior art regarding these features.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2020-205004, filed on 12/10/2020.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stahlmann et al. (EP 0900985 A1, hereinafter Stahlmann) in view of Underwood et al. (US 20110209626 A1, hereinafter Underwood) and Nuss (US 3889099 A1) and Zhang et al. (CN 208582244 U, hereinafter Zhang).
Regarding claim 1, Stahlmann discloses a heating cooking apparatus (Page 8, Para. 7, “Cooking oven, especially household oven”, where an oven is a heating cooking apparatus) comprising:
a heating cooking chamber including an opening (Page 7, last Para., “the door (9) closes a loading opening (16) of a cooking oven muffle (10), the muffle interior (15) of which is heated”, where the opening is the loading opening that leads to the heating cooking chamber or the muffle interior);
a housing accommodating the heating cooking chamber (Page 3, last Para., “a door 9 to close a loading opening 16 of the furnace muffle 10 and a housing 83.”, where the housing 83 accommodates the heating cooking chamber within);
a lid portion, being a plate-like member, configured to open and close the opening (Page 3, last Para., “door 9 to close a loading opening 16 of the furnace muffle 10 and a housing 83.”, where the door 9 is the lid portion that opens and closes the opening or furnace muffle 10);
a first circulation portion, being a space, configured to cause first air to circulate between an upper wall of the heating cooking chamber and an upper wall of the housing (Page 3, last Para., “Connection 84 provided via the vapors W from the muffle interior 15 is discharged into the air duct 75 and together with the cooling air K from the blow-out area 37 is blown out.”, where the air duct 75 is between an upper wall of the heating cooking chamber 10 and an upper wall of the housing 82, where the air duct in the embodiment presented in Fig. 4 includes a duct separation element or door handle 92 which separates the air flow into a first and second air flow, where the first air flow located below 92 would be in the first circulation portion of the air duct 75);
a first blow-out port from which the first air is blown out (Page 7, Para. 3, “Air duct 75 to one or more blow-out areas 37 'according to FIG 3 or 37' 'and 39 according to FIG 4, to return to the outside as the now heated cooling air K '' to be blown out.”); and
a guide portion configured to guide (Page 7, Para. 5, “In the embodiment according to FIG. 4, the cooling air K '' through a blow-out area 37 ″in the door handle 92 and through another blow-out area 39 above the door handle 92 blown back into the outside space.”, where Fig. 4 shows that the blow-out area 39 includes an blow-out port located at the bottom of the handle 92, where the handle 92 is curved downwards and that curvature is construed to be the guide portion that guides a first air towards the opening located at the bottom of the handle 92);
wherein: the opening opens towards a specific direction (Fig. 4, where the specific direction that the door opens towards is to the right).
Stahlmann does not disclose:
a guide portion configured to, when the lid portion opens the opening, change a blowing direction of the first air blown out from the first blow-out port and to guide the first air toward an opening side,
the guide portion includes: a protruding portion that is disposed so as to face an upper surface of the lid portion in a state where the opening is closed, the protruding portion protruding toward the upper surface of the lid portion, and
an extending portion that is disposed so as to face the upper surface of the lid portion in the state where the opening is closed, the extending portion extending from a lower end portion of the protruding portion toward the specific direction,
in the state where the opening is closed, the first air is blown out in the specific direction from a portion between the upper surface of the lid portion and the extending portion, and in a state where the opening is open, the first air is blown out downward relative to the specific direction via the protruding portion.
However, Underwood discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses with air circulation (Abstract, “cooking device… The cooling device is connected to the user interface or the door by the duct.”), where air is blown out of a blow-out port when the lid portion opens the opening of the cooking device (Para. 0023, “When door 109 is opened after interior volume 120 is heated, cooking device 100 vents heat by releasing hot air and/or steam through open front portion 119.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the first air flow being blown out of the first blow-out port in Stahlmann to include the first air flow being blown when the lid portion opens the opening as taught by Underwood.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to increase the service life of a user interface when the door is opened, as the first air acts as a curtain of air that protects the user interface from drastic increases in temperature, as stated by Underwood, Para. 0023, “Airflow 185 keeps user interface 171 at a reduced temperature than without airflow 185. Airflow 185 creates an "air curtain" that creates a barrier between the hot air and steam that rises out of interior volume 120, and user interface 171. The air curtain is created so that when door 109 is opened the air curtain directs the hot air and steam away from user interface 171 and cushions portion 181 of user interface 171 in cool air. Airflow 185 protects user interface from the hot air and steam when door 109 is open and maintains user interface 171 cooler to the touch of a user than without airflow 185 to increase the service life of user interface 171.”.
Nuss discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses (Abstract, “A baking and broiling oven”), where the guide portion includes a protruding portion that is disposed so as to face an upper surface of the lid portion in a state where the opening is closed and where the protruding portion protrudes toward the upper surface of the lid portion (Modified Fig. 1, where the guide portion and the protruding portion are shown), where an extending portion is disposed so as to face the upper surface of the lid portion in a state where the opening is closed and extends from a lower end of the protruding portion toward the specific direction (Modified Fig. 1, where the extending portion is shown). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the guide portion in modified Stahlmann to be detached from the door and to have the shape as taught by Nuss.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of the guide portion allowing for a high velocity air curtain to be formed, which can reduce the temperature of the door, as stated by Nuss, Section 4, lines 48-57, “The discharge angle of this nozzle 135 is generally in a horizontal plane to form a high velocity air curtain over the air outlet openings 124 and 132. This high velocity causes a reduction in the static pressure in this area, thereby serving as an aspirator or draw air up through the air channels 120 and 130 within the door 16. It will be understood that the greater the air flow through these air channels the lower will be the resulting exterior surface temperatures of the door.”.
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Modified Figure 1, Nuss
Zhang discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses (Abstract, “an oven or steam box capable of preventing scald of door”), where when the lid is closed, the air is blown out in the specific direction from a portion between a upper surface of the lid portion and the extending portion of a guide (Page 3, Para. 2 from end, “valve body 2 is in the closed state, namely the oven or steam box works normally, the controller controlling the air guide plate 7 is in a substantially horizontal state, that is, the guide wind plate 7 vertical to the door body 2, at this time, the radiation fan 5 rotating above the air normal air exhaust port 6 discharged from the valve body 2, the air guide plate 7 is in the horizontal state, the guide plate 7 does not affect the normal flow of the hot air stream.”), where when the lid is open, the air is blown out downward relative to the specific direction (Page 3, last Para., “valve body 2 is opened state, that is, the operator to open the door body 2, the controller controlling the air guide plate 7 rotates downwards, the air guide plate 7 from inner to outer downwards form an angle; the air radiation fan 5 rotating in a certain angle inclined downwards blown by cooling air duct 3 air of relatively low temperature radiating air flow between the baking chamber or cavity 3 on top of the operator to form a curtain, the heat in the baking chamber or cavity 3 in separated, blocking the upward movement of the high temperature air or steam.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the guide portion that already includes the horizontal and downward angles in modified Stahlmann to include the air flow features of the air guide plate as taught by Zhang, where a horizontal guide is done for a closed lid and a downward guide is done for an opened lid.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to protect the operator when the door is opened through the downward air flow created by the guide member, as stated by Zhang, Page 3, last Para., “downwards blown by cooling air duct 3 air of relatively low temperature radiating air flow between the baking chamber or cavity 3 on top of the operator to form a curtain, the heat in the baking chamber or cavity 3 in separated, blocking the upward movement of the high temperature air or steam. not only can effectively protect the operator from high temperature air or steam scald when opening the door, and downwards inclined blowing the airflow, it is good to expand the curtain of the protective area.”.
Regarding claim 4, modified Stahlmann teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses wherein the protruding portion protrudes to a position lower than a predetermined position, and the predetermined position indicates an intermediate position between an upper end and a lower end of the first blow-out port (Stahlmann, modified Fig. 4.1, where the blow-out port is described as being between the upper end referenced by number 92 and the lower end referenced by number 30, where the protruding portion is shown to be reach a position lower than a predetermined position that is intermediate the upper and lower ends of the first blow-out port).
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Modified Figure 4.1, Stahlmann
Claims 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stahlmann et al. (EP 0900985 A1, hereinafter Stahlmann) in view of Underwood et al. (US 20110209626 A1, hereinafter Underwood) and Nuss (US 3889099 A1) and Zhang et al. (CN 208582244 U, hereinafter Zhang) in further view of Jeong et al. (US 20130333685 A1, hereinafter Jeong).
Regarding claim 2, modified Stahlmann teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses further comprising: a heating unit configured to heat an object to be heated accommodated in the heating cooking chamber (Stahlmann, Page 2, Para. 7 from end, “at least one heating device for heating the muffle interior”).
Modified Stahlmann does not disclose:
wherein the heating unit includes a heating element, and a drive unit configured to drive a fan to supply air to the heating element, and the drive unit is disposed in the first circulation portion.
However, Jeong discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses (Para. 0032, “an oven”), where a heating unit includes a heating element that heats the cooking chamber (Para. 0038, “At least one heater 33 may be provided in the cooking room 30 so as to heat the object to be cooked.”), where a contributing portion contributes to the heating element and is located in the circulation portion (Para. 0038, “circulation fans 35 circulating air of the cooking room 30 and circulation motors 34 to drive the circulation fans 35 may be provided in the rear portion of the cooking room 30.”, where the contribution portion is the circulation motors 34 that contribute to the heating element by driving the circulation fans 35 so that the heated air from the heater can be circulated, where Fig. 2 shows that the circulation motors 34 are located in the a duct channel that leads outside through the discharge hole 66). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the first circulation portion in modified Stahlmann to include the heating unit’s heating element and contribution portion as taught by Jeong.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of cooling the fan motors down through the circulation duct, where positioning the motors in the duct allows for air to flow past the motors, as stated by Jeong, Para. 0044, “The discharge hole 66 may discharge air to the area in front of the oven 1. Through such a configuration, the machine room cooling apparatus 50 may cool the machine room 40 by sucking in air from the machine room 40 and discharging the sucked air to the area in front of the oven 1.”, where the circulation motors 34 are located within the machine room 40.
Claims 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stahlmann et al. (EP 0900985 A1, hereinafter Stahlmann) in view of Underwood et al. (US 20110209626 A1, hereinafter Underwood) and Nuss (US 3889099 A1) and Zhang et al. (CN 208582244 U, hereinafter Zhang) in further view of Yun et al. (US 20200191406 A1, hereinafter Yun).
Regarding claim 6, modified Stahlmann teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses further comprising:
a duct member including a first groove portion and a second groove portion, wherein the second groove portion includes a second blow-out port from which second air is blown out (Stahlmann, Fig. 4, where the second blow-out port is where the upper air flow or second air flow from K” is discharged, where this second blow-out port extends from the upper end referenced by number 39 to lower end referenced by number 92), and configured to cause the second air to circulate above the first circulation portion and between the upper wall of the heating cooking chamber and the upper wall of the housing (Stahlmann, Fig. 4, where the second air or the upper air flow of K” is above the first circulation portion which is the bottom air flow of K”, where both air flows of K” are located between the upper wall of the heating cooking chamber 86 and the upper wall of the housing 82).
Modified Stahlmann does not disclose:
an operation unit including a panel and a processor, and configured to receive an operation, wherein at least a part of the operation unit is disposed in the second circulation portion.
However, Yun discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses (Abstract, “A cooking appliance having a cooling system includes an oven”), where there are also two air flows (Fig. 9, where the air flows are shown by B1 and B2; Para. 0074, “The outside air (arrow Bl) introduced into the first suction port 18 provided in the front surface 15 of the oven 10 passes through the first cooling duct 60”, and Para. 0075, “The outside air (arrow B2) introduced into the second suction port 28 provided in the front surface 21 of the cooktop 20 passes through the second cooling duct 70”), where one air flow can include an operation unit that receives an operation and where that operation unit is located within the circulation portion of the air flow (Para. 0076, “At this time, when the outside cold air sucked into the second suction port 28 passes the electrical component 30 disposed inside the cooktop 20, the electrical component 30 is cooled.”, and where the electrical component is an operation unit that can receive operations, Para. 0052, “Alternatively, the electrical component 30 may include a display and a printed circuit board on which a processor configured to control the cooktop and the oven is disposed.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the second circulation portion of modified Stahlmann to include an operation unit as taught by Yun.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use the air flow to cool down the operation unit so that overheating does not occur, as stated by Yun, Para. 0076, “the electrical component 30 is cooled. Therefore, the electrical component 30 may be prevented from being heated above a predetermined temperature by the radiant heat of the burner 50 generated when cooking with the cooktop 20 or the conductive heat of the oven 10 generated when cooking with the oven 10.”.
Claims 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stahlmann et al. (EP 0900985 A1, hereinafter Stahlmann) in view of Underwood et al. (US 20110209626 A1, hereinafter Underwood) and Nuss (US 3889099 A1) and Zhang et al. (CN 208582244 U, hereinafter Zhang) in further view of Zhou et al. (US 20170086263 A1, hereinafter Zhou).
Regarding claim 7, modified Stahlmann teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above.
Modified Stahlmann does not disclose:
further comprising: a moving member, being a support member, configured to move along the specific direction with respect to the heating cooking chamber, wherein the lid portion is fixed to the moving member to be substantially perpendicular to the specific direction.
However, Zhou discloses, in the similar field of heating cooking apparatuses (Abstract, “A drawer-type microwave oven includes: an oven body, defining an oven cavity therein”), where a moving member is configured to move laterally with respect to the heating cooking chamber (Para. 0056, “The guide rail 12 is fitted with the guide rail connecting plate 24, so as to support the drawer 20 and enable the drawer 20 to slide, so that the drawer 20 may be mounted securely and moved smoothly and steadily.”), where the opening opens towards that direction and the lid portion is fixed to the moving member to be perpendicular to the lateral direction (Para. 0040, “The drawer 20 is connected to the oven body 10 and disposed in the oven cavity and between a closed position and an opened position in a push-pull way. The drawer 20 is provided with a door 21 at an end thereof, so that the drawer 20 may drive the door 21 to open or close the oven cavity.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the door or lid portion of modified Stahlmann to be a drawer type of door mechanism as taught by Zhou.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use the drawer type of door mechanism to save labor, as the door can assist with opening and closing through providing a driving device that applies force to the door, as stated by Zhou, Para. 0048, “the drawer driving device 30 operates and drives the drawer 20 to be moved to the opened position, as a result, it is not required to fully manually open door by means of applying a force with hands during the door opening operations. The drawer-type microwave oven 100 may be changed into the automatic door opening mode from the manual door opening mode, such that the door may be opened steadily with saved labor.”.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Has et al. (DE 102008044234 A1, hereinafter Has) discloses a similar duct with two air flows, where one air flow includes a sensor within.
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 KEVIN GUANHUA WEN whose telephone number is (571)272-9940 and whose email is kevin.wen@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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/KEVIN GUANHUA WEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
08/25/2026
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