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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-7 and 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lissner (2022/0032767) in view of Wolf (2019/038204).
Consider Claim 1, Lissner discloses a cooling module (402) for a motor vehicle (400) with an electric or hybrid motor (Para 0145), said cooling module (402) being designed to have a flow of air (F) passing through it from an air inlet (O) to an air outlet (outlet of 408), and comprising: a fairing (450) forming an inner duct in a longitudinal direction (Fig. 5) of the cooling module (402), the inner duct extending between an upstream end and a downstream end which are opposite one another, and in the interior of which there is positioned at least one heat exchanger (404) which is designed to have the flow of air (F) passing through it, the fairing (450) comprising at least one junction wall (one wall of 450) delimiting the inner duct; a collector housing (housing of 408) positioned downstream from the fairing (450) in the longitudinal direction and juxtaposed at the downstream end (Fig. 5), said collector housing (housing of 408) being configured to receive a tangential-flow turbomachine (410) which itself is configured to generate the flow of air (F), the collector housing (housing of 408) also comprising the air outlet-(outlet of 408); but does not disclose wherein the junction wall (410) comprises one or a plurality of suction openings (O) forming the air inlet (O), and in that at least one of said suction openings (O) is positioned upstream from the at least one heat exchanger (404).
Wolf discloses wherein the junction wall (13) comprises one or a plurality of suction openings (40) forming the air inlet, and in that at least one of said suction openings (40) is positioned upstream from the at least one heat exchanger (20).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Lissner by further providing suction openings, as claimed, in order to allow for greater control of the air flow.
Consider Claim 2, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses wherein the fairing (450) comprises a front wall (Wolf, 32, Fig. 2c) which blocks the upstream end (18) and an opening (50) delimiting the downstream end.
Consider Claim 3, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses wherein at least two heat exchangers (404a, 404b) positioned in the inner duct in the longitudinal direction, and in-that wherein at least one so-called primary suction opening (O) is positioned upstream from the heat exchanger (404) juxtaposed at the upstream end (O).
Consider Claim 5, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses at least one blocking device (42) which is movable between a position of opening and a position of closure of said at least one suction opening (40).
Consider Claim 6, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses a control unit (16) which is configured to control the blocking device (42).
Consider Claim 7, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses wherein the control unit is also configured to position and immobilize the blocking device (42) in at least one intermediate position (Wolf, Fig. 2d) during displacement of said blocking device (42) between its open position (Wolf, Fig. 2a) and its blocking position (Wolf, Fig. 2b).
Consider Claim 9, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses wherein the at least one suction opening (O) forming the air inlet (O) perforates an upper part of the fairing (450) of the cooling module (402) (O extends to the top of faring (450).
Consider Claim 10, Lissner, as modified, discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention, as described above, and further discloses wherein the at least one suction opening (Wolf, 40) forming the air inlet perforates a lower part (Wolf, Fig. 1) of the fairing (Wolf, 13) of the cooling module.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 8 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: Although the prior art discloses all the limitations of the intervening claims the prior art does not disclose or render obvious, absent impermissible hindsight, these limitations in combination with at least one so-called secondary suction opening positioned between two juxtaposed heat exchangers as required by Claim 4, or wherein in-that the control unit is configured to control each pivoting shutter independently as required by Claim 8
Conclusion
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/BRYAN A EVANS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3613