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 .
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the amended abstract, as submitted with the amendment filed on July 24, 2026, was not submitted on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claim 14 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 14, as amended by the amendment filed July 24, 2026, is vague and indefinite, since the phrase “one or more of the plurality of wires” does not comport with the phrase “includes at least two adjacent wires”, since one wire cannot be two wires.
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 dbeen 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 3-10, 12, 14-16, 18-24, and 26-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Connery.
Connery (Abstract; Figs. 1A, 1B, 2 and 6; col. 5, lines 51-68; col. 6, lines 33-40; col. 7, lines 4-24; col. 12, lines 18-25) discloses a wetted wire liquid-gas contactor comprising a plurality of nylon (col. 5, line 55) wires (claims 23 and 31) that may be vertically and parallelly oriented or inclined (claim 10), the wires being suspended between top and bottom connections (see Fig. 1A), wherein they may be held under longitudinal tension (Abstract), wherein the individual wires may have a diameter of 2 mm or less (col. 5, line 55) and a pitch of the plurality of wires is less than 4.0 mm (col. 5, lines 57-58), the wires intended to be wetted by a liquid for contact with a gas flowing over the surfaces of the wires within chamber 44 of Fig. 1A or by a perpendicularly flowing gas stream as shown in Figure 6, thereby meeting the structural requirements of each of instant claims 1, 4-9, 15, 16, 18-20, 24, and 28-30. The reference further discloses that the wires may have a smooth surface (col. 7, line 24), thereby meeting instant claim 12, and that various liquid can be used on the wires, obviously including a coolant liquid (claims 3 and 27). With regard to an end of the plurality of wires being above or below the gas inlet to the contactor, applicant’s attention is directed to Fig. 1A of the reference, which clearly shows the upper end of the wires being above (claim 21) the gas inlet (46), and the lower end of the wires being below the gas inlet (claim 22).
Connery as discussed above substantially discloses applicant’s invention as recited by instant claims 14 and 26, except for the wires being converging or diverging along a length at a non-zero angle of inclination relative to one another. Wherein Connery discloses that the guide filaments are “substantially straight” (see the Abstract of Connery), one having ordinary skill in the art would recognize that such a disclosure would include filaments that are not exactly vertical, and therefore two adjacent filaments would clearly meet the limitations of instant claims 14 and 26 that the plurality of wires include at least two adjacent wires that are converging or diverging along their length at a non-zero angle of inclination relative to one another (this situation would only require a single wire of any given pair of wires to be slightly non-vertical (within the realm of “substantially straight”). In any event, instant claims 14 and 26 only require an infinitesimal deviation from precisely parallel and precisely vertical of a single wire within any pair of adjacent wires within the device to anticipate the claimed invention. Since the reference discloses “substantially straight”, which encompasses slightly angled, canted, or not precisely vertical oriented wires, it would have been obvious for an artisan at the time of the filing of the application, to envisage an orientation of adjacent substantially vertical and substantially straight wires as providing adjacent wire pairs that are not precisely and exactly vertical and straight relative to one another, without deviating from the disclosed reference invention.
With regard to the language added to independent claims 1 and 24, specifically, “wherein the liquid distribution system is configured to distribute the liquid as a coolant to the plurality of wires such that the wetted-wire liquid-gas contactor device is configured to capture a species from a gas at the plurality of wires by condensation or desublimation, such is simply a desired process to be implemented by the claimed apparatus, and as such cannot be considered to lend patentable weight to the apparatus claim. Wherein the Connery reference clearly teaches a wetted wire liquid gas contactor device having a plurality of wires, a first support configured to retain the plurality of wires, and a liquid distribution system for receiving and distributing a liquid to the plurality of wires, wherein the diameter of each of the plurality of wires is approximately 2 mm or less (actually disclosed as 0.762 mm at col. 5, line 55 of Connery) and wherein the pitch of the plurality of wires is less than 4.0 mm (actually disclosed as 3.81 mm at col. 5, lines 57-58 of Connery), the wires being held in tension and constructed from nylon (one of applicant’s preferred and claimed materials-claims 23 and 31 of the instant application), the reference apparatus is clearly capable of performing applicant’s preferred process. As such, it would have been obvious for an artisan at the time of the filing of the application, to use the instantly claimed apparatus (which is explicitly disclosed by Connery), to perform the capture of gas species from a gas in the manner as set forth by the instant claims, if such were desired.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed July 24, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. For the reasons as set forth in the rejection statement above, it would have been obvious for an artisan at the time of the filing of the application, to utilize the apparatus, as disclosed by Connery to perform any desired heat and/or mass exchange process using the wetted wire apparatus as disclosed thereby, especially in view of the fact that the instant claims are drawn to an apparatus, rather than a process of utilizing the apparatus to capture a specific gas species from a gas.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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 CHARLES S BUSHEY whose telephone number is (571)272-1153. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 6:30-5:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jennifer Dieterle can be reached at 571-270-7872. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/C.S.B/
10-10-26
/CHARLES S BUSHEY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1776
