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.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 9, and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2015140953 A to Hori in view of JP 2012247080 A to Ishibashi.
Note: Reference is made to the translation of Hori and Ishibashi cited in Applicant’s October 20, 2023 IDS.
Regarding claim 1. Hori teaches a hot water storage tank comprising:
a tank body that stores a liquid (fig. 3, tank 2):
a lower heat insulating material covering a lower part of the tank body (fig. 3, lower portion of the front and rear vertical spilt members 7 and 8, i.e. portion in contact with the bottom of the tank 2, where the members 7 and 8 are described in paras. 24, 26, and 28):
a middle heat insulating material connected to the lower heat insulating material (fig. 3, upper portion of the front and rear vertical spilt members 7 and 8, i.e. portion not in contact with the bottom of the tank 2; please note that the upper and lower portions of members 7 and 8 are connected), the middle heat insulating material covering a side part of the tank body (as noted in para. 24, the members 7 and 8 cover the sides and bottom of the tank 2); and
an upper heat insulating material connected to the middle heat insulating material (fig. 3, top member 6), the upper heat insulating material covering an upper part of the tank body (as noted in para. 25, the top member 6 covers the upper part of the tank 2),
an outer diameter of the middle heat insulating material being larger than an outer diameter of the upper heat insulating material (fig. 3, the outer diameter of the members 7 and 8 can be seen to be larger than the outer diameter of the top member 6), and
the outer diameter of the middle heat insulating material being larger than an outer diameter of the lower heat insulating material (fig. 3, the outer diameter of the members 7 and 8, i.e. the portion considered as the middle heat insulating material, is larger than the diameter of the portion of members 7 and 8 covering the bottom of the tank, i.e. the portion considered as the lower heat insulating material).
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But fails to teach a lower end face of the upper heat insulating material and an upper end face of the middle heat insulating material being inclined downward from insides toward outsides.
Ishibashi teaches a lower end face of the upper heat insulating material and an upper end face of the middle heat insulating material being inclined downward from insides toward outsides (para. 11, fig. 4, the lower end of the upper insulation material 28 and the upper end of the central insulation material 30 are cut at a slant 31).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the device of Hori by providing a slanted interface between the upper and central insulation portions, as taught by Ishibashi. This would provide the predictable result and benefit of improving the heat insulating effect, as suggested by Ishibashi in para. 11.
Regarding claim 5. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1, wherein the upper heat insulating material is in contact with a top of the tank body (Hori para. 25, “The top member 6 … covers the top portion 2b of the hot water storage tank 2 …”), and the lower heat insulating material is in contact with a bottom of the tank body (Hori para. 24, “… and the front and rear vertical split members 7, 8 which … also cover a portion of the bottom portion 2 c of the hot water storage tank 2, respectively.”).
Regarding claim 9. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1, further comprising
a housing that houses the tank body, the upper heat insulating material, the middle heat insulating material, and the lower heat insulating material (Hori fig. 2, sheath case 4),
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the housing including
a bottom plate forming a lower part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, bottom plate 4f),
a side plate connected to the bottom plate, the side plate forming a side part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, side plates 4a-d), and
a top plate connected to the side plate, the top plate forming an upper part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, top plate 4e),
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the top plate exerting downward force on the upper heat insulating material (from Hori fig. 2, the case 4 accommodates the insulation material 3 and the tank 2; therefore, it would be expected to exert a partial downward force on the top member 6 in the assembled state).
Regarding claim 11. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1, wherein the middle heat insulating material is formed by a plurality of middle heat insulating portions into which the middle heat insulating material is divided in a horizontal direction (Hori fig. 3, front and rear vertical division members 7 and 8), and
the plurality of middle heat insulating portions have side end faces inclined and identical in inclination in a horizontal plane (Hori fig. 4, the members 7 and 8 have end faces with an inclination of zero, i.e. identical inclinations in a horizontal plane).
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Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hori in view of Ishibashi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP 2020176758 A to Ogawara.
Note: Reference is made to the translation of Ogawara cited in Applicant’s October 20, 2023 IDS.
Regarding claim 2. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1,
But fails to teach wherein a distance between
an inner peripheral surface of the middle heat insulating material and a part, facing the middle heat insulating material, of an outer peripheral surface of the tank body
is larger than a distance between an upper end of an inner peripheral surface of the lower heat insulating material and a part, facing the upper end of the inner peripheral surface of the lower heat insulating material, of the tank body and
is larger than a distance between a lower end of an inner peripheral surface of the upper heat insulating material and a part, facing the lower end of the inner peripheral surface of the upper heat insulating material, of the tank body.
Ogawara teaches the distance between a tank body and an inner peripheral surface of a middle insulating material being larger than the distance between the tank body and an inner peripheral surface of upper and lower insulating materials (fig. 1, the distance between the tank 10 and the inner peripheral surface of the upper and lower heat insulation material 21, 22 is less than the distance to the vacuum heat insulation material 23 and the body heat insulating material 24, which are located at the central portion; this allows space for the thermistor 50).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to further modify the device of Hori by implementing a space for a thermistor between the tank and the middle heat insulating material, i.e. a space between the side of the tank and the portion of members 7 and 8 not under the tank, as taught by Ogawara. This would provide the predictable result and benefit of detecting the temperature distribution of the water in the tank, and calculating the amount of hot water remaining, as suggested by Ogawara in para. 13.
Claim(s) 6 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hori in view of Ishibashi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP 2009047375 A to Sudo.
Note: Reference is made to the attached translation of Sudo.
Regarding claim 6. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1, further comprising
a cylindrical portion provided between the tank body and the lower heat insulating material or the upper heat insulating material (Hori fig. 3, cylindrical portion of the top member 6 directly in contact with the tank 2, i.e. between the tank 2 and the portion of the top member 6 not in contact with the tank 2),
But fails to teach wherein the tank body has an ejection port connected to a pipe through which a liquid flows, and the cylindrical portion has an opening passing through in an up-down direction, the opening facing the ejection port, and is disposed to surround the ejection port.
Sudo teaches a tank having an ejection port connected to a pipe through which liquid flows (fig. 1, hot water supply pipe 6) that passes through an insulation material in an up-down direction (figs. 1-2, the pipe 6 extends through the hemispherical molded heat insulating material 2)
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to further modify the device of Hori by routing any suitable hot water supply lines through the top member 6, and thereby through the cylindrical portion, as taught by Sudo. This would provide the predictable result and benefit of suitably providing hot water from the tank to the hot water supply line, as suggested by Sudo on p. 3 paras. 5 and 8, “A hot water supply pipe 6 for supplying hot water stored in the hot water storage tank 7 to the outside is connected to the top portion 7 c of the hot water storage tank 7.”
Regarding claim 10. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 6, further comprising
a housing that houses the tank body, the upper heat insulating material, the middle heat insulating material, and the lower heat insulating material (Hori fig. 2, sheath case 4),
wherein the housing includes
a bottom plate forming a lower part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, bottom plate 4f),
a side plate connected to the bottom plate, the side plate forming a side part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, side plates 4a-d), and
a top plate connected to the side plate, the top plate forming an upper part of the housing (Hori fig. 1, top plate 4e),
the top plate is in contact with the upper heat insulating material at three contact portions and exerts downward force on the upper heat insulating material (from Hori fig. 2, the case 4 accommodates the insulation material 3 and the tank 2; therefore, it would be expected to exert a partial downward force on the top member 6 in the assembled state. Further, with this interpretation, there would be multiple contact portions distributed across the interface between the insulation material 6 and the top plate 4e, where at least three contact portions could be selected as desired), and
the upper heat insulating material has an insertion hole through which the pipe passes (As shown in Sudo fig. 1, the insulation material 2 has a hole for the hot water pipe 6), the insertion hole communicating with the ejection port inside a triangle formed by the three contact portions (the three contact portions could be selected such that a triangle bounding the insertion hole is formed).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hori in view of Ishibashi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of WO 2020021293 A1 to Tsopoulidis.
Regarding claim 12. The device of modified Hori teaches the hot water storage tank of claim 1, wherein the middle heat insulating material and the upper heat insulating material cover a side connected to a long side of a bottom of the tank body (Hori fig. 3, the portion of the front and rear vertical division members 7 and 8 and the top member cover substantially all sides of the tank).
But fails to teach the tank body having a cuboid shape.
Tsopoulidis teaches a tank body having a cuboid shape (pp. 3-4, “A further advantage, resulting from the above, is the possibility of constructing a water heater and buffer tank in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, which can pass through doors, and not just of a cylindrical shape, as is done to date.” Where a rectangular parallelepiped is substantially a cuboid shape).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to further modify the device of Hori by implementing a suitable rectangular parallelepiped shaped tank, as taught by Tsopoulidis. This would provide the predictable result and benefit of allowing the tank to more easily pass through doors, as suggested by Tsopoulidis in the portion cited above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 and 7-8 are 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:
Regarding claim 3. The combination of Hori in view of Ishibashi, as applied to claim 1, represents the closest prior art of record to the claimed invention. The prior art fails to teach, “wherein an upper end face of the lower heat insulating material and a lower end face of the middle heat insulating material are inclined upward from insides toward outsides.”, in addition to the rest of the claim.
Instead, the suitable slanted portion of Ishibashi relies on a downward slant from inside to outside. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply an upward slant, as claimed, since this would defeat the purpose of the slant, see Ishibashi para. 11.
Regarding claim 4. The combination of Hori in view of Ishibashi, as applied to claim 1, represents the closest prior art of record to the claimed invention. The prior art fails to teach, “wherein the lower end face of the upper heat insulating material and the upper end face of the middle heat insulating material have a smaller inclined angle than an inclined angle of a lower end face of the middle heat insulating material and an upper end face of the lower heat insulating material.”, in addition to the rest of the claim.
Instead, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the suitable slant of Ishibashi to a lower connection at an angle different from the upper connection, as claimed.
Regarding claim 7. The combination of Hori, Ishibashi, and Sudo, as applied to claim 6, represents the closest prior art of record to the claimed invention. The prior art fails to teach, “wherein the cylindrical portion is formed separately from the lower heat insulating material and the upper heat insulating material.”, in addition to the rest of the claim.
Instead, the prior art teaches the cylindrical portion formed as part of the larger insulation material. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to make these portions separate, as claimed.
Regarding claim 8. The combination of Hori, Ishibashi, and Sudo, as applied to claim 6, represents the closest prior art of record to the claimed invention. The prior art fails to teach, “wherein the cylindrical portion is made of a flexible material whose Young's modulus is smaller than a Young's modulus of a material for the lower heat insulating material, the middle heat insulating material, and the upper heat insulating material.”, in addition to the rest of the claim.
Instead, the prior art teaches the cylindrical portion formed as part of the larger insulation material. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide a material having a different Young’s modulus as the cylindrical portion, as claimed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kurt J Wolford whose telephone number is (571)272-9945. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 AM - 3:30 PM.
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/KURT J WOLFORD/Examiner, Art Unit 3762 /MICHAEL G HOANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3762