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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 6242465 B1 to Miike Inc. in view of JP 2019-10608 A to Satoshi.
Regarding claim 1, Miike Inc. discloses a unit comprising:
a power generator (Fig. 1: 14);
an oxygen separator (5) that separates oxygen and nitrogen in air using electric power supplied by the power generator; and
a float (11) floating on water, wherein
the power generator (14) and the oxygen separator (5) are installed on an upper surface (12) of the float,
a first fine air bubble generating medium (3) that supplies oxygen separated by the oxygen separator (5) into water as fine air bubbles (13), and
However, it fails to disclose a second fine air bubble generating medium that supplies nitrogen separated by the oxygen separator into water as fine air bubbles
Satoshi teaches a second fine air bubble generating medium (Fig. 1: 24) that supplies nitrogen (gas as nitrogen) separated by the oxygen separator into water as fine air bubbles (32A).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the teaching of the nitrogen supplied bubble generating medium as disclosed by Satoshi to the unit disclosed by Miike Inc.
One would have been motivated to do so to use the unused nitrogen from Miike Inc. to generate additional bubbles.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Miike Inc. and Satoshi discloses the first fine air bubble generating medium and the second fine air bubble generating medium are formed of a carbon-based porous material (Satoshi, Fig. 3: 24A).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIET P NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-9457. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12-8.
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/VIET P NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834