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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the housing (110; claim 1) must be shown (label it) or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 20-22, 24-27, 37-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oh (US 2008/0282490).
As to claim 20, Oh includes a wet duster (The element in Fig. 1) for a cleaner (The “cleaner main body”; para 41), comprising:
a housing (10);
a water tank (50) coupled to the housing and configured to store water;
at least one rotation cleaning unit (41, 42) disposed at a lower side of the housing and configured to couple to a duster; and
a steam generator (60) configured to heat water supplied from the water tank (para 40), wherein the steam generator comprises:
a water inlet (64a) configured to receive water from the water tank (para 57), and
a moisture outlet (65c) configured to discharge steam (para 58), and wherein, in a state in which the duster is placed on a floor, a height from the floor to the water inlet is greater than a height from the floor to the moisture outlet (64a is above 65c; Fig. 7A).
As to claim 21, wherein the steam generator further comprises a heating chamber (64) connected to the water inlet and the moisture outlet, the heating chamber having a bottom surface (65a) configured to contact water (Fig. 7A), and wherein, in the state in which the duster is placed on the floor, the bottom surface (The bottom surface of 64 is horizontal) of the heating chamber is inclined with respect to the floor by a predetermined angle (If the duster were placed on an inclined floor, the rear end is higher than the front end).
As to claim 22, wherein the steam generator further comprises: a heating chamber (64) that defines a flow path configured to guide water or steam; and a heater (66) configured to supply heat to the heating chamber, and wherein the heating chamber comprises (i) a chamber body (The wall of 64 that 65a rests on) and (ii) at least one flow guide wall (65a) that protrudes from an inside of the chamber body (para 58 and Fig. 7A).
As to claim 24, wherein the at least one flow guide wall is inclined with respect to a side wall (A vertical wall of 64) of the chamber body (Fig. 7A-7B).
As to claim 25, wherein the heating chamber further comprises a partition wall (The U-shaped wall surrounding 65b) that protrudes from a bottom surface (The flat surface of 64 that 65a rests on) of the chamber body and extends in a front-rear direction to thereby divide an inner space of the chamber body (Fig. 7A-7B).
As to claim 26, wherein the at least one flow guide wall is inclined with respect to the partition wall (Fig. 7A-7B).
As to claim 27, wherein the heating chamber is configured to guide steam between the partition wall and the at least one flow guide wall (Fig. 7A-7B).
As to claim 37, A wet duster (The element in Fig. 1) for a cleaner (The “cleaner main body”; para 41), comprising:
a housing (10) comprising (i) a lower housing (13) and (ii) an upper housing (11) that covers the lower housing (para 41);
a water tank (50) coupled to the housing and configured to store water;
at least one rotation cleaning unit (41, 42) disposed at a lower side of the housing and configured to couple to a duster; and
a steam generator (60) configured to heat water supplied from the water tank (para 40),
wherein the steam generator comprises:
a water inlet (64a) configured to receive water from the water tank (para 57), and
a moisture outlet (65c) configured to discharge steam (para 58), and
wherein a shortest distance from the at least one rotation cleaning unit to the water inlet is
greater than a shortest distance from the at least one rotation cleaning unit to the moisture outlet (64a is above 65c, and both are above 41/42; Fig. 1 and 7A).
As to claim 38, wherein the steam generator further comprises a heating chamber (64) connected to the water inlet and the moisture outlet, the heating chamber having a bottom surface (65a) configured to contact water (Fig. 7A), wherein the at least one rotation cleaning unit has a disk shape (41 and 42 are disk shape; Fig. 1), and wherein, in a state in which the duster is placed on a floor, the bottom surface (The bottom surface of 64 is horizontal) of the heating chamber is inclined with respect to a surface (The surface of 44b; Fig. 3) of the at least one rotation cleaning unit by a predetermined angle.
As to claim 39, wherein, in the state in which the duster is placed on the floor, a rear end of the bottom surface of the heating chamber is disposed higher than a front end of the bottom surface of the heating chamber (If the duster were placed on an inclined floor, the rear end is higher than the front end), the rear end being located closer to the cleaner than the front end (Fig. 2).
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 33-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh (US 2008/0282490) in view of Nuttall (US 2014/0259515) and Oh 48’ (US 2009/0064448).
As to claim 33, Oh does not include a diffuser comprising at least one nozzle, the diffuser being configured to supply steam discharged from the steam generator to the duster through the at least one nozzle.
Nuttall includes a steam cleaner having a diffuser (308) comprising at least one nozzle (para 35).
Oh 48’ includes a steam cleaner which supplies steam discharged from a steam generator (1350a; para 69) to a duster (1371a) through a nozzle (1371e) [Fig. 23].
It would have been obvious to modify Oh to include a diffuser (for example, a cone shaped diffuser) comprising at least one nozzle, as taught by Nuttall, in order to distribute the steam more easily (para 35).
It would have been obvious to modify Oh to supply steam discharged from the steam generator to the duster through a nozzle, as taught by Oh ’48, in order to enhance the cleaning effectiveness of the steam cleaner.
As to claim 34, Nuttall provides the following: wherein the diffuser further comprises: a diffuser body (308 is cone shaped, and the diffuser body is a cone shaped segment of 308) that defines a diffusion flow path configured to guide steam; and a connection pipe (The top section of 308) disposed at the diffuser body (para 35 of Nuttall) and coupled to the moisture outlet of the steam generator.
As to claim 35, wherein the diffuser body has an annular shape (308 is cone shaped, which is an annular geometry).
As to claim 36, wherein the diffuser body has an arc shape (308 is cone shaped, which is an arc geometry).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23 and 28-32 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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 ANDREW A. HORTON whose telephone number is (571)270-5039. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica S. Carter can be reached at (571) 272-4475. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW A HORTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723