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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1, 6, and 13-15 are amended. Claims 7-12 and 16 are as previously presented. Claims 2-6 are withdrawn. Therefore, claims 1 and 7-16 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on March 02, 2026 has been entered. Applicant’s amendment overcomes the 112f interpretation of the “status acquisition apparatus” in claims 13-14.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 7-10, filed on 03/02/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 7-16 under U.S.C. 102 and 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of applicant’s amendment regarding the swing of the output voltage in the two regulation manners and newly found prior art regarding these features.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 2-6 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Inventions I and II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant’s election does not include arguments and has been assumed to be an election made without traverse in the reply filed on 07/28/2025.
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1 and 7-16 in the reply filed on 07/28/2025 is acknowledged. Examiner notes that claim 16 depends upon claim 7 and should have been part of Invention III.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CN202210464065.6, filed on 04/29/2022.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1, 7-10, and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei et al. (CN 111802709 A, hereinafter Mei) in view of Bellinger et al. (WO 2016200382 A1, hereinafter Bellinger) and Marc et al. (JP 2019037226 A, hereinafter Marc).
Regarding claim 1, Mei discloses a method for controlling an electronic vaporization device (Page 1, last Para., “an electronic atomizing device, control method, control device and computer device.”), comprising:
obtaining an output voltage sampling value (Page 2, Para. 7 from end, “a working voltage detection circuit for detecting the working voltage”) of a pulse boost circuit of the electronic vaporization device in real time (Page 5, Para. 3 from end, “half-bridge boost circuit 220 for electrically connecting the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, the power supply voltage for boosting the atomizing assembly 210 provides a working voltage”, and Page 6, Para. 5 from end, “the working voltage detection circuit 231 to the half-bridge boost circuit 220 provides the working voltage for real time detection”);
determining, according to the output voltage sampling value (Page 6, Para. 7 from end, “detecting the working voltage”, where the working voltage is construed as the output voltage sampling value) and a preset cell voltage (Page 6, Para. 5, “Vbat is the power supply voltage”, where Vbat is construed as the preset cell voltage), whether the output voltage sampling value is greater than the preset cell voltage (Page 8, Para. 8, “controlling the half-bridge boosting circuit 220 to boost the power supply voltage to obtain the working voltage to supply power to the atomizing assembly 210.”, where the system functions when the working voltage is greater than the power supply voltage, as the working voltage is a value that is boosted from the power supply voltage);
performing, according to the output voltage sampling value and the preset cell voltage if the output voltage sampling value is greater than the preset cell voltage and is less than or equal to a preset voltage threshold, pulse boost regulation on the pulse boost circuit in a first regulation manner (Para. 0101, “
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”, where Vo’ is the working voltage or output voltage sampling value, where Vo is the preset voltage threshold or target voltage, where the change in the duty cycle is determined based on this formula; where when Vo’ is less than Vo and where Vo’ is greater than Vbat, this means that the duty cycle is reduced, where the pulse boost circuit regulation would have the duty cycle reduced; where when Vo’ is equal to Vo, then the duty cycle is unchanged); and
performing, according to the output voltage sampling value and the preset cell voltage if the output voltage sampling value is greater than the preset voltage threshold, pulse boost regulation on the pulse boost circuit in a second regulation manner (Para. 0101, “
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”, where Vo’ is the working voltage or output voltage sampling value, where Vo is the preset voltage threshold or target voltage, where the change in the duty cycle is determined based on this formula; where when Vo’ is greater than Vo and where Vo’ is greater than Vbat, this means that the duty cycle is increased, where the pulse boost circuit regulation would have the duty cycle increased).
Mei does not disclose:
where the first regulation manner to cause the output voltage of the pulse boost circuit to swing between the output voltage sampling value and the preset cell voltage; and
where the second regulation manner to cause the output voltage of the pulse boost circuit to swing between the preset voltage threshold and the preset cell voltage.
However, Bellinger discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Abstract, “two-stage atomizer”), where a threshold voltage can be set and where a voltage below that threshold is maintained and a voltage above that threshold is reduced so that the value of the voltage becomes the threshold value (Para. 0032, “With a heating element 506 having known resistance/temperature characteristics, a resistance at a threshold or maximum temperature can be determined. Further, with the constant current provided by the current source 504, this threshold resistance can be translated to a threshold or reference voltage. As shown in Fig. 5, circuit 500 includes a voltage sensor 508, which can be a voltage divider, for example, or substantially any component capable of outputting a measured output voltage. The voltage sensor 508 provides the measured output voltage to a comparator 510 for comparison to the reference voltage. When the output voltage exceeds the reference voltage (i.e., when the temperature of the heating element 506 exceeds the threshold), the comparator 510 provides a feedback signal to the current source 504 to reduce power and lower the temperature.”, where the voltage threshold is the reference voltage and where if the voltage exceeds the threshold then the power is reduced and voltage lower to reach the reference voltage; where if the voltage is below the threshold then parameters are maintained as the voltage does not need to be reduced). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the target voltage in Mei to include the below and above threshold voltage conditions as taught by Bellinger.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use the threshold voltage to maintain a set temperature for the vaporization device, as stated by Bellinger, Para. 0032, “With a heating element 506 having known resistance/temperature characteristics, a resistance at a threshold or maximum temperature can be determined…When the output voltage exceeds the reference voltage (i.e., when the temperature of the heating element 506 exceeds the threshold), the comparator 510 provides a feedback signal to the current source 504 to reduce power and lower the temperature.”.
Further, Marc discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Abstract, “a safe, high-quality, and energy-efficient vaporizer unit”), where when operating a vaporization device, the voltage can be swung or oscillated between two values (Page 3, Para. 1, “The amount of aerosol generated in the vaporizer 20 can be changed by changing the applied voltage, and can also be changed by changing the number of heating elements 36 used in parallel. A voltage is applied to these heating elements 36, for example, pulsed, oscillated, or by pulse width modulation. Voltage characteristics, such as amplitude and / or frequency spectrum, can be suitably adjusted over time or by user settings of the aspirator 10.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the minimum voltage and output voltage values in modified Mei to be swung or oscillated as taught by Marc; where the voltage characteristics as taught by Marc could be set by a user and those characteristics could be swing the voltage between a minimum and maximum value, where from Mei the minimum value would be the battery voltage and the maximum value from the teaching of Bellinger would be either a voltage below the threshold or the threshold voltage itself.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to oscillate the voltage in order to adjust the amount of aerosol generated, where allowing a user to choose between different voltage oscillations would allow for control over the aerosol generated, as stated by Marc, Page 3, Para. 1, “The amount of aerosol generated in the vaporizer 20 can be changed by changing the applied voltage, and can also be changed by changing the number of heating elements 36 used in parallel. A voltage is applied to these heating elements 36, for example, pulsed, oscillated, or by pulse width modulation.”.
Regarding claim 7, modified Mei teaches the method according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses a system for controlling an electronic vaporization device (Mei, Page 1, last Para., “an electronic atomizing device, control method, control device and computer device.”), comprising:
a memory (Mei, Page 10, Para. 2, “computer device, comprising a memory”); and
a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program (Mei, Page 10, Para. 2, “a processor, the memory is stored with a computer program”), and
wherein the processor, when executing the computer program, implements the method for controlling the electronic vaporization device of claim 1 (Mei, Page 10, Para. 2-6, “processor executes the computer program to realize the following steps: determining the first duty ratio of the high-frequency PWM control signal according to the power supply voltage and the pre-set target voltage; outputting the high-frequency PWM control signal to the half-bridge boosting circuit 220. In one embodiment, the processor executes the computer program further realizes the following steps: obtaining the working voltage of the half-bridge boosting circuit 220;”, where the steps that the processor follows are the steps from claim 1, shown through the formula given in Para. 0101).
Regarding claim 8, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, as set forth above, discloses further comprising: a pulse boost circuit (Mei, Page 10, Para. 4, “half-bridge boosting circuit 220.”),
wherein the processor (Mei, Page 6, Para. 2, “The control unit 230 includes a controller 232 having the ability to output high frequency signals, such as a single chip computer or other microprocessors. capable of directly providing high frequency PWM control signal to the half-bridge boost circuit 220, realizing boost control”),
a power supply of the electronic vaporization device, and a vaporizer of the electronic vaporization device are respectively connected to the pulse boost circuit (Mei, Page 5, last Para., “half-bridge boost circuit 220 is set between the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, for boosting the power supply voltage”).
Regarding claim 9, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 8, as set forth above, discloses wherein the pulse boost circuit comprises a boost circuit (Mei, Page 7, Para. 3, “half-bridge boost circuit 220 comprises: a capacitor C1, a capacitor C2, an inductor L, a diode D, a MOS tube Q1 and a resistor R;”, where the boost circuit components that boost voltage would be the capacitor C1 and the inductor L),
a pulse control circuit (Mei, Page 7, last Para., “controlling the on-off of the MOS tube Q1 through the high frequency PWM control signal, realizing boosting”, where the pulse control circuit is the electrical structure coupled to the PWM control signal that leads to the processor), and
an energy storage circuit (Mei, Page 7, last Para., “When the MOS tube Q1 is turned off, the power supply 100 and the inductor simultaneously supply power to the atomizing assembly 210 through the diode, at the same time, charging the capacitor C2.”, where energy is stored into the capacitor C2),
wherein the boost circuit is connected to the power supply of the electronic vaporization device (Mei, Page 5, last Para., “half-bridge boost circuit 220 is set between the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, for boosting the power supply voltage”), wherein the boost circuit is connected to the pulse control circuit (Mei, Page 7, Para. 3, “half-bridge boost circuit 220 comprises: a capacitor C1, a capacitor C2, an inductor L, a diode D, a MOS tube Q1 and a resistor R;”, where the boost circuit 220 is connected to PWM control signal electrical system), wherein the pulse control circuit is connected to the energy storage circuit (Mei, Page 7, Para. 3, “half-bridge boost circuit 220 comprises: a capacitor C1, a capacitor C2, an inductor L, a diode D, a MOS tube Q1 and a resistor R;”, where the boost circuit 220 is connected to PWM and PWM is connected to C2),
wherein the energy storage circuit is connected to the vaporizer of the electronic vaporization device (Mei, Page 5, last Para., “half-bridge boost circuit 220 is set between the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, for boosting the power supply voltage”, where the boost circuit 220 includes the energy storage circuit C2, and where the boost circuit is connected to the vaporizer in the atomizing assembly), and wherein the boost circuit, the pulse control circuit, and the energy storage circuit are respectively connected to the processor (Mei, Page 6, Para. 2, “The control unit 230 includes a controller 232 having the ability to output high frequency signals, such as a single chip computer or other microprocessors. capable of directly providing high frequency PWM control signal to the half-bridge boost circuit 220, realizing boost control”).
Regarding claim 10, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 9, as set forth above, discloses wherein the boost circuit comprises a first capacitor, a first resistor, a first switch device, a first diode, and a boost inductor (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where the first capacitor, first resistor, a first switch device, first diode, and boost inductor are shown),
wherein a first end of the first capacitor is connected to the power supply of the electronic vaporization device (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where the feature is shown as C1 is connected to Vbat), and
a second end of the first capacitor is grounded (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where C1 is connected to ground),
wherein a first end of the first resistor is connected to the first end of the first capacitor (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where R is connected to C1) and a first end of the first switch device (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where Q1 is connected to R), and
a second end of the first resistor is connected to a control end of the first switch device (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where Q1 is connected to R, where these electrical components are connected in parallel meaning that the ends of both components are connected to each other) and the processor (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where R is connected to PWM, where PWM is connected to a processor, Page 6, Para. 5 from end, “controller 232 according to the difference between the target voltage and the working voltage to adjust the high frequency PWM control signal”),
wherein a second end of the first switch device is connected to a cathode of the first diode (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where Q1 is connected to the right side of the diode through C2) and a first end of the boost inductor (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where Q1 is connected to L through C1), and
a second end of the boost inductor is connected to the pulse control circuit (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where L is connected to PWM through Q1), and wherein
an anode of the first diode is connected to the second end of the first capacitor and the pulse control circuit (Mei, Modified Fig. 5, where the anode on the left is connected to C1 and PWM through C2).
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Modified Figure 5, Mei
Regarding claim 16, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 7, as set forth above, discloses an electronic vaporization device (Mei, Page 5, last Para., “half-bridge boost circuit 220 is set between the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, for boosting the power supply voltage”, where the atomizing assembly is the construed as the electronic vaporization device), comprising: a vaporizer (Mei, Page 6, Para. 1, “the atomizing assembly 210 is atomized.”); and the system for controlling an electronic vaporization device of claim 7 (Mei, Page 1, last Para., “an electronic atomizing device, control method, control device and computer device.”, where the control device of the vaporization device is connected to the vaporizer in order to ensure that a constant voltage is supplied, Page 6, Para. 6 from end, “controller 232, for obtaining the working voltage detecting circuit 231 feedback the working voltage, and adjusting the high frequency PWM control signal according to the difference of the target voltage and the working voltage, so that the working voltage is constant.”).
Claims 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei et al. (CN 111802709 A, hereinafter Mei) in view of Bellinger et al. (WO 2016200382 A1, hereinafter Bellinger) and Marc et al. (JP 2019037226 A, hereinafter Marc) in further view of Kieckbusch et al. (US 20140299137 A1, hereinafter Kieckbusch).
Regarding claim 11, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 9, as set forth above.
Modified Mei does not disclose:
wherein the pulse control circuit comprises a second resistor, a second switch device, and a second diode,
wherein a first end of the second switch device is connected to the boost circuit and an anode of the second diode,
wherein a cathode of the second diode is connected to the energy storage circuit,
wherein a control end of the second switch device is connected to a first end of the second resistor and the processor,
wherein a second end of the second resistor is connected to the boost circuit and a second end of the second switch device, and wherein a second end of the second switch device is connected to the energy storage circuit.
However, Kieckbusch discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Para. 0003, “Electronic cigarettes come in various shapes and sizes and utilize electric power to vaporize a liquid smoke solution that includes flavorings and nicotine.”), where a pulse width modulation circuit can include a resistor, switch, and diode (Para. 0048, “The power converter 175 includes an internal switching mechanism (e.g., Pulse Width Modulator) that, when in a switched open position, causes the polarity of the voltage across the inductor 280 to be reversed… When the charge cycle is complete, the internal switch of the power converter 175 opens and a discharge cycle begins. The current path for the discharge cycle starts with the inductor 280 forcing current through the diode 285, a control resistor (load sense) 290”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the boost circuit in modified Mei to be connected to the circuit for PWM as taught by Kieckbusch, where the internal switch would be connected to the boost circuit from Mei and be connected to the anode of the diode, where the cathode of the diode being within the PWM system of Mei would be connected to C2, where the internal switch is connected to the diode and resistor, where the internal switch would also be connected to the processor from Mei as the PWM system is connected to a processor in Mei, where the resistor would be connected to the boost circuit in Mei and the internal switch, where the internal switch is part of the PWM system and where the PWM system in Mei is connected to C2.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of the circuit design of a pulse width modulation device that can prevent overheating or damage to a heating device, as stated by Kieckbusch, Para. 0075, “This very high frequency switching by the PWM that occurs internal to the power converter 175 is well known and allows a fixed magnitude of voltage or current to be maintained at the output of the power converter 175, and is distinguishable from a mechanism that "regulates" an output power from a device using rapid switching ( e.g., on the order of about every 1 to 50 milliseconds) of the device output on and off to start and stop current or voltage flow in order to prevent overheating or damage to a heating element.”.
Claims 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei et al. (CN 111802709 A, hereinafter Mei) in view of Bellinger et al. (WO 2016200382 A1, hereinafter Bellinger) and Marc et al. (JP 2019037226 A, hereinafter Marc) in further view of Hatton et al. (WO 2020082015 A1, hereinafter Hattan).
Regarding claim 12, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 9, as set forth above, discloses wherein the energy storage circuit comprises a second capacitor (Mei, Modified Fig. 2, where the energy storage circuit is capacitor C2), wherein a first end of the second capacitor is connected to the pulse control circuit and a vaporizer of the electronic vaporization device (Mei, Page 5, last Para., “half-bridge boost circuit 220 is set between the power supply 100 and the atomizing assembly 210, for boosting the power supply voltage”, where the boost circuit 220 includes the energy storage circuit C2, and where the boost circuit is connected to the vaporizer in the atomizing assembly; modified Fig. 5, where the bottom end of C2 is connected to the atomizing assembly and the pulse control circuit PWM).
Modified Mei does not disclose:
wherein the energy storage circuit comprises a third switch device;
wherein a second end of the second capacitor is connected to a first end of the third switch device, wherein a second end of the third switch device is connected to the pulse control circuit and the vaporizer, and
wherein a control end of the third switch device is connected to the processor.
However, Hattan discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Abstract, “a heating element of a vaporizer atomizer.”), where an energy storage circuit can include a switch device (Para. 0013, “The energy storage device can include capacitors in a switched-capacitors topology or a charge-pump topology.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the second capacitor C2 in modified Mei to be a switched capacitor as taught by Hattan; where in modified Fig. 5, the switch would be above C2 and would be connected to the pulse control circuit PWM and vaporizer by being a part of the boost circuit, and where the switch would be connected to the processor through the PWM.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of using an energy storage device that is known within the electronic vaporization field, where a switched capacitor can allow energy storage to be controlled for when a user desires, as stated by Hattan, Para. 0018, “For example, the converter can include a step-up and/or a step-down converter; the converter can include an energy storage device. The energy storage device can include capacitors in a switched-capacitors topology or a charge-pump topology.”
Claims 13 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei et al. (CN 111802709 A, hereinafter Mei) in view of Bellinger et al. (WO 2016200382 A1, hereinafter Bellinger) and Marc et al. (JP 2019037226 A, hereinafter Marc) in further view of Lahoud et al. (US 20220117296 A1, hereinafter Lahoud).
Regarding claim 13, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 8, as set forth above.
Modified Mei does not disclose:
further comprising: a status acquisition apparatus, wherein the pulse boost circuit is connected to the status acquisition apparatus and the vaporizer, wherein the status acquisition apparatus is connected to the processor, and wherein the status acquisition apparatus is configured to acquire an output voltage sampling value of the pulse boost circuit.
However, Lahoud discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Para. 0003, “Mist inhaler devices or electronic vaporising inhalers are becoming popular among smokers”), where a status acquisition apparatus can determine what the voltage is of a circuit (Para. 0472, “The current sensor 335 comprises a first voltage sensor in the form of a first operational amplifier 344 which measures the voltage drop across the first current sensor resistor RshuntP and a second voltage sensor in the form of a second operational amplifier 345 which measures the voltage drop across the second current sensor resistor RshuntN. In this example, the gain of each operational amplifier 344, 345 is 2V/V. The output of each operational amplifier 344, 345 is, in this example, 1 mA/V. The current sensor 335 comprises a pull down resistor Ra which, in this example, is 2 kQ. The outputs of the operational amplifiers 344, 345 provide an output CSout which passes through a low pass filter 346 which removes transients in the signal CSout. An output Vout of the low pass filter 346 is the output signal of the current sensor 335.”, where the output Vout would be the voltage determined by the current sensor), and where the status acquisition apparatus is connected to a processor (Para. 0626, “The executed instructions cause the processor to sense, using a current sensor, periodically during the first predetermined length of time the current of the AC drive signal flowing through the ultrasonic transducer 215 and storing periodically measured current values in the memory.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the pulse boost circuit that has an output voltage sampling value in modified Mei to include the voltage sensors within the current sensor as taught by Lahoud, where the Vout would be the output voltage sampling value from the pulse boost circuit.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use a current sensor to create a specific driving program for the electronic vaporization device, where this control allows a user to have greater customization over the vaporization process, as stated by Lahoud, Para. 0626, “The executed instructions cause the processor to sense, using a current sensor, periodically during the first predetermined length of time the current of the AC drive signal flowing through the ultrasonic transducer 215”.
Regarding claim 15, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 13, as set forth above.
Modified Mei does not disclose:
wherein the status acquisition apparatus comprises a third resistor, a fourth resistor, and a fifth resistor, wherein a first end of the fourth resistor is connected to the power supply, wherein a second end of the fourth resistor is connected to the pulse boost circuit, a first end of the third resistor, and the vaporizer, wherein a second end of the third resistor is connected to the processor and a first end of the fifth resistor, and wherein a second end of the fifth resistor is connected to the processor.
However, Lahoud discloses where there are three resistors within the current/voltage sensor (Para. 0472, “current sensor 335 comprises positive and negative current sense resistors RshuntP, RshuntN which are connected in series with the respective high and low sides of the H-bridge 334, as shown in FIG. 50…The current sensor 335 comprises a pull down resistor Ra”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the power supply connected to the pulse boost circuit connected to the vaporizer in modified Mei to include connection between the three resistors as taught by Lahoud; where the resistors in series must be connected to each other as they are in series, where the series resistors would be need to be connected to the processor in order to allow the processor to receive the current sensor signals; where a pull down resistor would be between a circuit input and ground, where this resistor would connect to the power supply and pulse boost circuit through a parallel connection as the voltage remains the same through a parallel connection.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use a current/voltage sensor configuration that can be used to offer greater control over the vaporization process, as stated by Lahoud, Para. 0626, “The executed instructions cause the processor to sense, using a current sensor, periodically during the first predetermined length of time the current of the AC drive signal flowing through the ultrasonic transducer 215”.
Claims 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mei et al. (CN 111802709 A, hereinafter Mei) in view of Bellinger et al. (WO 2016200382 A1, hereinafter Bellinger) and Marc et al. (JP 2019037226 A, hereinafter Marc) in view of Lahoud et al. (US 20220117296 A1, hereinafter Lahoud) in further view of Bowen et al. (JP 2021503901 A, hereinafter Bowen).
Regarding claim 14, modified Mei teaches the apparatus according to claim 13, as set forth above.
Modified Mei does not disclose:
wherein the status acquisition apparatus is configured to acquire a cartridge insertion/removal detection signal, and send the cartridge insertion/removal detection signal to the processor.
However, Bowen discloses, in the similar field of electronic vaporization devices (Abstract, “operation of electronic vaporizers”), where a sensor can also detect a cartridge being removed and let the processor know (Page 7, Para. 2, “In some optional variations, the controller 105 (eg, receiving a signal from one or more of the sensors 137) detects the removal of the cartridge 114 while periodically repeating multiple temperature settings. This can be operated to stabilize the temperature (eg, if the period is the desired temperature, the user can remove the cartridge 114 to set the desired temperature).”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the current/voltage sensor of modified Mei to further include a cartridge removal detection ability as taught by Bowen.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of allowing the system to know if a cartridge is removed so that a temperature can be stabilized, where this feature can allow a user to set a specific temperature without the presence of a cartridge and improve the ease of use of the device, as stated by Bowen, Page 7, Para. 2, “This can be operated to stabilize the temperature (eg, if the period is the desired temperature, the user can remove the cartridge 114 to set the desired temperature).”.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) 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 KEVIN GUANHUA WEN whose telephone number is (571)272-9940 and whose email is kevin.wen@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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/KEVIN GUANHUA WEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
05/27/2026
/IBRAHIME A ABRAHAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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