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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-5 and 20 in the reply filed on 10/20/2025 is acknowledged.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Scarth (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0216253 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Scarth discloses a filter system comprising:
A fluid channel configured to guide a fluid (Fig. 1, Air) to be separated into at least two constituents (air with lowered CO2 exiting through port 15, and air with higher CO2 exiting through port 14);
An ionizer (12) in or at the fluid channel, the ionizer configured to at least partially ionize the fluid into ions (paragraph 0053); and
A separation unit (13) in or at the fluid channel, the separation unit arranged downstream of the ionizer (Fig. 1) and configured to separate the at least two constituents from one another and to guide them separately from one another (paragraph 0056).
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.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 5 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scarth in view of Murakami, et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0134647 A1).
Regarding claims 2 and 20, Scarth discloses the filter system according to claim 1, but fails to teach the specific type of ionizer, other than to specify that it is an electron-emission source (paragraph 0053).
Murakami teaches an electron-emission ionizer comprising at least one gate-insulator-substrate electron-emission structure (GIS-EE) (Fig. 2);
Wherein the at least one GIS-EE is configured to emit low-energy electrons (paragraph 0061) causing the ions, and
Wherein the at least one GIS-EE comprises:
An electrically conductive substrate (1),
An insulator layer (6) of a dielectric material located on the substrate,
A gate electrode (3) of a further electrically conductive material located directly on the insulator layer,
A first electrical connection located on the substrate (implied by a voltage being applied between electrode substrate 1 and gate electrode 3: the substrate 1 must be connected electrically to either a voltage source or ground in order for this to happen), and
A second electrical connection (4) located on the gate electrode.
Murakami further teaches that such an electron source is resistant to corrosion and can be used in harsh environments (paragraph 0092).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Murakami’s electron emission source as the electron emission source in Scarth’s filter, because doing so would allow the device to be used in harsh environments.
Regarding claim 3, Murakami’s gate electrode comprises carbon and has a thickness of at most 10 nm (paragraph 0078 – polycrystalline graphite film having a film thickness of 7 nm).
Regarding claim 5, Murakami’s GIS-EE is a field ionizer (paragraph 0057).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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: the prior art fails to teach wherein the at least one GIS-EE is divided into a plurality of lamellae, or the at least one GIS-EE is lattice-shaped and is penetrated by a plurality of holes, or the lamellae or a lattice with the holes is realized by a plurality of GIS-EEs, and wherein intermediate spaces between the lamellae or the holes are included in the fluid channel.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL P MASKELL whose telephone number is (571)270-3210. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10A-6P.
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/MICHAEL MASKELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881 07 February 2026