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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and amendment, filed 4/23/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-3, 7, 9, 10 and 13 under 35 USC 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sosuke et al (JPH 09318271) 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Goodfellow et al (4,747,771).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Goodfellow et al (4,747,771). Goodfellow et al discloses a heating furnace (column 2, lines 28-33), comprising a plurality of heat storage coolers (1, 1A, 1B) capable of introducing a cooling gas into an inside of the furnace and sucking an in-furnace gas; wherein each of the plurality of heat storage coolers comprises a gas nozzle (10) in communication with the inside of the furnace (SEE element 8 & 11 of Figure 1); a gas port (70) in communication with an outside of the furnace and connected to a gas piping system (69, 88, 90, SEE Figure 1) that is capable of switching between supplying gas to the heat storage cooler and exhausting gas from the heat storage cooler (column 4, lines 34-45); a gas passage (116, 103, 104, 105, 110) communicating the gas nozzle with the gas port and having a space (103) for filling a heat storage element (100); and a heat storage element filled in the space for filling the heat storage element (Figure 1), wherein the gas nozzle is not configured to be supplied with a fuel gas (gas nozzle receives waste gas from the furnace), and wherein the gas nozzle is configured to suck in heated in-furnace gas and direct the heated in-furnace gas to the heat storage element and cool the heated in-furnace gas prior to being discharged from the gas port (column 4, lines 21-45). In re claim 3, Goodfellow et al discloses that the heat storage cooler of the plurality of heat storage coolers comprises at least one inlet/outlet (112) for exchanging the heat storage element. In re claim 6, Goodfellow et al discloses that the heat storage element is in a form of balls, honeycombs or meshes (column 8, lines 25-30). In re claim 7, Goodfellow et al discloses that at least one of the plurality of heat storage coolers comprises the gas nozzle (10) on a first inner wall (11), and at least one of the plurality of heat storage coolers comprises the gas nozzle on a second inner wall facing the first inner wall (schematically depicted in Figure 3, where each regenerator (1) are on opposite sides of the furnace as is commonly known in the art). In re claim 9, Goodfellow et al discloses
wherein a number of the heat storage coolers includes the gas nozzle on the first inner wall and a number of the heat storage coolers comprising the gas nozzle on the second inner wall are the same (schematically depicted in Figure 3, where each regenerator on opposite sides of the inner wall of a furnace are identical as commonly known in the art). In re claim 10, Goodfellow et al discloses at least one heat storage cooler including the gas nozzle on the first inner wall and at least one heat storage cooler comprising the gas nozzle on the second inner wall are configured to be contrary regarding a timing of introducing the cooling gas into the furnace and a timing of sucking the in-furnace gas (they are regenerative, SEE column 4, lines 21-45, this is the common function). In re claim 13, Goodfellow et al discloses that the heating furnace is a firing furnace (SEE Abstract).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hanzawa et al (11,029,090) in view of Goodfellow et al (4,747,771). Hanzawa et al discloses a continuous industrial furnace having an inlet, a heating zone, a cooling zone (SEE column 30, lines 30-59) and an outlet wherein the furnace is configured to heat treat a workpiece while conveying the workpiece from the inlet to the outlet. Goodfellow et al teaches a plurality of heat storage coolers (1) which are incorporated into the wall of the furnace which is capable of receiving and cooling waste gas from a furnace. It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the applicants claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art for which the subject matter pertains to have adapted the plurality of heat storage coolers of Goodfellow et al into the cooling zone of the continuous industrial furnace of Hanzawa et al and arrived at the applicants claimed invention for the purpose of cooling waste gas and supplying cooled gas into the furnace with less deviation from the temperature of the furnace gas.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 8, 11 and 12 are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY A WILSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4882. The examiner can normally be reached M-F; 7:00am-4:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Helena Kosanovic can be reached at 571-272-9059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GREGORY A WILSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 May 2, 2026
Prosecution Insights