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 Amendment
Receipt and entry of Applicant’s Amendment filed on 02/04/2025 is acknowledged. Claim 17 has been amended. Claims 8-27 are pending in the application.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group 1, claims 8-16 and 21-27, in the reply filed on 02/04/2025 is acknowledged. However, in view of Applicant’s amendment making the claims of Group II, claims 17-20, depend from the claims of Group I, the restriction requirement between Groups I and II, as set forth in the Office action mailed on 12/05/2024, is hereby withdrawn and claims 17-20 are hereby rejoined.
In view of the withdrawal of the restriction requirement as to the rejoined inventions, applicant(s) are advised that if any claim presented in a divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application. Once the restriction requirement is withdrawn, the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 121 are no longer applicable. See In re Ziegler, 443 F.2d 1211, 1215, 170 USPQ 129, 131-32 (CCPA 1971). See also MPEP § 804.01.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 8-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Independent claim 8 recites “wherein the cascade expander is downstream of and fluidly connected with the primary expander.” Independent claim 21 recites similar. This limitation was introduced in the 09/13/2023 preliminary amendment of this continuation application, and does not constitute part of the original disclosure. The original disclosure, see Fig. 1 and description thereof, discloses a cascade expander 22 arranged in parallel with primary expander 18, not downstream thereof as claimed. The flow is split downstream of high-pressure compressor 10H, with a portion going to primary expander 18 and the remainder going to cascade expander 22, the two streams then merging downstream of cascade expander 22. The claimed arrangement is new matter. Claims 9-20 and 22-27 are also rejected by virtue of dependency.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The cited art appear to disclose similar cascade expander arrangements, as originally disclosed, but do not currently read on the claims due to the 112a issue noted above.
Conclusion
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/XIAOTING HU/Examiner, Art Unit 3762 03/14/2025