DETAILED ACTION
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: At “the atomizer/liquid reservoir portion containing a heating coil wound around a wick, the heating coil;”, “the heating coil” should be deleted; At “into a liquid reservoir of the atomizer/liquid reservoir”, the word “portion” should be added at the end after reservoir.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller (US 2015/0020830) in view of Liu (US 2014/0007892).
Regarding claim 1, Koller teaches electronic smoking device 60 [Fig. 2] comprising: a first housing 72 containing a battery 12 [0024] , an puff (air flow) sensor 16 [0014], one or more LEDs 27 electrically connected to the battery and to a circuit board [0027]; a second housing 70 connectable to the first housing [0012], the second housing containing a heating coil 319 wrapped around a wick 328, the wick having at least a first end abutting or extending into a liquid supply 314 [0016, 0021, 0035] and an aerosol passage 321 extending though the liquid supply 314 [0018].
Koller does not teach a light guide directing light from the LEDs. Liu teaches an electronic cigarette case comprising a light guide mounted outside of LEDs to transmit the light emitted by the LEDs to outside of the case body so as to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption [0025]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the device of Koller a light guide directing light from the LEDs to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption as suggested by Liu.
Regarding claim 5, Koller teaches the first housing is connected to the second housing by screw threads [0012].
Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller and Liu as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Borkovec (WO 2015018479).
Modified Koller does not teach a subassembly housing supporting the LEDs and the circuit board. Borkovec teaches an electronic smoking device comprising an insert (subassembly housing) supporting LEDs and a circuit board, wherein the subassembly housing is insertable from an end of the first housing [Fig. 1-3; page 12, l. 8-21]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to configure the device of modified Koller to include a subassembly housing supporting LEDs and a circuit board, wherein the subassembly housing is insertable from an end of the first housing, to assist in correct internal positioning and alignment of the respective component as suggested by Borkovec [page 4, l. 26-32].
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller and Liu as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Alarcon (US 2011/0265806).
Modified Koller does not teach the LEDs have an illumination pattern which indicates charging, user draw strength, or low battery charge. Alarcon teaches an electronic smoking device wherein the LEDs have an illumination pattern which indicates low battery charge [0056], which would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply to the device of modified Koller for warning the user of the low battery charge.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller and Liu as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Steingraber (US 2015/0053217).
Modified Koller does not teach a flex circuit overlying the battery and parallel to a longitudinal axis of the battery. Steingraber teaches an electronic cigarette including a flex PCB (circuit) spanning the entire length of the battery assembly [0212]. As this is a conventional circuit board arrangement known in the art, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include a flex circuit spanning the entire length of the battery assembly (first housing) of modified Koller, i.e. overlying the battery and parallel to a longitudinal axis of the battery, to achieve predictable results, e.g. controlling operation of the electronic smoking device.
Claims 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller in view of Liu and Steingraber.
Regarding claims 7-8, Koller teaches an electronic smoking device 60 [Fig. 2], comprising: a power supply portion 72 removably attached to an atomizer/liquid reservoir portion 70 [0012, 0024]; the power supply portion containing a circuit board, the circuit board also electrically connected to an air flow sensor [0014], and to a plurality of LEDs [0027]; the atomizer/liquid reservoir portion containing a heating coil 319 wound around a wick 328, an end of the wick abutting or extending into a liquid reservoir 314 of the atomizer, the liquid reservoir containing a liquid [0016, 0021, 0035].
Koller does not teach a light guide in the power supply portion positioned to guide light from the plurality of LEDs. Liu teaches an electronic cigarette case comprising a light guide mounted outside of LEDs to transmit the light emitted by the LEDs to outside of the case body so as to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption [0025]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the device of Koller a light guide positioned to guide light from the plurality of LEDs to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption as suggested by Liu.
Modified Koller does not teach the circuit board is electrically connected to the battery by a flex circuit. Steingraber teaches an electronic cigarette including a flex PCB (circuit) spanning the entire length of the battery assembly [0212]. As this is a conventional circuit board arrangement known in the art, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include a flex circuit spanning the entire length of the battery assembly (first housing) of modified Koller, i.e. overlying the battery and parallel to a longitudinal axis of the battery and electrically connecting the circuit board to the battery, to achieve predictable results, e.g. controlling operation of the electronic smoking device.
Regarding claim 9, Koller teaches the plurality of LEDs 27 are on a first side of the power supply portion [Fig. 2].
Claims 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koller in view of Liu and Qiuming (US 2017/0006920).
Koller teaches electronic smoking device 60 [Fig. 2] comprising: a first housing 72 containing a battery 12 [0024] , an puff (air flow) sensor 16 [0014], one or more LEDs 27 electrically connected to the battery and to a circuit board [0027]; a second housing 70 connectable to the first housing [0012], the second housing containing a heating coil 319 wrapped around a wick 328, the wick having at least a first end abutting or extending into a liquid supply 314 [0016, 0021, 0035] and an aerosol passage 321 extending though the liquid supply 314 [0018].
Koller does not teach a light guide directing light from the LEDs. Liu teaches an electronic cigarette case comprising a light guide mounted outside of LEDs to transmit the light emitted by the LEDs to outside of the case body so as to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption [0025]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the device of Koller a light guide directing light from the LEDs to avoid light leakage decreases light consumption as suggested by Liu.
Modified Koller does not teach an outer surface of the first housing having texturing for diffusing light from the light guide. Qiuming teaches an electronic cigarette wherein diffusion cover is provided with rough and uneven surface lines, because of the rough and uneven surface lines, when light passes through the diffusion cover 18, refraction and reflection on the diffusion cover are different on different point, so that the light source is spread uniformly [0039]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply this configuration to the outer surface of the first housing of modified Koller, such that an outer surface has a first amount of texturing adjacent to an end of the light guide, and a second amount of texturing, greater than the first amount, at locations spaced apart from the end of the light guide, for the reasons above suggested by Qiuming.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-11 are 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: There is no teaching or reasonable suggestion in the prior art to modify the electronic smoking device of Koller in view of Liu and Steingraber as applied to claim 7 above such that the flex circuit has a first section perpendicular to a second section.
Conclusion
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/ERIC YAARY/Examiner, Art Unit 1755