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 .
Acknowledgement is made of the preliminary amendment filed on 11/2/2023. Accordingly, claims 1-17 are pending for consideration on the merits in this Office Action.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/16/2023, 6/18/2024, 9/4/2024, 12/3/2024, 3/24/2025 and 7/16/2025 were filed on or after the mailing date of the application. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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)(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 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tanaka (JP2019175940A).
Regarding Claim 1, Tanaka teaches an air conditioner, comprising: a housing having a fan cavity and a heat exchange cavity in communication with each other [Drawing I];
an electric control box [42] disposed at the housing and in communication with the heat exchange cavity and the fan cavity [0046; Drawing I]; an electric control disposed in the electric control box [implicit at 0045]; and
a fan assembly [53] disposed in the fan cavity, the fan assembly being configured to supply air to the heat exchange cavity and dissipate heat of the electric control box [0045; 0046].
Regarding Claim 12, Tanaka teaches the invention of claim 1 above and Tanaka teaches wherein: the fan cavity has an air return inlet; the heat exchange cavity has an air outlet, air passages being located between the air return inlet and the air outlet; and the electric control box is disposed at a lateral side of the air passages and is in communication with some of the air passages in the heat exchange cavity [See Drawing I].
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.
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanaka (JP2019175940A) in view of Zimmerli et al. (US5131463).
Regarding Claim 17, Tanaka teaches the invention of claim 1 above but does not teach a filter disposed at the air return inlet of the fan cavity.
However, Zimmerli teaches an outdoor unit having an inlet and inlet grille [at 30; see fig 1] having a filter disposed at an air inlet of a fan cavity [col 3, lines 3-38; fig 1] where one of ordinary skill in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods and that in combination, each element would perform the same function as it did separately and one of ordinary skills would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable i.e. removing corrosive constituents form an airstream.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the assembly of Tanaka to have a filter disposed at the air return inlet of the fan cavity in view of the teachings of Zimmerli where the elements could have been combined by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results i.e. removing corrosive constituents form an airstream.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3 and 13 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.
Claims 4-11 and 14-16 are objected to based upon dependency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LARRY L FURDGE whose telephone number is (313)446-4895. The examiner can normally be reached M-R 6a-3p; F 6a-10a.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry Fletcher can be reached at 571-270-5054. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LARRY L FURDGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763