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 .
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)(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.
Claims 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen et al. as part of CN 110871448 A, hereinafter referred to as Chen.
Regarding Claim 1: Chen teaches of a robot for pond desilting, comprising:
a frame (Fig. 1, frame 110),
a lead screw sliding table (Fig. 3, mounting frame 153),
and a suction pipe (Fig. 1, dredging device 130);
wherein an end of the frame is provided with a pressure-resistant cabin (Fig. 1, main control box 190; as main control box 190 contains electronics and is submerged underwater, it is necessary for the control box to be pressure resistant),
a lead screw base is disposed on the lead screw sliding table (See Annotated Fig. 3 below, base A is disposed in connection with the mounting frame 153 via lifting device 150),
a rotary lead screw is disposed on the lead screw sliding table (Fig. 3, electric push rod 152 is disposed in connection with the mounting frame 153),
the lead screw sliding table is connected to the frame (Fig. 1, base A is connected to frame 110),
the lead screw base is disposed on the rotary lead screw (Annotated Fig. 3, base A is disposed in connection with the electric push rod 152),
waterproof motors are disposed above the lead screw base (Fig. 1/5, base A is disposed laterally below motors 123),
a pump body is disposed in the frame (Fig. 4-5, diving pump 131 is disposed withing dredging device 130, which is disposed within frame 110),
and the suction pipe is disposed at an end of the pump body (Fig. 4, the suction opening of dredging device 130 is disposed at the end of diving pump 131).
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Chen: Annotated Fig. 3
Examiner would like to note that the interpretation presented herein is intentionally broad for the purposes of applying suitable prior art to the instant application. In this case, the specific language of the claim is broad enough to allow such a reasonable interpretation with phrases such as “disposed on” and “connected to”. While these phrases do not render the claim indefinite under 35 USC 112, any meaningful structure provided would dissuade from such a broad read of the claim language of the instant application.
Regarding Claim 4: Chen teaches of the apparatus described above in claim 1.
Chen further teaches wherein another end of the pump body is configured for connecting to a pipeline, and the pipeline is configured to extend outside a pond when the robot for pond desilting is operated in the pond (Paragraph 41, pump 131 causes water to flow through the pipe 132 out to the surface, presumably through a pipe connection above filter 135 not shown);
an end of the suction pipe is provided with a filter (Fig. 4, filter 135);
and the pump body is configured to pump silt and water into the suction pipe, and the silt and the water are discharged through the pipeline (Paragraph 41, pump 131 causes water to flow through the pipe 132 of dredging device 130 to remove silt from an underwater structure, which would be diverted out to the surface).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 and 5-10 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.
Regarding Claim 2, after a complete and thorough search of prior art, no such examples were found of waterproof drive motors being disposed within a pressure resistant cabin. To modify the disclosure of Chen to include such a detail would require fundamentally redesigning the control box and drive system, and would rely on an improper degree of hindsight reasoning to arrive at the claimed invention. All claims that depend from claim 2 are allowable for the same rationale.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Chaplin as part of US 3659712 A describes a desilting apparatus comprising a frame, a suction pipe, wherein the pump is disposed within the frame and the suction pipe is disposed at an end of the pump body.
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/EVAN A BREGEL/Examiner, Art Unit 3671
/CHRISTOPHER J SEBESTA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3671