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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4, 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the plurality of fan blades" in line 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the plurality of positioning rings" in line 7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the plurality of toothed blocks" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thai (2009/0149107) and Park (KR20220033387A). Thai discloses a dense bubble generator (Fig. 1A) having a housing unit with a separate first mounting housing (23a) and a separate second mounting housing (23b) that can be clamped together (Fig. 2) and a liquid storage cylinder (24) installed at a bottom of the housing unit (Fig. 1A). A bubble blowing unit (Figs. 3-4C) has a fixed base (130) that is positioned within the first and second mounting housings (Fig. 2) and a bubbling cap (132) clamped on a front side of the fixed base by fins (Fig. 4B). A transmission assembly is connected (89) within the fixed base (Figs. 2-3) and is in transmission connection with a liquid inlet tube (34) and an air return tube (160) such that the transmission assembly is configured to pump bubble liquid from inside the storage cylinder into a side surface of the bubbling cap using the liquid inlet tube (Fig. 3) and the transmission assembly is configured to continuously blow a stream of bubbles using the bubbling cap (Fig. 1A, paragraph 37). An upper snap ring is configured to engage an inner wall of the bottom of the housing unit and is clamped with a threaded sleeve (30) such that a top of the liquid storage cylinder extends toward the inside of the housing unit and in in threaded connection to an inner wall (32) of the threaded sleeve (Figs. 1A & 2, paragraph 24). The liquid inlet tube and the air return tube both have bottom ends that extend towards the inside of the liquid storage cylinder after penetrating through a top of the threaded sleeve (Fig. 3). The transmission assembly (Fig. 3) includes a motor box (64) formed on a side surface of the fixed base, a transmission box (62) fixedly connected to an other side of the motor box, a hose pump (126,128) installed on the transmission box that is in transmission connection with the liquid inlet tube (Figs. 5-8), a driving motor (48) installed in the motor box has a driving shaft (80) at one end of the motor extending into the transmission box to drive the hose pump and at the other end the driving motor has a transmission shaft (78) with an outer surface fixedly connected to a fan (68) with a plurality of fan blades (68). Two protective sleeves are connected to a wall of the fixed base for receiving respective end portions of the liquid inlet tube and air return tube for location on an outer side of the bubbling cap (Fig. 2). A plurality of transmission gears are arranged in the transmission box and are connected sequentially with one transmission gear (98) fixedly sleeved on the outer side of the driving shaft (Fig. 3) and a movable rod (108) is arranged on an inner wall of another transmission gear (122) for transmission connection with the hose pump (Figs. 5-8). Thai discloses the basic inventive concept with the exception of having a first connecting housing installed at a bottom of the first mounting housing, a second connecting housing installed at a bottom of the second mounting housing, the liquid storage cylinder installed at the bottom of the first and second connecting housings and a rotating rod with a scraping rod fitted to a side of the bubbling cap. Park discloses a bubble generator having a housing unit for housing a bubble blowing unit, wherein the housing unit is formed to include a first mounting housing with a first connecting housing installed at a bottom of the first mounting housing and a second mounting housing with a second connecting housing installed at a bottom of the second mounting housing such that the first mounting housing and connecting housing can be clamped to the second mounting housing and connecting housing, respectively, and a liquid storage container (200) is installed at a bottom of the first and second connecting housings (Figs. 1-3). Park further discloses a bubble cap configured with a rotating rod having a scraping rod (580) attached to an outer peripheral wall of the rod for fitting against a side surface of a bubbling cap (Figs. 5, 6 & 9). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art from the teaching of Park to modify the housing unit of Thai to include first and second connecting housings since such a modification would have involved a mere change in the shape of the housing unit and changes in shape have been held to be obvious absent persuasive evidence that the claimed configuration is significant. See In re Dailey, 357 F.2d 669, 149 USPQ 47 (CCPA 1966). It further would have been obvious to configure Thai to include a rotating rod with scraping rod fitted to a side of the bubbling cap for the predictable result of enhancing bubble formation.
Claim(s) 4 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thai and Park. The references disclose the basic inventive concept with the exception of the hose pump installed above the transmission box. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to arrange the hose pump above the transmission box since such a modification would have involved a mere rearrangement of parts and a rearrangement of parts has been held to be obvious unless a new or unexpected result is produced. See In re Japikse, 181 F.2d 1019, 86 USPQ 70 (CCPA 1950).
Claim(s) 5 and 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thai and Park as applied for claim 4 above and further in view of Chen (CN219481558U). Thai and Park disclose the basic inventive concept with the exceptions of the transmission shaft configured to be connected to the rotating rod, the motor box having fixed plates and fixed strips connected to a side surface of the fixed base and the configuration of the bubbling cap. Chen discloses a bubble blowing unit (Figs. 1-4) with a fixed base (51) having a motor box (52) attached to a side of the fixed base by means of vertical fixed plates and horizontal fixed strips that are installed on an outer side of the motor box (Figs. 3-4) and a motor is configured to drive a fan (1) that is positioned adjacent a bubble cap positioned on a front of the fixed base (Figs. 1-4). The bubble cap further includes an outer mounting ring surface in contact with the fixed base and an integral inner ring surface with a geometric center having a connecting base with positioning strips installed between the inner ring and connecting base on which additional positioning rings (3) are fixedly connected (Fig. 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art from the teaching of Chen to reconfigure the configuration and arrangement of the bubble blowing unit of Thai and Park for the predictable result of configuring the bubble unit to create more efficient bubble output that is arranged in a more compact manner to provided increased utility and functionality. It further would have been obvious to place the rotating rod and scraping rod on the transmission shaft of the motor with the motor and fan positioned adjacent the bubbling cap since such a modification would have involved a mere rearrangement of parts and a rearrangement of parts has been held to be obvious unless a new or unexpected result is produced. See In re Japikse, 181 F.2d 1019, 86 USPQ 70 (CCPA 1950).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thai, Park and Chen as applied above and further in view of KR200440556Y1. Thai, Park and Chen disclose the basic inventive concept, with the exception of the positioning rings having different diameters and toothed blocks of different sizes installed on the outer side of each of the positioning rings to create irregular tooth-shaped bubble outlets. KR200440556Y1 discloses a bubble unit having a plurality of different diameter rings (12-14) each with respective toothed blocks of different sizes (22) arranged on outer side surfaces thereof to create irregular tooth shaped outlets (Fig. 1). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art from the teaching of KR200440556Y1 to modify the positioning rings on the bubble cap of Thai, Park and Chen to include different diameters and toothed blocks for the predictable result of arranging the positioning rings to create more interesting bubble formations with increased visual interest.
Conclusion
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/A.M.H/Examiner, Art Unit 3711 /EUGENE L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3711