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 § 103
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 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) 1, 2, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo (WO 2021068438 A1) in view of Won (EP 3351856 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Guo teaches an air fryer (the air fryer displayed in FIG. 1), comprising: a housing (FIG. 1, the upper and lower shells 11 and 12) enclosing a cooking chamber (FIG. 4, inner pot 21) and having a cooking chamber opening (FIG. 4, the opening at the top of the inner pot 21) through which food to be cooked is inserted; a heating element (FIG. 1, heating element 35) for heating the cooking chamber; a closure (FIG. 1, the sliding mechanism used to close the cooking space) for closing the cooking chamber opening; a motor (FIG. 1, motor 31) and a circulation fan; a transmission connected to the motor for supplying torque to the circulation fan (FIG. 1, convection fan 33); wherein the circulation fan is mounted to turn about an axis (FIG. 1, the axis about which the convection fan 33 spins) and is disposed in a transfer passage (FIG. 1, the passage that the convection fan 33 sends air down) separated from the cooking chamber by a bounding wall (FIG. 1, heat shield 34), where at least part of the bounding wall extends at one axial side of the circulation fan, the transfer passage having an inlet (FIG. 1, the inlet at the heating elements 35) at an opposing axial side of the circulation fan opposite the one axial side and extending via an outlet (FIG. 1, the outlet at the bottom of the chamber) into the cooking chamber; a transfer passage aperture (FIG. 1, the openings at the sides of the convection fan 33 that leads to the air passage) in the housing that leads into the transfer passage.
Guo fails to teach a cover for closing the transfer passage aperture, and a smoking agent holder that is open for dispensing smoke and insertable through the transfer passage aperture into a receiving portion of the transfer passage.
However, Won teaches a cover for closing the transfer passage aperture (FIG. 1, the walls of agent accommodation portion 160, which, in the combination below, partially obstruct the air passage), and a smoking agent holder (FIG. 1, the agent accommodation portion 160) that is open for dispensing smoke and insertable through the transfer passage aperture into a receiving portion of the transfer passage.
At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the teachings of Guo by allowing a user to insert a smoking agent device to smoke food, as taught by Won, with a reasonable expectation of success of arriving at the claimed invention. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Guo with these aforementioned teachings of Won with the motivation of making the air fryer more versatile.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Guo and Won teaches that the smoking agent holder comprises an open top (Won, FIG. 6A, the agent accommodation portion 160 has an open top), and a base (Won, FIG. 6A, the bottom of body portion 164) and upstanding peripheral wall that are imperforate (Won, FIG. 6A, the side walls of the body portion 164, which are imperforate).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Guo and Won teaches that the motor is disposed inside the housing adjacent an outer wall of the housing, the outer wall is substantially planar and the axis is substantially perpendicular to the outer wall (Guo, FIG. 1, the motor is disposed on the motor seat 37, which is perpendicular to the motor’s axis of rotation).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-14 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. Claim 3 is allowable because the Examiner was unable to find art teaching a cover that closes an air passage once the tray is slid into position. Based on their dependence on claim 3, claims 4-14 are also objected to.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM C. WEINERT whose telephone number is (571)272-6988. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00-5:00 ET.
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/WILLIAM C WEINERT/Examiner, Art Unit 3762
/Allen R. B. Schult/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762