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 § 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.
Claim(s) 34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Korean Publication KR 20210131165A (hereinafter “KR ‘165” in view of PCT document WO 99/11955 to Bachmann et al (hereinafter “Bachmann”).
KR '165 discloses a ventilator with a recovery heat exchanger and in the seventh paragraph under the description of embodiments heading, states, "four outdoor air intakes are formed on both sides, upper and lower portions of the case 100,200 in the outdoor air inlet space 12a, and four outdoor air intakes are formed in the indoor air outlet space 14a on both sides, upper and lower portions of the case 100,200. An indoor air outlet is formed, and four outdoor air outlets are formed on both sides, upper and lower sides of the case 100 and 200 in the outdoor air inlet space 18a". The penultimate paragraph before the reference signs list heading states, "That is, unlike the conventional air circulation device, the air circulation device of the present invention can install the duct (A) in the lateral direction and the upward direction, the lateral direction and the downward direction, and the upward and downward direction, and the duct (By installing several A), it is possible to supply outdoor air to various places in the room." KR ‘165 uses a damper motor 320 to control gas flow within the air circulation device. Bachmann discloses a gas control device that uses a plurality of dampers (108,109) to control flow between multiple inlets and outlets. Beginning in line 27 of page 6, “it may be possible to use a single shaft to operate the damper flaps.” It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of applicant’s filing to modify the air distributor of KR ‘165 by using a single shaft to mount multiple dampers to enable the control of multiple dampers with a single shaft driven by a single motor to simplify operation and construction. It is noted that there is no connection, either structurally or functionally between the ports and the dampers in the claims.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21,22 and 24-33 are allowed.
Claim 35 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: The prior art fails to teach the claimed configuration of the recirculator of claims 21 and 35. The prior art also fails to teach the method for defrosting a recovery core even though the structure for performing the method is seen to be rendered obvious. Haglid teaches a defrosting of the recovery heat exchanger but cannot be said to teach the controlling of dampers that do not exist in Haglid. Haglid uses a motor for each damper.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM C DOERRLER whose telephone number is (571)272-4807. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 7-5.
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/WILLIAM C DOERRLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3993
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