DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
Claims 31-37 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Counts (US 5,144,962).
Regarding claim 31, Counts teaches [Fig. 6; col. 6, l. 15-50] an apparatus for heating smokeable material comprising: a flavor generating medium 12 (body of smokeable material); a housing 18, wherein the housing contains: a heating chamber arranged to receive the body of smokeable material 12 (region in as shown in Fig. 6 where material 12 is located); a first heater 14 configured to apply heat to the body of smokeable material in a radially inward direction; and an energy source 16 electrically coupled to the first heater; and the apparatus further comprising, when the body of smokeable material is received in the heating chamber: a second heater 14’ configured to apply heat to the body of smokeable material 12 in a radially outward direction, wherein the length of the body of smokeable material 12 is approximately equal to the length of the second heater 14’ so that the second heater 14’ heats the body of smokeable material 12 along its whole length. It is noted that the cited section discloses heater 14’ as the heating element within material 12. Fig. 6 erroneously connects reference number 14’ to external heater 14.
Regarding claim 32, Counts teaches the first heater comprises a ceramics heater [col. 4, l. 5-14].
Regarding claim 33, Counts teaches the first heater is an electrically-powered heater [col. 4, l. 58-61].
Regarding claim 34, Counts teaches the second heater 14’, the heating chamber and the body of smokeable material 12 extend along a central, longitudinal axis of the housing [Fig. 6].
Regarding claims 35-37, Counts teaches the apparatus further comprises a controller electronically connected to the energy source configured to control activation of the heaters [col. 4, l. 31-46].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 38-39 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Counts as applied to claim 31 above, and further in view of Robinson (US 2008/0092912).
Counts does not teach the housing comprises a layer of thermal insulation which extends around the outside of the heating chamber. Robinson teaches a smoking article wherein the housing 20 comprises a layer of thermal insulation 400 which extends around the outside of the heating chamber 300, wherein the layer of thermal insulation comprises a tubular length of insulation located co-axially around the heating chamber [Fig. 3; 0112]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply this insulation to the apparatus of Counts to prevent the outer regions of the outer container from becoming unduly hot as suggested by Robinson [0112].
Claims 40-42 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Counts and Robinson as applied to claim 38 above, and further in view of Clearman (US 4,989,619).
Modified Counts does not teach the claimed insulation materials. Clearman teaches a smoking article wherein thermal insulation comprises an aerogel (open cell porous material) or a polymer [col. 17, I. 52-59]. As this is a conventional thermal insulation material known in the art, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use an aerogel as the thermal insulation of Robinson to achieve predictable results, i.e. insulating the apparatus.
Conclusion
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/ERIC YAARY/Examiner, Art Unit 1755
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