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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-8 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.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationships are: In line 10, “the heat exchanger further comprising” then refers to structure associated with the header part as the burring parts and the extension part are both associated with the header, as per the specification.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 7 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yamaji et al (10,267,575). Yamaji et al discloses a heat exchanger (HE1) including a case (2) into which a combustion gas is supplied (column 4, lines 8-13); a plurality of heat transfer tubes (1) that are accommodated in the case and have end parts drawn out to outside of the case via a plurality of hole parts provided at a sidewall (21) part of the case (SEE Figure 4A); and a header part (H) that is arranged on an outer surface side of the sidewall part, and has a plurality of hole parts (23) through which the end parts of the plurality of heat transfer tubes are inserted and forms a chamber (32) communicated to insides of the plurality of heat transfer tubes, the heat exchanger further includes a plurality of burring parts (22) in a tubular shape that are provided to protrude from circumferential edge parts of the plurality of hole parts of the header part toward a sidewall part side of the case, and are externally fitted to the end parts of the respective heat transfer tubes (Figure 3A); and an extension part (3) that is provided to partially extend from a part of a tip circumferential edge part (22b) of each of the burring parts toward the sidewall (21) part side of the case (2), and has a tip part (33) abutting against the sidewall part. In re claim 2, Yamaji et al further discloses that the extension part is configured to have a width of the tip part (33) that is smaller than a width of a base part (31) (SEE Figure 4A). In re claim 3, Yamaji et al implicitly discloses a brazing part at which a brazing material enters between the end part of each of the heat transfer tubes and the burring part from an outer portion of the burring part on a tip circumferential edge part side (SEE column 8, lines 12-14). In re claim 7, Yamaji et al implicitly discloses that in the header part, a boundary part between each of the burring parts and the extension part is provided with a fragile part having a strength partially reduced compared to a surrounding part of the boundary part (SEE column 5, lines 36-44). In re claim 8, Yamaji et al discloses a hot water apparatus comprising: the heat exchanger according to claim 1; and a burner that supplies the combustion gas into the case of the heat exchanger (SEE column 4, lines 8-18).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY A WILSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4882. The examiner can normally be reached M-F; 7:00am-4:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Steve McAllister can be reached at 571-272-6785. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREGORY A WILSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 January 10, 2026