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
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 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bihlmaier et al. (U.S. 2020/0125147, hereafter referred to as Bihlmaier) in view of Yamaji (JP 2014112819).
Regarding claim 1, Bihlmaier teaches a housing 1 with base plate 2, wherein an antenna (communication device 13) is installed in the base part 2 (see para. 0024); and a sensor element (functional element 8, see para. 0011) installed in a cover plate 3 (see para. 0024); wherein each module (7, 9) corresponds to an accommodating space.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the device of Bihlmaier since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
Bihlmaier does not explicitly teach wherein at least one of the accommodating spaces is filled with an explosion proof medium that completely surrounds the sensor assembly.
Yamaji teaches a similar device wherein a housing has at least two accommodating spaces (C1, C2) containing a sensor 11a, and an antenna (communication unit 21); and further teaches wherein each accommodating unit is explosion-proof (see para. 0035, 0036, ‘and both the sensor unit 10 and the wireless unit 20 satisfy the explosion-proof standard’).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the device of Bihlmaier with the teaching of Yamaji in order to protect the internal components of the device.
Additionally, the recitation ‘A rotating equipment monitoring device’ has not been given patentable weight because it has been held that a preamble is denied the effect of a limitation where the claim following the preamble is a self-contained description of the structure not depending for completeness upon the introductory clause. Kropa v. Robie, 88 USPQ 478 (CCPA 1951).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMEL E WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-7027. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 10am-4pm.
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/JAMEL E WILLIAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
