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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Drawings
1. The drawings are objected to because.
a. Elements 64 & 66 in figure 10-11 is not disclosed in the specifications.
b. Element 120 in figure 19 is not disclosed in the specifications.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
2. Claims 1 & 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
a. Per claim 1, line 2, change “a wall” to –wall--.
b. Per claim 1, line 3, change “fan-less power supply” to –power supply—or change all instances of “power supply” to –fan-less power supply--.
c. Per claim 17, line 2, change “blower” to –emergency blower--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Specification
3. The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
a. Paragraph [088] discloses element 24 as a housing, but other paragraph discloses element 24 as a power supply/power supplies
b. Paragraph [0143] discloses element 118 as an interconnections, but other paragraphs discloses element 118 as a fluid outlet.
c. Paragraph [0143] discloses element 116 as a fluid outlet, but other paragraphs discloses element 116 as a fluid inlet.
d. Paragraph [0143] discloses element 114 as a fluid inlet, but other paragraphs discloses element 114 as a cooling plates/built-in cooling plate.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
4. 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.
Claim 12 & 17 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding Claim 12 it is unclear what Applicant means by “wherein a contact area between said first wall and said recess is greater than a product of said length and said width”, none of the figures or the specification elaborates or clarifies what Applicant means by the limitations. For Examining purposes Examiner asserts that Applicant means that the area of the housing of the power supply is less than the area of the recess of the rack.
Regarding Claim 17, Applicant asserts in claim 1 that the power supply is a fan-less power supply but claims an emergency blower in the power supply of claim 17. It is unclear if the power supply is a fan-less power supply or not. For Examining purposes Examiner asserts that the power-supply is a fan-less power supply, thus claim 17 is rejected based on the fan-less limitations of claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. In the event that 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 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, 6-12, 14-16 & 19, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gao US2021/0083340.
Per claim 1 Gao teaches an apparatus (see fig.2-8) for dissipating heat that results from providing power to a consumer in an internet data center ([0024], [0051]-[0052]), said apparatus comprising a rack (210, “Examiner notes that the structure of the BBU & BBU shelf as disclosed in the embodiment of figure 3 would be useable as the PSU 950 as disclosed in figure 12”) having a walls (200) defining a recess (201, see fig.3), a fan-less power supply (100 and/or 200, see fig.1, “battery cells and thermal paste”) having a housing (104) sized and shaped to conform to said recess ([0026]), and a connection between said power supply and said consumer ([0024]), whereby heat generated by said power supply (100) in the course of delivering power to said consumer is absorbed by said walls of said recess ([0025]-[0030]).
Per claim 2 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a pliable and thermally conducting material (303) that fills a gap between said power supply (100) and said walls of said recess (see fig.3; [0029]-[0030]).
Per claim 3 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising thermal grease (103; [0024], “a conductive ceramic based paste is a type of thermal grease”) that is between said power supply and said walls of said recess (see fig.1 & 3, “Examiner notes that the thermal grease 103 would be between the power supply 102 and the walls 202 when the BBU is inserted in the BBU shelf 200).
Per claim 6 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said rack is a fluid-cooled rack (203, see fig.3; [0026]-[0028]).
Per claim 7 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said rack comprises a fluid inlet (401) and a fluid outlet (402) and wherein fluid flows through said fluid inlet into said rack and said fluid flows through said fluid outlet out of said rack after having absorbed heat energy that was generated by said power supply ([0030]-[0032]).
Per claim 8 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said rack is a fluid-cooled rack having a cooling plate (202) through which fluid circulates (see fig.3, “the enclosure of the shelf acts as a cooling plate”).
Per claim 9 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said housing comprises a face having a pipe extending therethrough (see fig.4A,4B & 12).
Per claim 10 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet, both of which connect to a pipe that extends through a face of said housing (see fig.4A,4B & 12).
Per claim 11 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fluid interconnection ([0050], see fig.12) that interconnects a cooling system (901) for said rack with said power supply (950), whereby said cooling system circulates a coolant that collects heat from said power supply (see fig.12; [0050]).
Per claim 12 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said power supply comprises a first wall that defines a rectangle having a length and a width and wherein a contact area between said first wall and said recess is greater than a product of said length and said width (see fig.3-4B).
Per claim 14 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said power supply is a hot-swappable power supply (100; [0026], see fig.2-4B & 6-9, “Examiner notes that the power supplies which are all the same (100) are removable, therefore the power supplies are hot-swappable with each other”).
Per claim 15 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said power supply is one of a plurality of power supplies, wherein said recess is one of a plurality of recesses, and wherein each of said recesses is sized and configured to conform to dimensions of a corresponding one of said power supplies (see fig.3; [0026]).
Per claim 16 Gao teaches the apparatus of any one of claim 1, wherein said housing is configured to permit air flow to pass through said housing (104), said air flow being a result of kinetic energy that arises from outside said housing ([0048], [0049], “Examiner notes that the fans are outside the BBU housing (104), therefore the airflow from the kinetic energy of the fans would pass through the housing”).
Per claim 19 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said power supply is an ac/dc power supply ([0052]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. In the event that 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 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) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao US2021/0083340.
Per claim 4 Gao discloses substantially all the limitations of the claim(s) except for the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising thermal sponge material that is between said power supply and said walls of said recess.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to have a thermal sponge material between said power supply and said walls of said recess, because it enables effective thermal contact and heat dissipation from the power supply, since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416; see also Ballas Liquidating Co. v. Allied Indus. of Kansas, Inc. (DC Kans) 205 USPQ 331.
Per claim 5 Gao discloses substantially all the limitations of the claim(s) except for the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising thermally-conductive springs that extend between said power supply and said walls of said recess.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to have a thermally-conductive springs extend between said power supply and said walls of said recess, because it enables effective thermal contact and heat dissipation from the power supply, since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416; see also Ballas Liquidating Co. v. Allied Indus. of Kansas, Inc. (DC Kans) 205 USPQ 331.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao US2021/0083340 in view of Shelnutt et al. US2019/0332822.
Per claim 13, Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1,
Gao does not explicitly teach further comprising an access panel that is locked when a temperature of said housing is above a threshold and unlocked otherwise, wherein said access panel permits said power supply to be removed when said temperature of said housing is below said threshold.
Shelnutt et al. however discloses an access panel that controls the insertion and removal of a removable data storage device and temperature sensors that senses temperature thresholds within an enclosure ([0037], [0066], [0081]-[0082], “Examiner notes that the access panel controls access to and removal and/or insertion of each RDSD”, [0060], “…Examiner notes that the VCCS include sensors for sensing temperature thresholds”).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have an access panel that is locked when a temperature of said housing is above a threshold and unlocked otherwise, wherein said access panel permits said power supply to be removed when said temperature of said housing is below said threshold because it ensures the safe removal of the power supply when the temperature of the rack is conducive to be removed, and ensures that when the temperature is not conducive for insertion or removal of the power supply, the access panel prevents access to the power supply, thus protecting a user.
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao US2021/0083340 in view of Zhang US2012/0182716.
Per claim 17 Gao teaches the apparatus of claim 1,
Gao does not explicitly teach further comprising an emergency blower, a switch, and a thermocouple, wherein said blower is disposed inside said power supply and wherein said switch is configured to activate said blower in response to a measurement from said thermocouple.
Zhang however discloses a switch, a thermocouple connected to a power supply ([0014], [0026], “Examiner asserts that since the power supply is a fan-less power supply the rejection of claim 1 applies).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have a thermocouple and a switch in a power supply because it ensures proper heat management of the power supply.
Email Communication
7. Applicant is encouraged to authorize the Examiner to communicate via email by filing form PTO/SB/439 either via USPS, Central Fax, or EFS-Web. See MPEP 502.01, 502, 502.05.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tsao US2013/0265714 discloses a blade server and a power module and a carrier thereof, and more particularly to a carrier that has an adjustable length, a power module having the carrier, and a server having the power module.
Nakahama et al. US2015/0162651 discloses a heat generating element housing device includes a first side surface, a second side surface, a first shelf plate, second shelf plates, module cases, and highly heat conductive members.
Applicants are directed to consider additional pertinent prior are included on the Notice of References Cited (PTOL 892) attached herewith. The Examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record within the body of this action for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply. Applicant, in preparing the response, should consider fully the entire reference as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL A MATEY whose telephone number is (571)270-5648. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-5 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JAYPRAKASH GANDHI can be reached at 5712723740. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL A MATEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2835