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
This Office action is in response to Application No. 18/526,040 to King et al., assigned to Lockheed Martin Energy LLC, U.S.A., filed 12/01/2023, and published as 2024/0113313 published on 04/04/2024.
This application is a continuation of Application No. 16/997,403, now U.S. Patent 11929528; which is a divisional of U.S. patent application No. 15/033,607, filed 04/ 29,/2016 (now U.S. Patent 10833340); which is a 371 National Stage Entry of International Patent Application PCT/US2014/063290, filed on 10/31/2014; which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/898,635, filed on 11/01/2013.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/05/2024 has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered by the examiner. A duly initialed and signed copy is attached herewith. Accordingly, information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered if signed and initialed by Examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 12/01/2023 are acceptable for examination purposes
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, 9-12, 14-15, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hodges (U.S. PG Publication 2004/0065562)
Regarding claim 1 and 11 Hodges discloses an electrochemical cell and a method using such an electrochemical cell for determining the concentration of a reduced or oxidized form of a redox species (Hodges paragraph 0005). The electrochemical cell including a first working electrode, a first counter electrode, a second working electrode and a second counter electrode (Hodes paragraph 0006, 0013, 0018); the first working electrode and first counter electrode are equivalent to the first pair of electrodes; the second working electrode and second counter electrode are equivalent to the second pair of electrodes. The electrodes are in contact with the analyte under investigation (Hodges paragraph 0077), equivalent to the pair of electrodes for fluidic contact with the redox species. The electrochemical cell includes a control device (Hodges paragraph 0074) considered equivalent to the control system. The disclosed electrochemical cell of Hodges including the first pair of electrodes, the second pair of electrodes, the redox species and the control system is considered equivalent to the device recited in claim 1, and the system for determining the concentration of the redox species including the electrochemical cell is considered equivalent to the system recite in claim 11.
Hodges discloses the control system include power sources (Hodges paragraph 0074) and the electrochemical cell detects the amount of analyte in a sample and include sensor such as potentiometric sensor (Hodges paragraph 0059. 0060).
Hodges discloses during determining the concentrations of a reduced or oxidized form applying an electric potential difference between the first working electrode and the first counter electrode and measuring the current; and applying an electric potential difference between the second working electrode and second counter electrode and measuring the current (Hodges paragraph 0006, 0018), wherein electro-oxidation and electro-reduction at the electrodes occur and generating opposite signed currents, equivalent to applying a first potential and second potential to the electrodes and measuring the constant current recited in claim 1 and 11. Hodges discloses a corrected current is obtained and obtaining from the corrected current a value indicative of the concentration of the reduced form or the oxidized form of the species (Hodges paragraph 0006, 0021, 0024, 0025), and the ratio of the current is indicative of each the reduced form and oxidized form of the analyte since the measured corrected constant current is indicative of the concentration of the reduced species and oxidized species (Hodges paragraph 0006, 0021, 0024, 0025).
Regarding claim 2 and 12 Hodges discloses the system include the electrochemical cell and the control system, and the control system include microprocessor control device, computer or data storage device (Hodges paragraph 0074), and the controller is capable of calculating different parameters such as the ratio of the measured current, since it is disclosed that a corrected current is obtained and obtaining from the corrected current a value indicative of the concentration of the reduced form or the oxidized form of the species (Hodges paragraph 0006, 0021, 0024, 0025).
Regarding claim 4 and 14 Hodges discloses during determining the concentrations of a reduced or oxidized form applying an electric potential difference between the first working electrode and the first counter electrode and measuring the current; and applying an electric potential difference between the second working electrode and second counter electrode and measuring the current (Hodges paragraph 0006, 0018), considered applying the first and second potential simultaneously.
Regarding claim 5 and 15 Hodges discloses a corrected current is obtained by finding the different between the current following between the second working electrode and the second counter electrode, and a current following between the first working electrode and first counter electrode (Hodges paragraph 0006) wherein the magnitude of the two current to be same in an ideal sutation, where there is no difference between the number of species reduced and number of species oxidized.
Regarding claim 9 and 19 Hodges discloses material suitable for the working, counter and reference electrodes include carbon (Hodges paragraph 0061) disclosed among other martials.
Regarding claim 10 and 20 Hodge discloses an electrochemical cell for the determination of the concentration of a redox species (Hodges paragraph 0005). The electrochemical cell including a first working electrode, a first counter electrode, a second working electrode and a second counter electrode (Hodes paragraph 0006, 0013, 0018), and in the art it is known that an electrochemical cell generate electrical power during operation and storing electrical energy when idle.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 3, 6-8, 13, 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hodges et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2004/0065562) as applied to claim 1 and 11, in view of Wang et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2008/0060196)
The discussion of Hodges as applied to claim 1 and 11 above is fully incorporate here and is relied upon for the limitation of the claims in this section.
Regarding claim 3, 6-8, 13, 16-18 Hodges is silent about the surface area of the working electrode relative to the area of the counter electrode, and specifically that the surface area of the first working electrode is less than the surface area of the first counter electrode as recited in claim 3 and 13, and the surface area of the first working electrode and second working electrode is less than that of the first and second counter electrode as recited in claim 6 and 16, and the surface area of the first and second working electrodes are each less than about 20% of the surface areas of the counter electrodes as recited in claim 7 and 17, or the surface areas are substantially the same as recited in claim 8 an 18.
Wang discloses a sensor for determining the concentration of an analyte accomplished by the use of a sensor having a working electrode and a counter electrode (Wang Abstract, paragraph 0010), equivalent to the claimed device and system. The sensor includes applying a potential between the working electrode and the counter electrode and beginning to monitor the signals generated at the working electrode (Wang paragraph 0050), and the analyte in the sample, e.g., electro-oxidized or electro-reduced, at the working electrode and the level of current obtained at the counter electrode, is correlated as analyte concentration (Wang paragraph 0090). Wang teaches that the surface area of the at least one working electrode and/or the at least one counter or counter/reference electrode are adjusted so that the resulting sensor meets certain criteria (Wang paragraph 0010). Thus, the surface area of the electrodes is each adjusted independently, and such adjustment of the surface area of the electrodes also means adjusting the ratio of their surface area.
Therefore, the surface area of the electrodes is recognized by Wang as a result effective variable, which can be optimized for an optimum performance of the sensor through routine experimentation. Optimizing the surface area of the electrodes also including optimizing the surface area of the electrodes relative to each other as both surface areas electrodes are according to Wang the surface area of the electrodes are adjusted. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have optimized through routine experimentation the surface of the working electrode and the counter electrode in the device and system disclosed by Hodges for optimum operating conditions of the electrochemical cell and the determination of the redox couple concentration (i.e. the oxidized and reduced forms of the analyte, thus optimizing the ratio of their surface area. (See MPEP 2144.05 II).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR M KEKIA whose telephone number is (571)270-5918. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00 pm.
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/OMAR M KEKIA/Examiner, Art Unit 1722 /NIKI BAKHTIARI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1722