Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This action is responsive to the communications filed 1/11/2024. As per the claims filed 12/04/2023:
Claims 1-4 are pending.
Claim(s) 1 is/are independent claim(s).
Note Regarding Prior Art
Examiner cites particular columns, paragraphs, figures and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below 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 as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in their entirety 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.
Note Regarding AIA Status
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 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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu Puzhao (CN114233614, published: 03/25/2022) (hereinafter: Puzhao)in view of Hiram O. Carrasco et al.(US Pat No. 11561003; Filed: 10/19/2020)(hereinafter: Carrasco).
Note: a translation for CN114233614 is provided and attached to this office action.
Claim 1:
As per independent claim 1, Puzhao discloses a multiple water supply system, comprising:
a plurality of water supply devices [[page 1, summary, The present invention provides an intelligent management control method and system for multiple water pumps, which are used to solve the technical problem that the load imbalance of the existing water pump control]]; and
a control device that increases or decreases an operating device number of a water supply operation performed by the water supply devices in accordance with a demanded water supply capacity [page 3, The target amount of water is obtained, the number M of water pumps required is determined according to the target water consumption, and the M target water pumps before sorting are selected from the N water pumps to start to perform the circulating water cooling operation.], wherein the control device comprises a function of calculating a continuous standby time of each of the water supply devices, and, in response to there being a water supply device whose continuous standby time exceeds a reference standby time set in advance, the control device exerts control so that the water supply device most preferentially supplies water during a next water supply operation [page 3, acquiring a current state and a running time/stop time of the N water pumps in real time, and sorting priorities of the N water pumps in real time according to the current state and the running time/stop time of the N water pumps, wherein the real-time sorting rule is that a water pump with a short running time is higher than a water pump with a longer running time than a water pump]. Stop time for pumps is calculated, reference time is the longest amount of time a pump or pumps have been stopped.
Puzhao discloses a multi-pump system but failed to specifically disclose hot water supply devices.
Carrasco, in the same field of multi water heater systems discloses this limitation in that [[col 4, lines 29-39] The disclosed technology can include a boiler system having multiple boilers arranged in a cascading configuration and a controller configured to determine when each boiler should be operated, which boiler should be operated, and to what output a given boiler should be operated. For example, the controller can determine which boiler or boilers should be operated (e.g., placed in a heating mode) and which boilers should not be operated (e.g., placed in a standby mode, turned off, or otherwise not in a heating mode) to prevent the boiler system from excessively overshooting a set point temperature (e.g., a target temperature, a threshold temperature, etc.).]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the intelligent water management teachings of Puzaho to apply the same concepts to multiple hot water supply devices as disclosed by Carrasco. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently meet the varying load demand in the system, increasing the overall system efficiency while operating at lower loads while still meeting the highest demand (col 1, lines 15-21).
Claim 2:
As per claim 2, which depends on claim 1, Puzhao and Carrasco disclose wherein in response to there being a plurality of hot water supply devices whose continuous standby time exceeds the reference standby time, the control device exerts control so that a hot water supply device having a longest continuous standby time most preferentially supplies hot water during the next hot water supply operation. Puzhao, [[page 3] When the system delivers the water pump start instruction, the control system first calculates the maximum value and the minimum value of the operation time of each water pump, and sorts the operation time length from small to large; if the operation time of the water pump is equal, the system is sorted according to this order of M 1, M 2, and M 3]
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art of record (see attached 892) alone, or in any reasonable combination disclose the limitations of claims 3-4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOWARD CORTES whose telephone number is (571)270-1383. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Scott T Baderman can be reached on (571)272-3644. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HOWARD CORTES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2118