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 .
It is noted in a phone conversation with Applicant’s representative, Mr. Darno, it was indicated that the elected claims 1-7 do not read on the elected embodiment of Figure 7 and claims 8-20 read on Figure 7. Therefore, Mr. Darno verbally elected the embodiment of Figure 2 and claims 1-7.
Applicant's election with traverse of Figure 2 in the reply filed on June 26, 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the embodiments are similar enough that a serious burden does not exist. This is not found persuasive because the search required for each embodiment is not necessarily required for the other.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 8-20 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected embodiment, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 6/26/26.
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 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(s) 1, 2, 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 20170009145 (Lee et al), see translation. As to claim 1, Lee et al disclose a monitoring system for measuring odor including an odor sensor chamber (first/second housing section 101/102) comprising a cleaning air supply port (reference air supply 140) and a gas inlet port (measuring supply 150) provided at a first side (left side of sensing unit 130) portion and a gas discharge port (the collecting unit can discharge the collected air to the outside, see translation pg.2) provided at a second side (bottom side of unit 130 at collecting unit 180) portion; an odor sensor (sensing unit 130) mounted in the odor sensor chamber (102); a first valve (solenoid 146) mounted in the cleaning air supply port (140); a second valve (solenoid 146) mounted in the gas inlet port(150); a heater (heating unit 175) mounted in the odor sensor chamber (102); a cooler (cooling unit 170) mounted in the odor sensor chamber(101); and a controller (110) configured to perform control to open or close the first valve, the second valve, and the third valve and to turn on or off the heater and the cooler (control signal of the control unit maybe introduced into the solenoid valve 135 and control overall operation of the measuring apparatus 100 including the cooling unit and the heating unit), see translation and figures. Further, it is noted that Lee et al fails to show a separate first and second valve and a third valve in the discharge port. There is however, a 3-way solenoid valve connected to both the clean air supply and gas inlet port which is a known alternative to using 2 one-way valves. Further, there is indicated that the collecting unit can “discharge the collected air to the outside” with a signal from the control unit 110 which would require some form of controlled opening of the discharge port. In the art of flow control, valves are known to be used to discharge under the control of a signal. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing that the solenoid valve could be substituted with 2 one-way valves as a matter of design choice of known alternatives and that a discharge valve could be used to allow for the discharge of the collected air to the outside since the valves are known to control air flow. As to claim 2, the controller (control unit) is configured to perform control to open the first valve (solenoid valve is switched to reference air supply) and the third valve and close the second valve to supply cleaning air into the odor sensor chamber after odor measurement by the odor sensor is ended (the reference air is supplied to sensing unit 130), see translation pg. 2. As to claim 4, the controller is configured to perform control to open the second valve and close the first valve (control of the solenoid valve) and the third valve to supply a new odor measurement target gas into the odor sensor chamber ( the measurement air supplier 150) may provide sensing unit 130 with external atmosphere to be measured). As to claim 5, the controller is configured to perform control to turn on the cooler to cool the odor sensor such that particles of the new odor measurement target gas are adsorbed to a surface of the odor sensor (the cooling unit 170 can lower the temperature of each component).
Claim(s) 3, 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al as applied to claims 1, 2, 4 and 5 above, and further in view of JP-2004125579 – Yoshihiro et al, see translation.
As to claims 3, 6 and 7, Lee et al fail to indicate the desorption or absorption of the particles but does indicate that the odor sensor is a semiconductor or electrochemical type sensor. In a related prior art device, Yoshihiro et al also disclose odor measuring including sending a sample of gas through a collection tube 16 having adsorbent 161 and semiconductor sensor cell 21 and also includes a heater 17, it is indicated that the sample component is purged from the adsorbent 161 with the heat from the heater, see Abstract translation. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have indicated that the heating with the heater results in release of the sample from the adsorbent since Lee et al also employs a semiconductor sensor with a heater. As to claim 3, the controller (control unit) is configured to perform control to turn on the heater (heating unit 175 applies heat to the air provided to the housing unit) to heat the odor sensor such that previous odor measurement target gas particles are desorbed from a surface of the odor sensor after the odor measurement by the odor sensor is ended (inherent from the heating of the semiconductor odor sensor). As to claim 6, the method comprising: ending odor measurement by the odor sensor mounted in the odor sensor chamber (the control unit 110 may control operation of each part by transmitting the measured value of the sensing unit); supplying cleaning air (providing reference air from supply 140) into the odor sensor chamber (housing section 102) to eliminate previous odor measurement target gas particles; heating the odor sensor by turning on a first heater (heating unit 175 provided heated air to the sensing unit 130) mounted in the odor sensor chamber to desorb (by heating the sensing unit, inherently at least some particles are desorbed) the previous odor measurement target gas particles from a surface of the odor sensor; and discharging the previous odor measurement target gas particles to an outside (the collecting unit 110 can discharge the collected air) of the odor sensor chamber by using the cleaning air. As to claim 7, cooling the odor sensor by turning on the cooler (the cooling unit 170 can lower the temperature of each component) mounted in the odor sensor chamber (in housing section 101) such that new odor measurement target gas particles are adsorbed to the surface of the odor sensor when new odor measurement target gas is supplied into the odor sensor chamber. Further, it is noted that the type of odor sensor is not specified by Lee et al. as including adsorption but does indicate a semiconductor type, electrochemical or optical sensor such that one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention would recognize that semiconductor odor sensors include adsorption of components on the semiconductor surface adsorbent as taught by Yoshihiro et al as indicated above to purge the adsorbent.
Conclusion
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NF
Examiner
Art Unit 2855
/N.S.F/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/LAURA MARTIN SWEENEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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