DETAILED ACTION
For this Office action, Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “the step of transferring a part of an industrial process fluid…” instead of “the step of transferring a part of the industrial process fluid” as the step is recited in Claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claims 1-20 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Independent Claims 1 and 10, upon which the remaining claims are dependent, both recite “adding an amount of this industrial process fluid concentrate to the industrial process fluid used in the system in order to maintain a predefined concentration level…whereby the industrial process fluid concentrate is provided into the system via the sensor device in the fluid treatment system” and “cleaning the sensor device at certain time intervals by providing the industrial process fluid concentrate into the sensor device and keeping the industrial process fluid concentrate in the sensor device for a certain time period” (similar limitations in Claim 10 found in the last two paragraphs of the claim). These two limitations, when taken together, are considered indefinite because the claim language is unclear how the certain time period for keeping the industrial process fluid concentrate in the sensor device is different from the time the concentrate is added to the fluid treatment system in order to read on the claim. The claims recite that the sensor device adds an amount of concentrate to the system, which would comprise said concentrate being in said sensor device for a certain time period (the longer the time period for the higher amount of concentrate to add). Since the cleaning function is similar to the addition function with respect to the sensor device, the claims are unclear how these two functions differentiate from each other—in particular with respect to the certain time period.
Applicant is urged to address this issue in the response to this Office action, although they are advised that new grounds of rejection over prior art could be made based on any amendments made to address these issues. For purposes of this examination, the examiner will assume the certain time period is an extended cleaning period of time with respect to the time that the sensor delivers the concentrate.
Claim 8 is further rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for reciting “the first pump”, which lacks established antecedent basis. See that “a first pump” is introduced in Claim 2, yet Claim 8 is dependent on Claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 15 and 16 are further rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for reciting “the ejector pump”, which lacks established antecedent basis. See that “an ejector pump” is introduced in Claim 14, yet Claims 15 and 16 are dependent on Claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Brown et al. (US Pat Pub. 2017/0008783) recites an antimicrobial batch dilution system in the same field of endeavor as the instant application, as it solves the mutual problem of providing a concentrate treatment solution to a process water supply using sensors (Abstract; Figure 1; Figure 2; Paragraph [0019]; Paragraph [0020]). The reference is silent on the method of cleaning the sensor, however, and no ground of rejection is made.
Moses et al. (US Pat Pub. 2021/0294361) discloses a process fluid monitoring system in the same field of endeavor as the instant application, as it solves the mutual problem of monitoring and diverting fluid in a fluid delivery network in order to deliver additive, wherein the system is monitored by sensors (Abstract; Paragraph [0040]; Paragraph [0077]). The reference is silent on the method of cleaning the sensor, however, and no ground of rejection is made.
Manda et al. (US Pat Pub. 2017/0281847) discloses a regenerative peritoneal dialysis system in the same field of endeavor as the instant claims, as it solves the mutual problem of providing sensors to determine concentration of osmotic agents in dialysate and control the addition of osmotic agents via the sensor readings (Abstract; Paragraph [0027]; Paragraph [0148]; Paragraph [0149]). The reference is silent on the method of cleaning the sensor, however, and no ground of rejection is made.
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/RICHARD C GURTOWSKI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1773 01/07/2026