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 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai et al. (US CN-110558613-A).
Cai et al. discloses an aerosol generating device (page 1, technical field) comprising a housing (#5 fig 1; page 8, line14). The device contains a liquid storage compartment with a first compartment storing liquid (#2, fig 3, page 7, line3) and a second compartment contains a fluid permeable heating element (page 11, last paragraph) configured to heat and vaporize the liquid substance to generate an aerosol (#3 fig 3, page 7, line 7 and page 11 last paragraph). The first compartment has a liquid outlet connected to a liquid channel to provide a flow path from the first to the second compartment (page 2, lines11-17). The device further comprises a sealing member (sealing body and driving member, page 2, lines 20-26) having a driving arm with a first position that seals the liquid outlet of the first compartment and a second position that opens the liquid outlet allowing liquid to travel to the heater. The sealing member also comprises an electrical switch which opens and closes the electrical circuit to the heater so the heater can heat and vaporize the liquid when the sealing member is in the second position (page 3, lines7-9, page 5, lines 15-19).
The electrical switch and sealing body of Cai et al. moves in the axial direction instead of the longitudinal direction as claimed (page 2, lines 18-19). However, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing the present invention to modify the switch of Cai et al. which moves axially to a switch that moves longitudinally. Switches are well known in the art including the key-press utilized by Cai et al. (page 3, line10) moving in the axial direction and a sliding switch moving in the longitudinal direction. These would merely be obvious equivalent switches used for the same purpose with predictable results.
Claim(s) 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai et al. (US CN-110558613-A) in view of Silvesstrini et al. (US 20180242642).
Regarding claim 17, Cai does not expressly discloses the selectively moving of the electrical contact. Silvesstrini discloses an electrical contact, configured to selectively move from a first position to a second position in a longitudinal direction of the housing, wherein the electrical contact is electrically disconnected from the fluid-permeable heating element when at the first position, and is electrically connected to the fluid-permeable heating element when at the second position [0096]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have the selectively moving of the electrical contact as taught by Silvesstrini.
Regarding claim 18, Silvesstrini discloses a liquid guide element, located in the second compartment, to absorb the liquid substrate, wherein: the fluid-permeable heating element is in contact with the liquid guide element, to heat and vaporize at least a part of the liquid substrate in the liquid guide element to generate an aerosol [0089]; and an electrical contact, configured to supply power to the fluid-permeable heating element by the electrical contact [0096]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to rearrangement of parts so that at least a part of the electrical contact extends in the second compartment in a longitudinal direction of the housing and avoids the liquid guide element.
Regarding claim 19, Silvesstrini discloses an electrical contact, configured to supply power to the fluid-permeable heating element by the electrical contact [0096]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to rearrangement of parts such that at least a part of the electrical contact extends in the second compartment in a longitudinal direction of the housing (see In reJapikse, 181 F.2d 1019, 86 USPQ 70 (CCPA 1950).
Regarding claim 20, in addition to the features discussed above for claim 1, Silvesstrini further discloses an electronic vaporization device comprises a power supply for supplying power to the vaporizer [0067].
Claim Objections
Claims 3-16 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.
Conclusion
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/PHU H NGUYEN/ Examiner, Art Unit 1747
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