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 .
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.
Claim 1-23 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.
Claim 1 lines 3 and 4 both require “a process air”, it is unclear it both recitations are referring to the same process air, for the purposes of examination “a process air” in line 4 is interpreted to be “the process air”.
Claim 15 recites the limitation "the flame tube" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 20 is constructed as dependent on claim 1; however, claim 20 reintroduces structure already introduced in claim 1. The antecedent basis of any structure reintroduced in claim 20 should be amended to derive their antecedent basis from those same structures introduced in claim 1.
Claim 23 is constructed as dependent on claim 20 which ultimately depends on claim 1; however, claim 23 reintroduces structure already introduced in claim 1. The antecedent basis of any structure reintroduced in claim 23 should be amended to derive their antecedent basis from those same structures introduced in claim 1.
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, 20, and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tabak (US 3,838,975) in view of Tabak (US 3,549,333), hereinafter Tabak ‘333.
With respect to claim 1 Tabak discloses a recuperative burner for a thermal contaminated gas treatment device having a combustion chamber [see annotated Fig. below] with a combustion space [reference character 14 and the portion of 23 upstream of 25] therein for thermally treating contaminated gas, the recuperative burner being configured for introducing contaminated gas [introduced through 2’] to be treated into the combustion space of the combustion chamber and for discharging a flue gas [through 3’] produced by thermal treating the contaminated gas from the combustion space of the combustion chamber with heat transfer from the discharging flue gas to the inflowing contaminated gas [via heat transfer tubes 9], wherein the recuperative burner comprising: a connecting sector [see annotated Fig. below] comprising at least one contaminated gas input channel [reference character 2’] for receiving the contaminated gas and at least one flue gas output channel [reference character 3’] for outputting the flue gas; a heat transfer sector [see annotated Fig. below] comprising an input manifold1 [see annotated Fig. below] attached to the connecting sector and a support element [see annotated Fig. below] facing the combustion space of the combustion chamber, between which there is an internal space [reference character 23 downstream of 25] in which a plurality of contaminated gas tubes [reference character 9] extend from the input manifold to the support member, to guide the contaminated gas from the connecting sector to the combustion space, the contaminated gas tubes being coupled through the input manifold to the at least one contaminated gas input channel of the connecting sector and being open through the support element in the direction towards the combustion space; and at least one flue gas tube [reference character 25] for discharging the flue gas from the combustion space, the at least one flue gas tube comprising an open input opening [see annotated Fig. below] in the combustion space and passing through the support element of the heat transfer sector into the heat transfer sector and including, in the section inside the heat transfer sector, at least one tube wall opening [see annotated Fig. below] for introducing the flue gas into the internal space of the heat transfer sector through which the contaminated gas tubes pass for the purpose of heat transfer from the discharging flue gas to the inflowing contaminated gas, wherein the internal space of the heat transfer sector is coupled in its end region facing the connecting sector to the at least one flue gas output channel to discharge the flue gas from the heat transfer sector and from the burner [see Figs. 1-2, where the flow of flue gas and contaminated gas is self-evident from the Figs.].
Tabak does not discloses that the contaminated gas is a process air.
Tabak ‘333 discloses a recuperating incinerator which decontaminates a source of contaminated air [see Fig. 1, at input 2].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the invention to modify Tabak by using contaminated air as the contaminated gas, as taught by Tabak ‘333, in order to remove the need for a supplemental air supply for combustion of the fuel and breakdown of the contaminant.
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With respect to claim 20 the combination of Tabak and Tabak ‘333 discloses a thermal process air treatment device comprising: a combustion chamber having a combustion space therein for thermally treating a process air; and at least one recuperative burner for introducing the process air to be treated into the combustion space and for discharging a flue gas produced by thermally treating the process air from the combustion space with a heat transfer from the discharging flue gas to the introducing process air, wherein the at least one recuperative burner is a recuperative burner according to claim 1 [see rejection for claim 1 and Figs. 1-2 of Tabak].
With respect to claim 23 the combination of Tabak and Tabak ‘333 a method for operating a thermal process air treatment device according to claim 20, the method comprising: introducing a process air to be treated through the recuperative burner into the combustion space of the combustion chamber; thermally treating the introduced process air in the combustion space to form a flue gas; and discharging the flue gas from the combustion space via the flue gas tube and through the recuperative burner with heat transfer to the introduced process air and via the flue gas output channel [see column lines 1-54 of Tabak].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIVEK K SHIRSAT whose telephone number is (571)272-3722. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:20AM.
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/VIVEK K SHIRSAT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762
1 Note that the applicant uses “input manifold” to describe the structure supporting the tubes, see reference character 41 in Fig. 3 of the applicant’s drawings and paragraph 0062 of the PgPub.