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 § 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) 1-2 and 6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2022529864 in view of Liu (WO 2015120623).
Regarding claim 1, JP ‘864 discloses “an aerosol generating device” (abstract and figures (no label with respect to the figures) or see annotated fig.1 below for example) comprising:
“a main body” (101) comprising “a controller” (110) and “a battery” (120);
“a heater module” (20) detachably coupled to “the main body” (101) and comprising “a heater” (130) configured to heat “an aerosol generating material” (abstract, i.e., a heater for heating an aerosol-producing substance); and
“a cartridge” (30) detachably coupled to “the heater module” (20) and configured “to store the aerosol generating material to be delivered to the heater” (a heater for heating an aerosol-producing substance. The heater module 20 may include a coil heater 640 coupled to a silica core 630. The silica core 630 can have a cylinder shape in order to increase the contact area of the felt 620 with the inner surface … the aerosol-producing substance stored in the liquid storage unit 610 can be transmitted to the silica core 630 through the felt 620),
wherein “the heater module” (20) comprises:
530a and 530b) configured to electrically connect “the heater module” (20) to “the controller” (10) “when the heater module is coupled to the main body” (the heater module 20 is coupled to the main body 10).
JP’864 is silent regarding
Liu teaches “a first terminal” (fig.2, a first terminal (refers to the connection point) for the switch 29 for the lower cartridge (fig.1, one of 1)) configured to electrically connect “the cartridge” (fig.2, fig.1, the upper cartridge (fig.1, another of 1)) to “the heater module” (fig.2, fig.1, the lower cartridge includes heater module 15) when “the cartridge” (fig.2, fig.1, the upper cartridge) is coupled to “the heater module” (fig.2, fig.1, the lower cartridge includes heater module 15). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify JP’864 with Liu, by adding Liu’s heater additional module assembly to JP’864 device, to control the operating state of the heating wire, therefore, high smoke volume and smoke concentration can be adjusted freely (abstract) as taught by Liu.
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Regarding claim 2, modified JP ‘864 discloses “the heater module further comprises a printed circuit board” (Liu, the control switch includes a PCB board) “electrically connecting the first terminal to the third terminal” (Liu, annotated fig.2).
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Regarding claim 6, modified JP ‘864 discloses “the heater receives power from the battery through the second terminal” (Liu, annotated fig.2 shows the heater 15 receives power from second terminal).
Regarding claim 7, modified JP ‘864 discloses “the cartridge further comprises an conductor that is electrically connected to the first terminal when the cartridge is coupled to the heater module” (Liu, annotated fig.2).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2022529864 in view of Liu (WO 2015120623) as applied in claims 1-2 and 6-7 above, and further in view of Liu (US 2012/0260927).
Regarding claim 12, JP ‘864 discloses all the features of claim limitations as set forth above except for the first terminal, the second terminal, and the third terminal are each configured in a pair.
Liu ‘927 teaches “the first terminal, the second terminal, and the third terminal are each configured in a pair” (annotated fig.6). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify JP’927 with Liu ‘927, by modifying JP’864 terminal configuration according to Liu’927 configuration, to connect heaters in parallel to provide balanced workload distribution.
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 and 8-11 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIMMY CHOU whose telephone number is (571)270-7107. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Friday.
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/JIMMY CHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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