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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 6-14 in the reply filed on July 16, 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the common special feature of the inventions makes a contribution over the prior art because Pham does not teach depositing an aerosol generating material. This is not found persuasive because invention III is an apparatus claim of a deposition device and MPEP 2115 states that the material worked upon does not limit apparatus claims. Therefore, the deposition of an aerosol generating material is not a common special feature of the inventions; only the deposition device is a common special feature of the inventions and it is taught in Pham.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 7 contains a typographic error. “A system according to claim 7” should be “A system according to claim 6”. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 6-9, 11-12, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JOHN et al. (US 2016/0295922) in view of JIANG et al. (CN 111955803, wherein US 2022/0039471 has been used as an English language equivalent) and PHAM et al. (US 2001/0003010).
John teaches an aerosol generating component of an aerosol- generating system comprising an aerosol forming substrate deposited on a heating element (para. 0248). John teaches that the aerosol forming substrate can be applied as a coating (para. 0063).
Jiang teaches that heating elements can have a layer deposited on the heating element by a method of electrophoretic deposition (para. 0029). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the coating method of John with the electrophoretic deposition of Jiang because Jiang teaches that they are known equivalents for the purpose of producing a heating element with a layer of material (para. 0029).
Jiang is silent to the electrophoretic deposition means.
Pham teaches a system for forming an electrophoretic deposition on a substrate. Pham teaches the system comprises a substrate and an auxiliary electrode submerged in a deposition liquid, wherein the system is configured to supply a voltage between the substrate and the auxiliary electrode to deposit (para. 0011). Pham teaches that the substrate is a conductive substrate (para. 0011) which reads on a heating element.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the electrophoretic deposition of Pham for depositing the aerosol forming substrate of John onto the heating element because John teaches that the aerosol forming substrate can be applied as a coating (para. 0063) and Jiang teaches that electrophoretic deposition and coating are known equivalents for the purpose of producing a heating element with a layer of material (para. 0029)
Regarding claim 7, John teaches the aerosol generating material comprises a polysaccharide (para. 0090), water (para. 0085), an aerosol former (para. 0085), nicotine (para. 0008), a flavorant (para. 0069), and an acid (para. 0065); wherein it would be understood to one of ordinary skill in the art that the components of the aerosol generating material would be present in the deposition liquid in order to deposit the aerosol generating material of John onto the heating element.
Regarding claim 8, John teaches the aerosol generating material comprises sodium alginate (para. 0091) and calcium carbonate (para. 0086); wherein it would be understood to one of ordinary skill in the art that the components of the aerosol generating material would be present in the deposition liquid in order to deposit the aerosol generating material of John onto the heating element.
Regarding claim 9, although Pham teaches only an auxiliary electrode, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add a second reference electrode because it would be a simple duplication of parts. See MPEP 2144.04 VI B.
Regarding claim 11, John teaches an aerosol-generating device (see figures 12 and 16) and teaches that the heating element is removably couplable to the aerosol-generating device (see figures 11-12), and wherein the aerosol-generating device comprises a power supply (54 in figure 16, 111 in figure 12) configured to supply power to the heating element when the heating element is coupled to the aerosol-generating device to heat the aerosol-forming substrate deposited on the heating element to generate an aerosol.
Regarding claim 12, John teaches an aerosol-generating device (figure 18), wherein figure 18 shows an embodiment where the heating element is an integral part of the aerosol-generating device, and wherein the aerosol-generating device comprises a power supply (207 in figure 18) configured to supply power to the heating element to heat the aerosol-forming substrate deposited on the heating element to generate an aerosol.
Regarding claim 14, Pham teaches a substrate and an auxiliary electrode submerged in a deposition liquid (para. 0011) which implies a housing defining a cavity for holding the deposition liquid. Pham teaches the system comprises the auxiliary electrode (para. 0011); and teaches that a voltage is applied to the electrode (para. 0011), which implies a power supply arranged to supply the voltage between the heating element and the auxiliary electrode when the heating element is electrically coupled to the deposition device.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JOHN et al. (US 2016/0295922) in view of JIANG et al. (CN 111955803, wherein US 2022/0039471 has been used as an English language equivalent) and PHAM et al. (US 2001/0003010) as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of MANCA et al. (US 2021/0176830).
John as modified by Jiang and Pham teaches an aerosol generating device comprising a heating element having an aerosol forming substrate.
Manca teaches an aerosol generating device comprising a heating element. Manca teaches a cleaner configured to clean the heating element comprising a cleaning liquid (para. 0009). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the cleaning liquid of Manca to clean to the heating element of John because Manca teaches that this reduces residues on the surface of the heating element (para. 0022).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 13 is 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.
The prior art does not teach or suggest using the auxiliary electrode from the electrophoretic deposition as the electrode in the aerosol-generating device to supply the voltage to the heating element.
Conclusion
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/CYNTHIA SZEWCZYK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1741
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