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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “heat insulation sheet” recited in claim 7 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The specification is objected. 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, requires the specification to be written in "full, clear, concise, and exact terms." The specification contains terms which are not clear, concise and exact. The specification should be revised carefully in order to comply with 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph. Examples of some unclear, inexact or verbose terms used in the specification are: “an external attachment fitting having strength [sic]” (par. [0023], last line), etc.
Furthermore, in par. [0032] (p. 16) the reference number “134” refers to the “protruding portion”. However, it appears to be incorrect, since it refers to the “movable contact” elsewhere in the specification.
The Office would like to emphasize that aforementioned problems are only the examples. The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification. Applicant must carefully review the entire disclosure and to amend the specification and the abstract in proper English, without any artifacts of the incorrect translation from foreign documents. Verbose passages should be streamlined, and sentences with non-standard sentence construction or grammar should be editorially improved. No new matter should be introduced (37 CFR 1.125(a)).
Claim Objections
Claim 3 is objected to because of the following informalities: cumbersome and unclear clause present: “an elastic plate structure includes a rectangular fixed portion, and peripheral wall portions extending downward from respective edge parts of the rectangular fixed portion in the width direction are provided [sic]”. Appropriate correction is required. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any remaining errors and informalities of which Applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, and 6-8, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 4, 847, 587 to Muller.
Regarding claims 1 and 7, Muller discloses a temperature switch (Figs. 4, 5) comprising: a thermally actuated bimetal (col. 8, l. 55) element (15) configured to be inverted in warping direction at a predetermined temperature; an elastic plate structure (8) including a movable portion moving with inversion of the thermally actuated element; a heat insulation sheet (1) is provided between the bimetal (15) and the movable portion of the elastic plate structure (8) (see also col. 3, ll. 54-68); a fixed contact (10); and a movable contact (9) provided on the movable portion and configured to come into contact with and separate from the fixed contact, where in the thermally actuated element is disposed outside a current path generated when the movable contact and the fixed contact are in contact with each other (Fig. 4 shows that the current path is via 2-7-8-9-10-4, i.e., not involving the thermally actuated element (15)).
Regarding claim 2, Muller discloses a heat collection plate (1, 6, 20) having an area greater than an area of the thermally actuated element, wherein the thermally actuated element (15) is disposed on the heat collection plate, and the thermally actuated element is pressed (by 27)) against the heat collection plate by elasticity of the movable portion (8), (Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 6, Muller discloses a heat collection plate extension portion (3) is provided on one of both end parts of the heat collection plate (1, 6, 20) in a longitudinal direction (Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 8, Muller discloses that the heat collection plate includes a dome portion (27, 28) supporting the thermally actuated element, and a wall portion (7) standing upward from the heat collection plate is provided to extend in a width direction of the heat collection plate, between one end part (3) of the heat collection plate in a longitudinal direction and the dome portion (27, 28), (Figs. 4, 5).
Claims 1 and 2, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 6, 580, 351 to Davis et al. (hereafter “Davis”).
Regarding claim 1, Davis disclosed (Figs. 3, 4) a temperature switch (10) comprising: a thermally actuated element (48) configured to be inverted in warping direction at a predetermined temperature; an elastic plate structure (28) including a movable portion moving with inversion of the thermally actuated element; a fixed contact (14); and a movable contact (16) provided on the movable portion and configured to come into contact with and separate from the fixed contact, wherein the thermally actuated element is disposed outside a current path generated when the movable contact and the fixed contact are in contact with each other (Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 2, Davis discloses that a heat collection plate (the bottom wall of the switch) having an area greater than an area of the thermally actuated element (48) (because the diameter of the bottom wall of the switch is greater than the diameter of the thermally actuated element (48), as can be clearly seen on Figs. 3 and 4), wherein the thermally actuated element (48) is disposed on the heat collection plate, and the thermally actuated element (48) is pressed (by (44, 46)) against the heat collection plate by elasticity of the movable portion (28).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 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 and subject to obviation of the objections as explained above.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the limitations of claim 3 (“the heat collection plate has a rectangular shape, the heat collection plate further includes peripheral wall portions standing upward from respective edge parts of the heat collection plate in a width direction, the elastic plate structure includes a rectangular fixed portion, and peripheral wall portions extending downward from respective edge parts of the rectangular fixed portion in the width direction are provided, and the peripheral wall portions of the heat collection plate and the peripheral wall portions of the elastic plate structure are connected”) in combination with limitations of claims 1 and 2, are believed to render the combined subject matter, and claims 4 and 5 dependent therefrom, allowable over the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination.
Conclusion
The additional prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure because of the teachings of various thermally actuated electrical switches with bimetallic elements. Furter, the Office directs the Applicant’s attention to the US 6, 078, 246 which could have been also used for statutory rejection of the at least independent claim 1 (see Fig. 1 which clearly anticipates claim 1 of the instant application, analogously to the US 6, 580, 351).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Anatoly Vortman whose telephone number is (571)272-2047. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, between 10 am and 8:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jayprakash N. Gandhi can be reached at 571-272-3740. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Anatoly Vortman/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2835