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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 4,954,680 to Takenouchi.
A cooker comprising: a body (11); a heating chamber (open chamber of microwave shown in Fig. 1) that includes a bottom wall (lowermost wall of shown in Fig. 2) and a side wall (annotated Fig. 8), the heating chamber being provided inside the body (Fig. 1); a microwave heating mechanism (17) that is configured to emit microwave to the heating chamber (abstract); and a door (abstract) that is attached to the body to cover an opening of the heating chamber (Fig. 1), wherein the heating chamber further includes a bottom plate (annotated Fig. 8) that is disposed above the bottom wall and separated from the side wall by a gap (annotated Fig. 8), and a side plate (annotated Fig. 8) that is disposed on an inner surface of the heating chamber of the side wall to cover the gap and a part of the bottom plate (annotated Fig. 8). wherein the side plate includes a first inclination portion provided in a lower end part of the side plate (annotated Fig. 8), the bottom plate includes a second inclination portion provided in an end part of the bottom plate facing the gap (annotated Fig. 8), and the first inclination portion is in contact with the second inclination portion so as to cover the gap (annotated Fig. 8).
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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) 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takenouchi in view of US 6,852,962 to Kang.
Takenouchi teaches all of the limitations as discussed above, but fails to teach wherein the bottom plate further includes a recessed portion provided in an upper face of the bottom plate and a placing table that includes a leg allowed to be placed in the recessed portion.
Kang teaches that it is known to have a bottom plate (lower plate shown in Fig. 1) further includes a recessed portion (portion where 6 lies) provided in an upper face of the bottom plate (Fig. 1) and a placing table (4) that includes a leg (6) allowed to be placed in the recessed portion (Fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Takenouchi to include a recess in the bottom plate for a placing table with legs as claimed in order to allow for a placing table that can be removed and easily cleaned.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WOODY A LEE JR whose telephone number is (571)272-1051. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 0800-1630.
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/WOODY A LEE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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