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
1. Applicant's election with traverse of species 1 in the reply filed on 11/17/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that species 1, 2, 3, and 12 directed to embodiments in Fig.5-24, Fig.43 and Fig.44 have the same or similar structural configuration of the contact portion of the hinge plate. This is found persuasive thus species 1, 2, 3, and 12 have been combined as one species and thus the elected species (Fig.5-24, Fig.43, Fig.44) and have been examined together. Claims 18-20 are still withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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.
3. Claims 1-3, 7, 12-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a(1) as being anticipated by US 2020/0271372 A1 (FEI).
With respect to claim 1, FEI discloses a refrigerator comprising: a cabinet having a storage space (section 0003); a first door (sections 0021, 0022) configured to open and close at least a portion of the storage space; a hinge (1, Fig.1) connecting the first door to the cabinet, the hinge having a contact surface (14, 15, 16, FIg.2); and a damper (24, 22, Fig.1) located on the first door (section 0022), the damper being in contact with the contact surface (14-16, FIg.1) of the hinge over a portion of a rotation of the first door in a closing direction to slow down a rotational speed of the first door (section 0045), wherein the damper includes a first damping state (when in contact with portion 16/15) configured to exert a first damping force and a second damping state (when rolling on portion 14 of the hinge, FIg.1) configured to exert a second damping force, and wherein the first damping force is greater than the second damping force.
With respect to claim 2, wherein, when a closing angle of the door relative to the closed position is between a first angle and a second angle, the damper (22, 24) is in the first damping state (when rolling on contact portions 15/16), and when the closing angle of the door is less than the second angle, the damper is in the second damping state (at contact portion 14, section 0033).
With respect to claim 3, wherein the contact surface includes a pressing portion (16) and a restraining portion (14), wherein, when the damper contacts the pressing portion (16), the damper is in the first damping state, and wherein, when the damper contacts the restraining portion (14), the damper is in the second damping state (Fig.1).
With respect to claim 7, wherein the first door includes an auto-closing device (21, 25, section 0025) configured to provide a closing force to the first door to assist in rotating the first door towards a closed position, and wherein the damper (24, 22) is configured to contact the hinge (1) to sequentially provide the first damping force and the second damping force to the first door after the auto-closing device starts to provide the closing force to the first door (section 0025-0026).
With respect to claim 12, wherein the damper (24, 22) is spaced apart from a rotation shaft (13) of the first door by a set distance such that a torque is generated in a direction opposite to the closing direction about the rotation shaft when the damper is in contact with the hinge.
With respect to claim 13, wherein the hinge (1) includes: a hinge bracket (11, Fig.2) located on the cabinet; a hinge plate (12, Fig.2) protruding from the hinge bracket, the hinge plate (12) having a contact portion (14-16) extending along at least a portion of a circumferential surface of the hinge plate; and a hinge shaft (13, Fig.1) located on the hinge plate (12), the hinge shaft (13) being coupled to the first door, and wherein the damper (24, 22) is configured to contact the contact portion (14-16) when a closing angle of the first door with respect to a closed position of the first door is at a set angle or less.
With respect to claim 14, wherein the contact portion includes: a pressing portion (16/15) configured to place the damper in the first damping state when the damper contacts the pressing portion as the first door is closed; and a restraining portion (14, Fig.2) located farther rearward than the pressing portion, the restraining portion (14) being configured to maintain contact with the damper when the first door is in the closed position (Fig.1).
With respect to claim 15, wherein a recession depth of the restraining portion (14, depth extending from top to bottom of 14) is less than a radius of curvature of an end portion of the damper (Fig.1).
With respect to claim 16, wherein the contact portion further includes a holding portion (between 16 and 15, see annotation below) located between the pressing portion (16) and the restraining portion (14), the holding portion extending from the pressing portion such that a distance from the hinge shaft (13) between a starting point of the holding portion and an ending point of the holding portion does not increase (see annotation below).
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With respect to claim 17, alternatively wherein the contact portion further includes a starting portion (16) ahead of the pressing portion (15) such that the damper (22, 24) contacts the starting portion (16) prior to contacting pressing portion (15) as the first door is closed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0271372 A1 (FEI) in further in view of DE 102008035926 A1 (DE ‘926).
With respect to claim 4, FEI teaches wherein the damper includes: a cylinder (241, FIg.2) having a space, the cylinder having a first end and a second end, the first end having an opening; a push member (22) on the cylinder (241); a rod (242, Fig.2) inside the cylinder; a piston (section 0048) coupled to the rod, the piston configured to move within the space of the cylinder (section 0048); wherein a position of the piston within the space of the cylinder (241) determines whether the damper is in the first damping state or the second damping state (section 0048).
With respect to claim 4, FEI doesn’t teach the cylinder has space to accommodate oil, sealing cap, elastic member in the cylinder. DE ‘926 teaches a damper including a cylinder (33, Fig.3) having a space to accommodate oil (40) therein, the cylinder (33) having a first end and a second end, the first end having an opening (Fig.3); a push member (53) on the cylinder; a sealing cap (35, Fig.3) configured to seal the opening of the cylinder; a rod (32, FIg.3) extending through the sealing cap from inside the cylinder; a piston (36) coupled to the rod (32), the piston (36) configured to move within the space of the cylinder (Fig.2, Fig.3, Fig.4); and an elastic member (42, FIg.3) located in the space of the cylinder, the elastic member (42) configured to apply an elastic force to the piston (Fig.2-Fig.4). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the damper of FEI with that of DE ‘926 to include a sealing cap, elastic member in the cylinder, oil in the space of the cylinder, such as taught by DE ‘926 in order to provide efficient damping force to the damper to efficiently slow down the door during closing of the door.
6. Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0271372 A1 (FEI) in view of DE 102008035926 A1 (DE ‘926) in further in view of US Patent 10,865,597 B2 (Chen).
With respect to claim 5, modified FEI doesn’t teach at least one damping region with a larger diameter relative to another damping region. Chen shows a damper (20) wherein the cylinder (22) includes a plurality of damping regions (R1, R2, Fig.5) between the first end of the cylinder and the second end of the cylinder, and wherein at least one damping region (R1) has a larger diameter (S1) relative to another damping region (R2 at S3) located between the at least one damping region and the first end of the cylinder. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include plurality of damping regions, at least one damping region having a larger diameter relative to another damping region, such as shown by Chen, in order to provide damping effect with a substantially gradual increment along the different regions of the cylinder.
With respect to claim 6, the combination (FEI) teaches wherein the first door includes an auto-closing device (21, 25) configured to provide a closing force to the first door to assist in rotating the first door towards a closed position (section 0046), wherein the piston (242) is configured to decelerate the first door as the piston passes through at least one damping region of the plurality of damping regions when the damper is in the first damping state (at regions 16/15), and wherein the first door is accelerated when the piston passes through a damping region of the plurality of damping region that is farthest from the opening when the damper is in the second damping state (when roller is in contact portion 14).
6. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0271372 A1 (FEI) in further in view of US 2014/0306595 A1 (Hwang).
With respect to claim 8, FEI teaches wherein the auto-closing device (21, 25) is configured to start operating when a closing angle of the first door with respect to the closed position is at a first set angle, and wherein the damper (24, 22) is configured to start contacting the hinge when the closing angle of the first door is at a second set angle (when roller 22 contacts 16) smaller than the first set angle. FEI doesn’t show the auto-closing device extends along a rotational axis of the first door. Hwang shows wherein the auto-closing device (140, 170, Fig.3, Fig.5) extends along a rotational axis of the first door. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include an auto-closing device along the rotational axis of the first door, such as taught by Hwang, in order to provide uniform correlated movement with respect to the rotational shaft/axis of the door to provide a steady movement and be efficiently supported within the door.
7. Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0271372 A1 (FEI) in view of US 2014/0306595 A1 (Hwang) in further in view of US 2016/0146528 A1 (YOON).
With respect to claim 9, modified FEI doesn’t show a second door. YOON shows
a second door (33, FIg.1), the first door (31) and the second door (33) being located adjacent each other in a left-right direction, wherein the first door (31) includes a pillar (100, Fig.2) configured to rotate when the first door is closed to shield a space between the first door and the second door (Fig.11, Fig.12), and wherein the cabinet includes a pillar guide (201, Fig.10) configured to guide rotation of the pillar (Fig.10-Fig.12). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include a second door to the cabinet and a rotating pillar on the first door, such as taught by YOON, in order to separately open adjacent storage compartments and selectively open one compartment at a time to avoid more air from escaping the refrigerator.
With respect to claim 10, modified FEI teaches wherein the second damping force of the damper is reduced while the pillar is in contact with the pillar guide (the pillar 100 is in contact with the pillar guide 201 when the door is closing and the second damping force is located at the closed position of the door and thus as modified the pillar would be in contact with the pillar guide when the second damping force is reduced).
With respect to claim 11, the combination teaches (YOON) wherein the pillar (100) is configured to be in contact with the pillar guide (201, FIg.11, Fig.12) when the closing angle of the first door is a third set angle or less, and wherein the second damping force of the damper is reduced when the closing angle of the first door is the third set angle or less (the second damping force, when the roller 22 is in depression 14 in FEI correlates to closing position of the door and thus as modified the pillar is in contact with the pillar guide, Fig.12 of YOON, when the door is in closed position).
Conclusion
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/HIWOT E TEFERA/Examiner, Art Unit 3637
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