DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16th, 2013 is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Sheet
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 03/06/2024, 11/20/2024, 03/26/2025, 01/22/2026, and 07/16/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 4, the claim recites, “The method according to claim 1, the second threshold….” However, it appears that the claim should instead recite “The method according to claim 1, wherein the second threshold….”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections – 35 USC §112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, the claim relies heavily on arbitrary alphanumeric designations (e.g., “a power p4x”, “a power p41”, “a first threshold t41”, etc.) serving as the primary nouns to define the limitations, rather than using standard descriptive terminology (e.g., “an initial power level”, “a first power level”…). While reference characters are permitted in claims to aid in understanding if placed in parentheses (See MPEP 609.01(m)), using standalone alphanumeric variables as the actual nomenclature for the elements without clearly defining their structural or functional relationships renders the scope of the claim unclear. To overcome this rejection, Applicant is recommended to replace these alphanumeric designations with descriptive terms to distinctly claim the invention.
Claims 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11, all recite the same alphanumeric variable notation, and should similarly be amended.
Regarding claim 3, the claim recites the limitation “an internal volume of a flow passage in a mouthpiece of the aerosol-generating system.” However, there is insufficient antecedent basis for the terms “a flow passage” and “a mouthpiece” in the claims. Independent claim 1 recites “a flow channel configured to provide an air flow past the aerosol-generating element”, but it does not recite a mouthpiece of a flow passage therein. Consequently, it is unclear whether the “flow passage” of claim 3 is the same element as the “flow channel” of claim 1, and the introduction of the “mouthpiece” lacks proper foundation. To overcome this rejection, Applicant is recommended to amend the claims to provide proper antecedent basis for these terms.
Claims 7 and 12-14 are also rejected due to their dependence upon rejected claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
If the above rejections are overcome, claims 1-14 would be deemed allowable.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Atkins (US 2018/116292) teaches an aerosol-generating element (Figure 5, 500) comprising an aerosol-generating element (503); a housing with an air inlet (¶ [0056]), and an air outlet (508), a flow channel (507) defined in the housing, the flow channel providing a flow of air past the aerosol-generating element with the user puffs on the system (¶ [0055]), a flow sensor (¶ [0052] – anemometer) configured to detect an air flow in the flow channel indicative of the user taking a puff, the method having the steps of increasing a power (110) supplied to the aerosol-generating element from a power P0 to at least a power P1 when the flow sensor detects that a flow rate of the air flow is greater than a first threshold (130 – puff start. Process described in ¶ [0035] and figure 1A), and decreasing the power (210) supplied to the aerosol-generating element to a power P2, wherein the power P2 is less than the power P1, when the flow sensor detects that the flow rate of the air flow is less than a second threshold (230 – end puff. Process described in ¶ [0042] and figure 2). However, Atkins does not specifically teach a step of using measurements stored in the data storage means to intermittently calculate an estimate of a remaining volume of the puff, and a step of decreasing the power supplied to the aerosol-generating element to a power p42 when the estimate of the remaining volume of the puff is less than a second threshold t42, the second threshold t42 being, or being indicative of, a measure of volume.
The other prior arts of Liu (US 2015/0313284 A1), Dickens (US 2017/0135401 A1), and Phillips (US 2017/0181471 A1) all teach relevant aspects of an aerosol device. However, none of these prior arts cure the deficiencies identified above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JACOB A SMITH whose telephone number is (571) 272-3974 and email address is Jacob.Smith@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7:30AM - 5:30PM.
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/JACOB A SMITH/Examiner, Art Unit 3731
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