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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 1 and 6-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Long et al. (US 2015/0334878 A1) in view of Florez-Larrahondo et al. (US 8,838,286 B2).
Regarding claim 1, Long discloses (figure 1-6) an air-to-liquid cooling system comprising: a cabinet (housing 12) defining a front portion (front 14) and a rear portion (back 16), the cabinet including lateral side panels (at sides 18 and 20) and a front face; a fluid inlet (at inlet of input line 36); a fluid outlet (at outlet from output line 36 where fluid flows into and out of the unit via the input line 36 and output line 38 per paragraph 0036); and a heat exchanger (30) within the cabinet, the heat exchanger being in fluid communication with the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet (per paragraph 0035), and being positioned at an oblique angle relative to the lateral side panels (as seen in figure 2 and clearly seen in figure 3 the heat exchanger 30 extends at an angle relative to the rectangular housing ); a plurality of fan assemblies mounted along the front face (at fans 28), each of the plurality of fan assemblies including a fan and blind mate connectors configured to interface with corresponding blind mate connectors within the cabinet (per paragraph 0034); and including a controller (controller 29), the controller being in electronic communication with the plurality of fan assemblies, and having instructions stored thereon to control a speed of the fans of the plurality of fan assemblies (per paragraph 0034).
However Long does not explicitly disclose a hot-swappable control module mounted along the front face, the hot-swappable control module being positioned vertically above the plurality of fan assemblies.
Florez-Larrahondo discloses (Figure 1-5) a rack cooling system with a fan module on an end of the rack (at fans 108) where the fan module includes a fan controller that is a hot-swappable control module mounted along the front face (at fan controller 508 which may be hot swapped from the back of the rack per Col. 6, line 6-18), the hot-swappable control module being positioned vertically above the plurality of fan assemblies (the controller 508 is above at least some of the fan assemblies at 108).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the fan controller of Long to be hot swapable as disclosed by Florez-Larrahondo. Doing so would allow for the controller to be hot swapped from the rack in the event of a controller failure as recognized by Florez-Larrahondo (per Col. 6, line 6-18).
Regarding claim 6, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and Long further discloses a valve (either valve 52 or valve 50) positioned downstream of the fluid inlet (at input line 36) and upstream of the heat exchanger (30), the valve movable between a fully open position and a fully closed position, wherein, when the valve is in a fully-closed position, a fluid connection between the heat exchanger and the fluid inlet is interrupted (per paragraph 0040).
Regarding claim 7, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 6 above and Long further discloses the valve (either valve 52 or 50) is in communication with the controller (29), and wherein the controller is configured to provide a signal to the valve to control a position of the valve (per paragraph 0040).
Regarding claim 8, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 7 above and Long further discloses when the valve (52) is in the fully closed position, the fluid inlet is in direct fluid communication with the fluid outlet (when the fluid is directed fully through the bypass line 48).
Regarding claim 9, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 8 above and Florez-Larrahondo further discloses a communication between the controller and the plurality of fan assemblies is interrupted, the fans of the fan assemblies continue to rotate at a default speed (fans operate at a maximum speed if the fan controller fails per Col. 7, line 56-59).
Regarding claim 10, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and Long further discloses vents are defined in the lateral side panels (as air flows between the two sides and vents between the two sides 18 and 20 are formed ant the front and rear face 14 and 16).
Regarding claim 11, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and Long further discloses a plurality of electrical inlets (as electrical inlets is a broad term it could be any electrical connections such as connections to controller 29 which is near the rear/back 16 of the unit as seen in figure 1 and 2) , wherein the fluid inlet, the fluid outlet, and the plurality of electrical inlets are provided in the rear portion of the cabinet (as seen in figure 1-3).
Regarding claim 12, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and Long further discloses the cabinet defines a width of about 600 mm (the cooling unit may have a width that is the same as an industry standard width of 24 inches per paragraphs 0046, where industry standard is defined paragraph 0032 as 24 inches and 24 inches is about 600mm).
Regarding claim 13, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and Florez-Larrahondo further discloses the hot-swappable control module (508) is one of a plurality of hot-swappable control modules, each hot-swappable control module of the plurality of hot-swappable control modules being mounted along the front face (as seen in figure 1 there are a plurality of controllers 508 associated with the stack of fans 108 along a common face).
Regarding claim 14, Long discloses (figure 1-6) an air-to-liquid cooling system comprising: a cabinet (housing 12) defining a front portion (front 14) and a rear portion (back 16), the cabinet including lateral side panels (at sides 18 and 20) and a front face; a fluid inlet (at inlet of input line 36) ; a fluid outlet (at outlet from output line 36 where fluid flows into and out of the unit via the input line 36 and output line 38 per paragraph 0036); a fluid flow path defined between the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet (seen in fig. 4); and a heat exchanger (heat exchanger 30) within the cabinet between the front portion and the rear portion, and being positioned at an oblique angle relative to the lateral side panels (as seen in figure 2 and clearly seen in figure 3 the heat exchanger 30 extends at an angle relative to the rectangular housing); a bypass valve (valve 52) configured to move between a fully open position and a fully closed position, wherein, in the fully open position the heat exchanger (30) is positioned fluidly along the fluid flow path (when fluid flows through the heat exchanger 30), and wherein, in the fully closed position, the heat exchanger is not positioned fluidly along the fluid flow path (when the fluid is directed fully through the bypass line 48 per paragraph 0040); a control module, the control module including a controller (controller 29), the controller being in electronic communication with the bypass valve, and having instructions stored thereon to control a position of the bypass valve (the controller controls the valve 52 per paragraph 0040) and that hot swappable components may have blind mate connectors (per paragraph 0034).
However Long does not explicitly disclose a hot-swappable control module mounted within the front portion, the hot-swappable control module including blind mate connectors and a controller.
Florez-Larrahondo discloses (Figure 1-5) a rack cooling system with a fan module on an end of the rack (at fans 108) where the fan module includes a controller that is a hot-swappable control module mounted along a front portion (at fan controller 508 which may be hot swapped from the back of the rack per Col. 6, line 6-18).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the controller of Long to be hot swapable as disclosed by Florez-Larrahondo where Long disclose the hot swappable components may have blind mate connectors to allow for easy removal. Doing so would allow for the controller to be hot swapped from the rack in the event of a controller failure as recognized by Florez-Larrahondo (per Col. 6, line 6-18).
Regarding claim 15, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 14 above however Long does not explicitly disclose the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet comprise a quick-disconnect fitting as long is silent as to any connection between the input line and the output line and the connecting piping. Long does not specify quick connect fittings. Using quick connect fittings in heat transfer fluid systems is notoriously well known in the art. The Examiner hereby takes Official Notice of the notoriously well-known nature of using quick connect fittings in heat transfer fluid system, and it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the instant invention was made to employ quick connect fittings on the input and output lines 36 and 38 of Long.
In the Office Action dated 1/28/2026, the Examiner took Official Notice that Using quick connect fittings in heat transfer fluid systems is notoriously well known in the art is old and well known in the heat transfer art. Applicant has failed to properly traverse the(se) statement(s) as noted in the response to arguments section below. As such, and in accordance with MPEP §2144.03, the statements are now considered admitted prior art.
Claim(s) 2-5 and 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Long et al. (US 2015/0334878 A1) in view of Florez-Larrahondo et al. (US 8,838,286 B2) and Rose et al. (US 8,482,917 B2).
Regarding claim 2, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 1 above and however Long does not explicitly further disclose a plurality of hot-swappable power supply units mounted along the front face.
Rose disclose a cooling system for data center racks where hot swappable fans (22-26) are located on the same face with hot swappable power supplies (21, 27, per Col. 3, line 19-28).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the face with the fans of Long to include hot swappable power supplies to be hot swapable as disclosed Rose. Doing so would allow for the power supplies to be hot swapped from the rack allowing for replacement in the field without interrupting operation as recognized by Rose (per Col. 3, line 19-28).
Regarding claim 3, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 2 above and Rose further discloses the plurality of hot-swappable power supply units includes three hot-swappable control units (more than one are disclosed in claim 8 which could include three power supplies).
Regarding claim 4, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 2 above and Rose further discloses the plurality of power supply units provide an N+1 redundancy of power supply units for the air-to-liquid cooling system ( hot swapping allows for the power supplies to be removed without interrupting the operation of the system and therefore would inherently provide redundancy in the power supplies).
Regarding claim 5, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 2 above and Long further discloses an axis is defined transverse to the front face, wherein each of the plurality of fan assemblies, the hot-swappable power supply units, and the hot-swappable controller are removable from the cabinet in a direction parallel to the axis (where the hot swappable components are slid out the housing per paragraph 0034, the hot swappable components would be slid along an axis perpendicular to front 14).
Regarding claim 16, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 14 above and Long further discloses and a plurality of fan assemblies mounted at the front portion (at fans 28), however Long does not explicitly further disclose a plurality of hot-swappable power supply units mounted along the front face.
Rose disclose a cooling system for data center racks where hot swappable fans (22-26) are located on the same face with hot swappable power supplies (21, 27, per Col. 3, line 19-28).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the face with the fans of Long to include hot swappable power supplies to be hot swapable as disclosed Rose. Doing so would allow for the power supplies to be hot swapped from the rack allowing for replacement in the field without interrupting operation as recognized by Rose (per Col. 3, line 19-28).
Regarding claim 17, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 16 above and Long further discloses each of the plurality of power supply units and the plurality of fan assemblies include blind mate connections (Long disclose the fans have Blind mate connections where blind mate connections are suitable connections for connecting electronic components per paragraph 0034).
Regarding claim 18, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 16 above and Long further discloses an axis extends through the front portion and the rear portion (between 14 and 16) , and wherein each of the hot-swappable control module, the plurality of power supply units, and the fan assemblies are configured to be inserted into the front portion in a direction parallel the axis (where the hot swappable components are slid out the housing per paragraph 0034, the hot swappable components would be slid along an axis perpendicular to front 14).
Regarding claim 19, Long as modified discloses the claim limitations of claim 16 above however Long does not explicitly disclose wherein each of the hot-swappable control module, the plurality of power supply units, and the fan assemblies are configured for toolless removal from the cabinet. In the Office Action dated 1/28/2026, the Examiner took Official Notice that toolless connections to swap put modular components is notoriously well known in the art is old and well known in the heat transfer art. Applicant has failed to properly traverse the(se) statement(s) as noted in the response to arguments section below. As such, and in accordance with MPEP §2144.03, the statements are now considered admitted prior art.
Regarding claim 20, Long discloses (figure 1-6) a method of providing a cooling system within a data center including: providing a cabinet (housing 12) defining a front portion (front 14) and a rear portion (back 16), the cabinet having installed therein a heat exchanger (heat exchanger 30), a fluid inlet (at inlet of input line 36), and a fluid outlet (at outlet from output line 36 where fluid flows into and out of the unit via the input line 36 and output line 38 per paragraph 0036); inserting, in a first direction, a hot-swappable fan assembly into the front portion (fans 28 are hot swappable per paragraph 0034), the hot-swappable fan assembly including a fan (at fans 28); providing, at the fluid inlet (36), a fluid coolant; sensing, at a first sensor, a parameter of the fluid coolant (a sensor at temperature sensors 54 or 58 per paragraph 0043); providing the parameter to the controller (29); and based on the parameter, generating, at the controller, a speed signal for the fan of the hot-swappable fan assembly the speed signal being generated based on the fan speed PID control (per paragraph 0040 and 0043).
However Long does not explicitly disclose inserting in the first direction, a hot-swappable control module into the front portion, the hot-swappable control module including a controller have instructions thereon for implementing a fan speed PID control for controlling a speed of the fan; or inserting, in the first direction, a power supply unit into the front portion.
Florez-Larrahondo discloses (Figure 1-5) a rack cooling system with a fan module on an end of the rack (at fans 108) where the fan module includes a fan controller that is a hot-swappable control module mounted along the front portion (at fan controller 508 which may be hot swapped from the back of the rack per Col. 6, line 6-18) the controller having instructions thereon for implementing a fan speed PID control for controlling a speed of the fan (Per. Col. 7, line 6-35).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the fan controller of Long to be hot swapable as disclosed by Florez-Larrahondo. Doing so would allow for the controller to be hot swapped from the rack in the event of a controller failure as recognized by Florez-Larrahondo (per Col. 6, line 6-18).
Rose disclose a cooling system for data center racks where hot swappable fans (22-26) are located on the same face with hot swappable power supplies (21, 27, per Col. 3, line 19-28).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the face with the fans of Long to include hot swappable power supplies to be hot swapable as disclosed Rose. Doing so would allow for the power supplies to be hot swapped from the rack allowing for replacement in the field without interrupting operation as recognized by Rose (per Col. 3, line 19-28).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In response to applicant's argument that the teaching reference of Florez-Larrahondo teaches a controller may be hot swapped from the back and not the front, is the opposite from what is claimed. The examiner respectfully disagrees that the claim limitations are not taught by the combination of Long and Florez-Larrahondo. The test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981). In this case the combined teachings suggest a hot swappable fan controller from the same face as the fans are disposed on as taught by Florez-Larrahondo. Specifically the examiner notes that front and back are relative terms and can be applied depending on how the object is viewed by an observer, or be arbitrarily assigned to opposite faces. In this case the examiner’s interpretation of Long had the plurality of fan assemblies mounted along the front face (at fans 28 ware along the front 14), each of the plurality of fan assemblies including a fan and blind mate connectors configured to interface with corresponding blind mate connectors within the cabinet (per paragraph 0034 of Long). In this case as Long defines the fans 28 are located on the front face. While Long does not explicitly disclose a hot-swappable control module mounted along the front face, the hot-swappable control module being positioned vertically above the plurality of fan assemblies. Florez-Larrahondo discloses (Figure 1-5) a rack cooling system with a fan module on an end of the rack (at fans 108, which) where the fan module includes a fan controller that is a hot-swappable control module mounted along the front face (at fan controller 508 which may be hot swapped from the back of the rack per Col. 6, line 6-18, in this case the back of Florez-Larrahondo would correspond to the front face of Long as they are the faces of the respective disclosures with the fans on it), the hot-swappable control module being positioned vertically above the plurality of fan assemblies (the controller 508 is above at least some of the fan assemblies at 108). The combined teachings would place the hot swappable fan controller on the same face as the fans as disclosed by Florez-Larrahondo. Modifying the fans of Long, which are on the front face of Long, to include the hot swappable controller on the same face as taught by Florez-Larrahondo would have a hot swappable fan controller be placed on the same face the fans of Long, which is the front face of Long. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to have modified the fan controller of Long to be hot swapable from the same face as the fans as disclosed by Florez-Larrahondo. Doing so would allow for the controller to be hot swapped from the rack in the event of a controller failure as recognized by Florez-Larrahondo (per Col. 6, line 6-18). Therefore for at least these reasons the limitations of independent claims 1, 14 and 20 are still disclosed by the combination of Long in view of Florez-Larrahondo as noted above.
Additionally the applicant argues on page 8 of the response, regarding the rejection of claims 15 and 19 that in any instance that the Examiner is providing personal knowledge or is taking Official notice of elements of the claims which are not found in the Long reference, the Applicant traverses the assertions. Note that Applicant does not provide any reasoned statement specifically pointing out any supposed errors in the examiner's action but merely preempts the use of any statements of fact not supported by documentary evidence. Firstly, it is noted in MPEP 2141 III that prior art is not limited just to the references being applied, but includes the understanding of one of ordinary skill in the art. The prior art reference (or references when combined) need not teach or suggest all the claim limitations, however, Office personnel must explain why the difference(s) between the prior art and the claimed invention would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. The “mere existence of differences between the prior art and an invention does not establish the invention's nonobviousness.” The examiner asserts that, absent any comment from the Applicant as to which statements of fact are being traversed and why, the examiner asserts that any limitation or assertion of fact not taught by the prior art was sufficiently explained in the rejections above as to why the claimed invention would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to fill in any gaps not found in the prior art.
Further note MPEP 2144.03 C which states to adequately traverse a finding based upon facts not supported by documentary evidence, an applicant must specifically point out the supposed errors in the examiner' s action, which would include stating why the noticed fact is not considered to be common knowledge or well-known in the art. Further, MPEP 2141 IV states that if an applicant disagrees with any factual findings by the Office, an effective traverse of a rejection based wholly or partially on such findings must include a reasoned statement explaining why the applicant believes the Office has erred substantively as to the factual findings. A mere statement or argument that the Office has not established a prima facie case of obviousness or that the Office' s reliance on common knowledge is unsupported by documentary evidence will not be considered substantively adequate to rebut the rejection or an effective traverse of the rejection. Further, MPEP 2144.03 C states that if applicant adequately traverses the examiner' s assertion of official notice, the examiner must provide documentary evidence in the next Office action if the rejection is to be maintained. Therefore, without a reasoned statement from the Applicant explaining why the applicant believes the office has erred substantially to the findings of fact which specifically points out the supposed errors in the examiner' s action, which would include stating why the noticed fact is not considered to be common knowledge or well-known in the art, any use of common knowledge or Official Notice of facts not found in the cited references are not considered properly traversed and therefore, require no documentary evidence from the examiner.
It should further be noted that if applicant does not traverse the examiner' s assertion of official notice or applicant' s traverse is not adequate, the examiner should clearly indicate in the next Office action that the common knowledge or well-known in the art statement is taken to be admitted prior art because applicant either failed to traverse the examiner' s assertion of official notice or that the traverse was inadequate. If the traverse was inadequate, the examiner should include an explanation as to why it was inadequate. Therefore, it is requested for Applicant to provide a reasoned statement explaining why the applicant believes the office has erred substantially to the findings of fact which specifically points out the supposed errors in the examiner' s action, which would include stating why the noticed fact is not considered to be common knowledge or well-known in the art for each statement traversed by Applicant. For at least the reasons stated above, applicant's reply regarding the rejections of claims 15 and 19 is not found persuasive to overcome the rejections of record and therefore the rejections above are deemed proper and remain.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Although not required since the applicant’s traversal was inadequate Chen et al. (US 2023/0304618 A1) discloses quick disconnect fittings for an inlet and outlet of a fluid line. Rauline (US 2015/0077924 A1) discloses toolless removal for hot swappable fans.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HANS R. WEILAND whose telephone number is (571)272-9847. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6-3 EST and alternating Fridays.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Len Tran can be reached at 571-272-1184. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HANS R WEILAND/Examiner, Art Unit 3763 /LEN TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3763
Prosecution Insights