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 .
Summary
This is the response to the Amendment/Request for Reconsideration filed on 02/26/2026.
Claims 1 and 5-22 remain pending in the application with claims 19-20 is withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Objections
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 5 is recited as dependent of claim 3, which has been cancelled. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 5-18 and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The limitations “wherein the liquid is brought into contact with the second heat exchanger directly after being heated by the air-liquid heat exchanger without passing through a borehole” and “wherein the heat pump uses only the air-liquid heat exchanger as a thermal energy source” are new matters not supported by the originally filed disclosure. The Applicant stated that the disclosure in pages 1-2 of the specification and fig. 1A support the aforementioned limitation; however, the cited sections do not provide any explicit, implicit or inherent support for the claimed limitations. The specification does not disclose any specific connection between the second heat exchanger and the air-liquid heat exchanger in order to support the claimed limitations. Furthermore, the limitation “without passing through a borehole” is a negative limitation that does not have any basis in the original disclosure as the absence of the disclosure of the borehole in the specification is not sufficient as support for the claimed negative limitation (see MPEP 2173.05(i)).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5, 7, 10-13, 15-16, 18 and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu (JP2006343060 with provided machine English translation) in view of Posnansky (US 2011/0041428) and Meckler (US 3,996,759).
Addressing claim 1, Yu discloses a system for generating heat by means of solar radiation in which at least one solar heat collector (roof panel 13) with at least one further element (roof 12) forms a cavity 15 on a rear side of the at least one solar heat collector (fig. 1), said cavity being filled with air (air flow path 15, paragraph [0032] of the translation document), said system being configured such that solar radiation incident on the solar heat collector heats the air in the cavity [0015], said system also being configured to bring the air heated in the cavity into contact with an air-liquid heat exchanger (hot water supply unit 3 as the claimed air-liquid heat exchanger [0015]) to transfer the heat from the air heated in the cavity to a liquid [0017-0018], wherein the system includes a fan (53 or 70) is configured and arranged to supply heated or collected air to the air-liquid heat exchanger [0037-0038], wherein the liquid is part of a liquid circuit (paragraphs [0016-0017] disclose heat in the air is transferred to liquid via the air-liquid heat exchanger; fig. 1 shows the heated liquid is being conducted in a liquid network that corresponds to the claimed liquid circuit), with said air-liquid heat exchanger being located in a ridge of a roof or in an upper part of the air-filled cavity designed for heating by solar radiation (fig. 1), said liquid circuit being configured or arranged to heat the water tank 34 for supply domestic hot water via outlet 34b (fig. 1).
Yu is silent regarding the system comprises at least one solar cell module for generating electricity and the liquid circuit being configured or arranged to heat a second heat exchanger, wherein the liquid is brought into contact with the second heat exchanger directly after being heated by the air-liquid heat exchanger without passing through a borehole, wherein the second heat exchanger is configured or arranged to heat a refrigerant circuit of a heat pump or an evaporator of the heat pump, wherein the heat pump uses only the air-liquid heat exchanger as a thermal energy source.
Posnansky discloses a system for generating electricity and heat by means of solar radiation in which at least one solar cell module 60 (embedded in glass roof panels 24 as shown in figs. 3 and 6-7 and described in the Abstract) together with at least one further element (roof 12) forms a cavity on a rear side of the at least one solar cell module (fig. 1), said cavity being filled with air and an air-liquid heat exchanger 40 being located in a ridge of a roof or in an upper part of the air-filled cavity (fig. 4), similarly to the arrangement of Yu.
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the heat collector element of Yu with the glass roof panels having solar cells embedded therein as disclosed by Posnansky in order to maintain heat collecting capability while generating electrical powers from solar radiation (Posnansky, Abstract).
Meckler discloses a system for generating heat by means of solar radiation (fig. 1) where solar heat is used to heat a liquid (col. 4 ln 32-54) similarly to that of Yu. Meckler further discloses a heat exchanger (either liquid storage tank 30 or heat exchanger 70 shown in figs. 1-3) that receives the heated liquid from the solar collector directly (fig. 3 shows the return line carrying heated liquid from the solar collector is fed directly into the heat exchanger 30; alternatively, col. 7 line 27-33 disclose that in heating mode the heated liquid from heat exchange means B, which is associated with the solar collector, is directly directed through the heat exchange coil 70) without passing through a borehole (figs. 1-3 show the direct connection between the solar collector and the heat exchanger 30 or 70 without passing through a borehole). The heat exchanger (30 or 70) is configured or arranged to heat a refrigerant circuit of a heat pump or an evaporator of the heat pump (heat pump A, figs. 1-3, col. 3 ln 54 – col. 7 ln 12), wherein the heat pump uses only the air-liquid heat exchanger as thermal energy source (in the above scenario, the heat pump uses only the solar collector heat exchanger as thermal energy source; additionally, the configuration of Meckler is structurally configured to direct the heated liquid from the solar collector to the heat pump as the only source of thermal energy as claimed).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Yu with the heat exchanger for receiving the heated liquid from the air-liquid heat exchanger and the associated heat pump disclosed by Meckler in order to efficiently utilize the heat from the solar collector (Meckler, col. 7 ln 62 to col. 8 ln 24).
Addressing claim 2, Yu discloses the liquid circuit is a liquid circuit with a pump 13 (fig. 1). Meckler discloses in fig. 3 pump 24, 43 and 15 for directing heated liquid in the liquid circuit.
Addressing claim 5, Yu discloses the heated fluid is used to heat up fluid in the take 34, as the structural equivalence to the claimed buffer storage tank or a further buffer storage tank because the tank 34 accumulates heated fluid or creates a buffer of heated fluid before supplying the heated fluid via piping 34b for domestic use. Meckler discloses the heat exchanger (30 or 70, as discussed above), as the structural equivalence to the claimed second heat pump, is also part of a water or refrigerant circuit of the heat pump (figs. 1-3). Fig. 3 of Meckler further discloses the system is configured to supply heat to a domestic water storage 36. Therefore, , the limitation of current claim would have been obvious based on the teaching of Yu in view of Meckler to connect the output end of the heat pump for directing heated fluid to the storage tank or the claimed buffer storage tank/further buffer storage tank of the building system for domestic use.
Addressing claim 7, Posnansky discloses in fig. 6 the openings underneath each row of solar module/solar heat collector correspond to the claimed inlet openings through which air can flow into the cavity.
Addressing claim 10, figs. 13-15 of Posnansky disclose the solar cell module has at least one transparent top layer (72 and 70), a solar cell 60 and a colored bottom layer 76.
Addressing claim 11, Posnansky discloses the solar cell module is part of a roof membrane (the solar cell module is disposed as roof structure) and Yu discloses a collecting device 4 for air heated in the cavity is formed at a level of the upmost edge of the solar heat collecting module, which renders the limitation of current claim obvious.
Addressing claim 12, Yu in view of Posnansky disclose the air-liquid heat exchanger 3 is arranged in a collecting device 4 together with a fan 53 (fig. 1 of Yu).
Addressing claim 13, fig. 7 of Posnansky discloses the cavity is formed between subroof 12 as the structural equivalence to the claimed underlay membrane and the solar cell module and is spanned by roof battens 26.
Addressing claim 15, Yu further discloses a control panel 6 as the claimed control device. The system further includes a pump 33. The control device 6 is configured to control the pump 33 in such a way that the pump 33 starts when a first predetermined temperature of the heated air (the temperature of the air detected intake sensor 71, which is the heated air for the air has been passed underneath the solar collector 2) is exceeded (temperature of the heated air is higher than the temperature of hot water stored in the tank 34). Alternatively, Yu discloses a pump, a pump sensor disposed outside the house for measuring the heated air temperature and activates the pump to heat the liquid when the air temperature outside is high (i.e. air temperature is exceeded), which also meets the claimed limitation. Another teaching of Yu that satisfies the claimed limitation is in paragraph [0028] where it is disclosed by the control panel 6 is connected to pump 33 and activates the pump 33 based on the temperature of the heated air detected by the intake sensor 71, which implies that the pump 33 is activated when the temperature of the heated air is exceeded.
Addressing claim 16, Yu discloses in paragraph [0037] a control device 6 and a fan 70 that is operated when the temperature of the heated air (detected by the intake temperature sensor 71) exceeds the room temperature (detected by room temperature sensor 72), which corresponds to the claimed third predetermined temperature of the heated air. Therefore, Yu implicitly discloses that the fan 70 is turned off when the intake temperature is lower than the room temperature, which meets the claimed limitation.
Addressing claim 18, the intake temperature sensor 71 of Yu corresponds to the claimed at least one temperature sensor in the collecting device.
Addressing claim 21, fig. 1 of Yu shows at least one box (the combination of the housing of the hot water removal unit 3 and the housing of the ventilation unit 4 shown in fig. 1 corresponds to the claimed at least one box) positioned below the ridge of the roof (fig. 1 shows the combination of the housing of the hot water removal unit 3 and the housing of the ventilation unit 4 is located below the ridge formed by the roof plate 13 and the cover 17); and wherein the air-liquid heat exchanger, fig. 2 of Yu, and the fan (53, shown in figs. 4-5, or 70, shown in fig. 1) are held within the at least one box (the air-liquid heat exchanger is held in the housing of the hot water removal unit and the fan is held in the housing of the ventilation unit).
Addressing claim 22, Yu discloses in paragraphs [0037-0038] that actuation of the fan 53 or 70 causes air heated in the cavity being sucked into the at least one box and through the air-liquid heat exchanger.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu (JP2006343060 with provided machine English translation) in view of Posnansky (US 2011/0041428) and Meckler (US 3,996,759) as applied to claims 1-2, 5, 7, 10-13, 15-16, 18 and 21-22 above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (CN107548263 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 6, Yu discloses the air-liquid heat exchanger is formed by at least one tube (34a and 34b) being surrounded by fins 32a. Yu is silent regarding the fins are made of metal.
Zhao discloses an air-liquid heat exchanger comprising aluminum fins 103 (paragraph [0058] of the translation document).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the air-liquid heat exchanger of Yu with the known aluminum for the fins as disclosed by Zhao in order to obtain the predictable result of transferring heat from air to the liquid within the tubes (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2143).
Claim(s) 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu (JP2006343060 with provided machine English translation) in view of Posnansky (US 2011/0041428) and Meckler (US 3,996,759) as applied to claims 1-2, 5, 7, 10-13, 15-16, 18 and 21-22 above, and further in view of Farquhar et al. (WO2006128236).
Addressing claims 8-9, Yu and Posnansky are silent regarding the limitation of current claim.
Hake discloses in figs. 1-2c at least one quick-ventilation opening 27 to enable air to escape from the cavity without passing the air-liquid heat exchanger.
Farquhar discloses a closable quick-ventilation opening 72 for ventilation of heated hair and the airflow is aided by fan 64 (figs. 4 and 7b, page 18 lines 16-24).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Yu in view of Posnansky with the closable quick-ventilation opening disclosed by Hake and Farquhar in order to balance the airflow as well as allowing for quick ventilation of heated air (Hake, paragraph [0035]; Farquhar, page 18 lines 16-24).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu (JP2006343060 with provided machine English translation) in view of Posnansky (US 2011/0041428) and Meckler (US 3,996,759) as applied to claims 1-2, 5, 7, 10-13, 15-16, 18 and 21-22 above, and further in view of Hake (DE10144148 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 14, Yu in view of Posnansky and Meckler discloses the system has a pump (the pumps disclosed by Yu and Meckler) that is part of the liquid circuit or has a heat pump (the heat pump disclosed by Meckler) whose refrigerant circuit is thermally coupled to the liquid circuit by means of the further heat exchanger (the heat exchanger disclosed by Meckler).
Yu, Posnansky and Meckler are silent regarding the limitation requiring the system is configured to operate the heat pump or the pump using the electricity generated by the at least oner solar cell module.
Hake discloses a heat exchanger 4 of the liquid circuit is part of a water or refrigerant circuit of a heat pump 5 [0038-0039]. The system of Hake is configured to supply heat generated by the heat pump to a storage tank 22 (fig. 1). Hake further discloses the heat pump is powered by electricity generated by the photovoltaic modules [0041].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Yu in view of Posnansky with the known arrangement of powering the heat pump using the electricity generated by the at least one solar cell module as disclosed by Hake in order to obtain the predictable result of powering the heat pump (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2141).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu (JP2006343060 with provided machine English translation) in view of Posnansky (US 2011/0041428) and Meckler (US 3,996,759) as applied to claims 1-2, 5, 7, 10-13, 15-16, 18 and 21-22 above, and further in view of Rocheux et al. (FR3117694 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 17, Yu and Posnansky are silent regarding the limitation of current claim.
Rocheux discloses a system comprising a control device [0018] and a heat pump [0018] whose refrigerant circuit is thermally coupled to the liquid circuit (paragraph [0091], the heat pump is connected to CC heating circuit and domestic hot water circuit that qualify as the claimed liquid circuit) and a buffer storage tank (BA tank [0091] and fig. 2). The control device being designed to heat the pump when the temperature of the buffer tank is lower than set temperature Tmin [0070] that corresponds to the claimed seventh predetermined temperature, lower than the fifth in the buffer storage tank is undershot and stop the heat pump when the temperature in the buffer storage tank is greater than or equal to Tinf, which corresponds to the claimed a tenth predetermined temperature in the buffer storage tank is exceeded.
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Yu in view of Posnansky with the heat pump thermally connected to the liquid circuit along with the control device configured to control the heat pump in the manner disclosed by Rocheux in order to maximize the collected thermal energy from the solar collector (Rocheux, [0022]) and heat exchanger (Rocheux, [0055]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-2, 5-18 and 21-22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any combination of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 04/09/2026