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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shin (KR 101211833).
Regarding Claim 1, Shin discloses a frying apparatus (Fig. 1) characterized by comprising:
a main body provided with a first casing portion (20) and a second casing portion (50) located behind and above the first casing portion;
a frying oil tank (22) installed in the first casing portion, and provided with a central discharge port (52a) located close to a bottom surface of the frying oil tank, and with supply ports (62b) arranged at upper portions of both sides of the discharge port;
a filter member (58) installed in the second casing portion; and
a frying oil filtration unit(50) provided with a circulation piping (52b, 54, 62) installed to connect the discharge port and the supply ports while passing through the filter member, and with a motor pump (52) that is installed on the circulation piping, and that suctions and pumps frying oil in the oil tank to circulate and replenish the frying oil, which has passed through the filter member, into the oil tank (see “the fluid pump 52 is operated to suck the cooking oil of the fry tank 20, pump the sucked cooking oil is sent to the conveying pipe 54. And the edible oil sent to the conveying pipe 54 is conveyed to the upper side of the main body frame 10 along the conveying pipe 54, and the edible oil conveyed to the upper side is introduced | transduced into the pressure reduction nozzle 56 again. At this time, the cooking oil introduced into the pressure-reducing nozzle 56 is decompressed to an appropriate pressure while being introduced into the pressure-reducing chamber 56b, and the pressure-reducing cooking oil drops while ejecting downward through the nozzle holes 56c. The cooking oil falling downward is filtered and purified while passing through the filter 58, and the purified cooking oil is collected in the cooking oil collection container 60.” in English translation).
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) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin (KR 101211833) in view of Jun (KR 20070006216).
Regarding Claim 2, Shin discloses the filter member includes a mesh basket (58a) and a filter paper (58b) covered with the mesh basket, and is attachable to and detachable from the second casing portion (see Fig. 3), the main body includes a cover (10b) that opens and close an upper surface (10a) of the second casing portion. Shin fails to disclose the main body includes a cover that opens and closes a front surface of a second casing portion. Jun teaches a main body includes a cover (21) that opens and closes a front surface of the second casing portion. Shin and Jun are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, i.e. cooking apparatuses. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the main body of Shin with the front surface cover of Jun. The motivation would have been to provide easier access to the filter member from the front of the main body, thus making it easier to service.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 4 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art of record Shin (KR 101211833) fails to disclose either a support portion that supports and holds the filter member is provided at the lower end, as specified in Claim 3, or the subject matter required by Claim 4. Jun teaches a front cover that is hinge-coupled, but the lower end of the front cover does not provide a support portion hat supports and holds the filter member. Further modifying Jun as required by Claim 3 would require impermissible hindsight bias. Regarding Claim 4, Shin operates with a suction port located at the bottom of the frying oil tank 22 that is generally flat except for the declined portion at the suction port 52a. Sakida (JP 2000271017) was considered as a modifying reference, however, the operation of Sakida requires a centrally located drain 8 instead of the rearward-located suction port of Shin. Modifying Shin with Sakida would likely render Shin inoperable for its intended purpose of recirculating and filtering oil.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See attached PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC J KURILLA whose telephone number is (571)270-7294. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7AM-6PM.
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/ERIC J KURILLA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
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