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 § 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.
Claims 1-2, 5-6, 10-11, 13-14 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Uchiumi (JP 2007192262 A – see translation provided by Examiner).
With respect to claim 1, Uchiumi teaches a ventilation system (Figure 1, #1 – see annotated view of Figure 1, provided blow) comprising: a ventilation path (defined by flow/ventilation path extending from respective ends #5 connected to fan intake and exhaust ports – see translation, [0022], [0037]); and a silencer (defined by intermediate portion having sound absorbing material #4) that is disposed at an intermediate position of the ventilation path, wherein the silencer includes a housing (3) that has an inlet opening (7) and an outlet opening (8) and in which an in-housing ventilation path extending from the inlet opening (7) to the outlet opening (8) is provided inside the ventilation path (clearly seen in Figure 1), a sound absorbing member (4) that is disposed in the housing in a state of surrounding the in-housing ventilation path, an upstream tube body (defined not shown connection to fan intake port, which will inherently include some kind of “tube body” for connecting to fitting portion #5) that forms an upstream ventilation path of the ventilation path, which is on an upstream side of the inlet opening (7), a downstream tube body (defined not shown connection to fan, exhaust port, which will inherently include some kind of “tube body” for connecting to fitting portion #5) that forms a downstream ventilation path of the ventilation path, which is on a downstream side of the outlet opening (8), a tubular first connecting portion (9) that is connected to the upstream tube body and that links the upstream ventilation path and the inlet opening (7) to each other, and a tubular second connecting portion (10) that is connected to the downstream tube body and that links the downstream ventilation path and the outlet opening (8) to each other, each of the first connecting portion (9) and the second connecting portion (10) includes an opening portion therein, the opening portion (defined by interior open portion of each of #9/10) being adjacent to the in-housing ventilation path, and the closer to the in-housing ventilation path, the smaller a size of a cross section of the opening portion (note tapered portion of each of #9/10, which becomes smaller as it becomes closer to the in-house ventilation path, defined between respective openings #7/8) of at least one connecting portion of the first connecting portion (9) or the second connecting portion (10). It is noted that for illustrative purposes, the Examiner has referred to #7 as the inlet/upstream side and #8 as the downstream/outlet side, however, these sides could conceivably be reversed, as Uchiumi does not specify a particular side as the inlet/outlet side, but merely states that the fitting portions #5 connect to the intake and exhaust ports of the fan unit ([0022]).
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With respect to claim 2, Uchiumi teaches wherein the closer to the in-housing ventilation path, the smaller the size of the cross section of the opening portion of each of the first connecting portion (9) and the second connecting portion (10).
With respect to claims 5 and 13, Uchiumi teaches wherein the in-housing ventilation path extends along a first direction, an inner peripheral surface of the at least one connecting portion (9/10) is inclined with respect to the first direction (defined by inclined/flared open ends of connection portions clearly see at #5), and an inclined angle of the inner peripheral surface with respect to the first direction is 0.1 degrees or more and 45 degrees or less.
With respect to claims 6 and 14, Uchiumi teaches wherein the in-housing ventilation path extends along a first direction, the first connecting portion (9) protrudes from one end of the housing in the first direction, the second connecting portion (10) protrudes from the other end of the housing in the first direction, and each of the first connecting portion (9) and the second connecting portion (10) has an outer peripheral surface in which unevenness is formed along the first direction (unevenness defined by flared open ends of connection portions clearly see at #5).
With respect to claims 10 and 18, Uchiumi teaches wherein the first connecting portion (9) and the second connecting portion (10) are composed of resin forming products ([0032]).
With respect to claims 11 and 19, Uchiumi teaches wherein an inner diameter of an end of the opening portion of each of the first connecting portion (9) and the second connecting portion (10) on an in-housing ventilation path side is 150 mm or less ([0031]).
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.
Claims 8-9 and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uchiumi (JP 2007192262 A – see translation provided by Examiner).
With respect to claims 8 and 16, Uchiumi teaches the ventilation system of claim 1. Uchiumi further teaches wherein the in-housing ventilation path (defined by flow bath between respective openings #7/8) extends along a first direction, and a range in which the inlet opening is present and a range in which the outlet opening is present are the same from each other in a second direction intersecting the first direction and a third direction intersecting both the first direction and the second direction (clearly seen in Figure 1).
Uchiumi fails to explicitly teach a range in which the inlet opening is present and a range in which the outlet opening is present are different from each other in a second direction intersecting the first direction.
It would have been an obvious design choice to a range in which the inlet opening is present and a range in which the outlet opening is present are different from each other in a second direction intersecting the first direction, since such a modification would have involved a mere change in the size of a component. A change in size is generally recognized as being within the level of ordinary skill in the art. In re Rose, 105 USPQ 237 (CCPA 1955). In this case, changing the size of one of the inlet or outlet openings would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill for a number of reasons including adjusting a flow through the device or tuning purposes.
With respect to claims 9 and 17, Uchiumi teaches wherein a size of a cross section of an end of the opening portion of the at least one connecting portion (9/10) on an in-housing ventilation path side and a size of an opening of the inlet opening (7) or the outlet opening (8), which is adjacent to the end, are identical to each other (clearly seen in Figure 1).
Claims 3-4, 7, 12, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uchiumi (JP 2007-192262 A – see translation provided by Examiner) in view of Tsuburaya (JP 2008-144874 A).
With respect to claims 3 and 12, Uchiumi teaches the ventilation system of claims 1 and 2. Uchiumi further teaches wherein the first connecting portion (9) is connected to the upstream tube body (defined not shown connection to fan intake port, which will inherently include some kind of “tube body” for connecting to fitting portion #5) by an unspecified connection configuration, the second connecting portion (10) is connected to the downstream tube body (defined not shown connection to fan exhaust port, which will inherently include some kind of “tube body” for connecting to fitting portion #5) by an unspecified connection configuration.
Uchiumi fails to teach wherein the first connecting portion is connected to the upstream tube body by being inserted into the upstream tube body, the second connecting portion is connected to the downstream tube body by being inserted into the downstream tube body, each of the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion has an outer peripheral portion surrounding the opening portion, and at a tip portion of the at least one connecting portion, the farther from the housing, the smaller a wall thickness of the outer peripheral portion.
Tsuburaya teaches a similar connecting configuration (Figures 1-3), wherein the first connecting portion (defined by #4, when combined with Uchiumi, first connecting #9) is connected to the upstream tube body (defined by #2, when combined with Uchiumi upstream tube body as defined above) by being inserted into the upstream tube body (2, when combined), the second connecting portion (defined by #4, when combined with Uchiumi, second connecting #10) is connected to the downstream tube body (defined by #2, when combined with Uchiumi downstream tube body as defined above) by being inserted into the downstream tube body (2, when combined), each of the first connecting portion (#4/Uchiumi #9) and the second connecting portion (#4/Uchiumi #10) has an outer peripheral portion surrounding the opening portion, and at a tip portion (10) of the at least one connecting portion (#4/Uchiumi #9 or 10), the farther from the housing (Uchiumi, #3), the smaller a wall thickness of the outer peripheral portion.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the apparatus of Uchiumi, with the apparatus of Tsuburaya so as to provide a pipe connection allowing insertion of the pipe fitting, but not allowing movement in a removal direction (see Tsuburaya, Abstract), as Uchiumi does not specify any particular connection configuration.
With respect to claim 4, Tsuburaya teaches wherein at the tip portion (40) of each of the first connecting portion (#4/Uchiumi #9) and the second connecting portion (#4/Uchiumi #10), the farther from the housing, the smaller the wall thickness of the outer peripheral portion.
With respect to claims 7 and 15, Uchiumi teaches the ventilation system of claims 6 and 14.
Uchiumi fails teach wherein in each of the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion, the farther from the housing, the smaller an outer diameter of a portion where the outer peripheral surface has a convex shape.
Tsuburaya teaches a similar connecting configuration (Figures 1-3), wherein in each of the first connecting portion (defined by #4, when combined with Uchiumi, first connecting #9) and the second connecting portion (defined by #4, when combined with Uchiumi, second connecting #10), the farther from the housing (Uchiumi, #3, when combined), the smaller an outer diameter of a portion (defined by tapered portion #42, extending from #41 to #40) where the outer peripheral surface has a convex shape (defined by convex tapered portion #42, similar to Applicant’s).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the apparatus of Uchiumi, with the apparatus of Tsuburaya so as to provide a pipe connection allowing insertion of the pipe fitting, but not allowing movement in a removal direction (see Tsuburaya, Abstract), as Uchiumi does not specify any particular connection configuration.
With respect to claim 20, Uchiumi teaches wherein the in-housing ventilation path extends along a first direction, an inner peripheral surface of the at least one connecting portion (9/10) is inclined with respect to the first direction (defined by inclined/flared open ends of connection portions clearly see at #5, when combined with Tsuburaya front end portion #40 of taper #42), and an inclined angle of the inner peripheral surface with respect to the first direction is 0.1 degrees or more and 45 degrees or less (note inclined angle between diameter d4 and d1 in Figure 1 of Tsuburaya).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/4/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The Examiner still considers Uchiumi and the obvious combination with Tsuburaya to teach all of the limitations as claimed by Applicant.
The Examiner acknowledges that the Terminal Disclaimer filed 3/4/26 has been approved, and the nonstatutory double patenting rejection has been withdrawn.
Regarding to claim 1, Applicant argues that Uchiumi fails to teach that “the opening portion being adjacent to the in-housing ventilation path, and the closer to the in-housing ventilation path, the smaller a size of a cross section of the opening portion of at least one connecting portion of the first connecting portion or the second connecting portion,” as claimed. Specifically, Applicant argues that “Uchiumi, as shown in the figure below, the closer to in-housing ventilation path, the smaller a size of the cross sectional area of the opening portion (red frame portions in the figure below; the red frames are indicated by the Applicant) in the part separated from the in-housing ventilation path.”
In response, the Examiner notes that the Uchiumi reference has been reinterpreted to refer to the inlet and outlet openings (annotated view of Figure 1, provided above and reproduced below), which define respective ends of the in-house ventilation path, as being adjacent to the first and second opening portions (9/10). This new interpretation of Uchiumi is considered to be fully responsive as it remedies all issues raised by Applicant.
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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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEREMY AUSTIN LUKS whose telephone number is (571)272-2707. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (9:00-5:00).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dedei Hammond can be reached at (571) 270-7938. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEREMY A LUKS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837