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 Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities: “positing flange” should read “positioning flange”. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (US8410362B1) in view of Scheppers (US1651071A) and Sun (CN105805922A), referring to the English translation dated 06/02/2026.
Regarding claim 1, Lin teaches
a fixing structure for a faceplate ventilation screen of a power supply unit (fig. 1), comprising:
a faceplate body (faceplate body 10), the faceplate body having a top end and a bottom end (as shown on figs. 1-2), the top end and the bottom end each having an extension plate transversely extending from an inner side thereof (two first extension portions 14, fig. 2), the faceplate body further having at least one opening (ventilation openings 11), the extension plates of the top end and the bottom end of the faceplate body having opposite inner sides each provided with a positioning flange extending inwardly at a location close to the opening (first elongated ribs 151, figs. 2 and 4), a positioning groove being formed between the positioning flange and the faceplate body (first gaps 16, figs. 2 and 4);
at least one ventilation screen (ventilation screen 20), disposed on the opening and corresponding in shape to the opening (figs. 1 and 3), the ventilation screen having a plurality of ventilation holes (as shown on fig. 1)
Lin does not teach
a faceplate body, having a curved profile
the ventilation screen having a curved profile corresponding to the faceplate body, the ventilation screen being flexible and deformable, the ventilation screen being secured to the faceplate body by curving the ventilation screen for top and bottom ends of the ventilation screen to be placed into the respective positioning grooves
Scheppers teaches
the ventilation screen being flexible and deformable (“The strip material is formed preferably of a long section of -wire screen 7 which is quite narrow and having sheet metal binding strips 8 on the edges” [page 1 lines 49-52]; “The screen and the binding strips on the edge being sufficiently flexible so that they can be bent and fitted in the clamping strips on each of the brackets” [page 1 lines 92-95])
Lin teaches ventilation screens 20, however does not further describe the construction of the screens. Therefore, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the construction of ventilation screens 20 with that as taught in Scheppers, “so that they can be bent and fitted in the clamping strips on each of the brackets” [page 1 lines 94-95 of Scheppers]), thus allowing the ventilation screens 20 to easily fit within first gap 16 when applied to Lin.
Sun teaches
a faceplate body, having a curved profile (panel body 10, fig. 3)
the ventilation screen having a curved profile corresponding to the faceplate body (grille 30, fig. 3)
Lin teaches a faceplate body 10 and ventilation screen 20 comprising a flat structure. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the faceplate body 10 and ventilation screen 20 of Lin as a curved structure, as taught in Sun, in order to accommodate a curved power supply unit housing (Sun teaches “the panel body 10 and the reinforcing strip 20 are each a curved plate-like structure. The air conditioner to which the air intake panel is applied is a cylindrical cabinet” [0054]). Additionally, a curved screen member provides a greater cross sectional blowout area in order to accommodate a larger airflow through the ventilation system.
Although Lin, as modified, does not explicitly disclose “the ventilation screen being secured to the faceplate body by curving the ventilation screen for top and bottom ends of the ventilation screen to be placed into the respective positioning grooves”, it is noted that “[E]ven though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process, determination of patentability is based on the product itself. The patentability of a product does not depend on its method of production. If the product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior art product was made by a different process”, In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 698, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985). Further, “although produced by a different process, the burden shifts to applicant to come forward with evidence establishing an unobvious difference between the claimed product and the prior art product”, In re Marosi, 710 F.2d 798, 802, 218 USPQ 298, 292 (Fed Cir. 1983). See MPEP 2113. Given that Lin, as modified, meets the requirements of the claimed fixing structure for a faceplate ventilation screen of a power supply unit (“the faceplate body 10 of the power source supplier is provided with two ventilation screens 20 rectangular-shaped, and two ends of each ventilation screen 20 can be received in the opposite first gaps 16 to have the ventilation screen 20 correspondingly positioned at one of the rectangular ventilation openings 11” [0019 of Lin]; modified to be curved by Sun), Lin, as modified, satisfies the requirements of the present claims.
Regarding claim 2, Lin, as modified, teaches the fixing structure as claimed in claim 1,
wherein a guide slope is formed on either side of a distal end of the positioning flange (sloped shape of first elongated ribs 151, fig. 4 of Lin), and the positing flange has a tapered profile for the top and bottom ends of the ventilation screen to be placed into the respective positioning grooves easily (as shown on annotated fig. 2 of Lin below)
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Annotated fig. 2 of Lin
Regarding claim 3, Lin, as modified, teaches the fixing structure as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the opening has a rectangular shape (rectangular ventilation openings 11)
Regarding claim 4, Lin, as modified, teaches the fixing structure as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the ventilation screen is made of a metal material with flexibility (as taught regarding claim 1 in view of Scheppers)
Regarding claim 5, Lin, as modified, does not teach the fixing structure as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the ventilation holes are in a honeycomb shape
While Lin, as modified, does not teach wherein the ventilation holes are in a honeycomb shape, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the ventilation holes of Lin as such as these changes in configuration are a matter of design when the particular configuration result in no change in system performance. In re Dailey, 357 F.2d 669, 149 USPQ 47 (CCPA 1966) (The court held that the configuration of the claimed disposable plastic nursing container was a matter of choice which a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious absent persuasive evidence that the particular configuration of the claimed container was significant; applicant has not cited mechanical significance of the recited configuration to perform differently than the prior art device in the disclosure (see [0017] of applicant’s 05/14/2024 specification). Therefore, the claim is given no distinguishable patentability.
Conclusion
The prior art of record not relied upon includes:
Lin2017 (US20170086330A1), which teaches a similar fixing structure for a faceplate ventilation screen to that claimed
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/BRETT P. MALLON/Examiner, Art Unit 3762 /MICHAEL G HOANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3762
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