DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1, 7 and 15, the limitation “the tessellated unit cells being arranged with respect to one another in a cell map such that a fog-laden airflow moving through the architected lattice from the upstream end to the downstream end exhibits a pressure drop of 2 psi or less and formation of water droplets of 10-40 microns” is unclear. The pressure drop and water droplet formation would vary depending on the initial pressure of airflow, the flow rate of airflow and the contents of the airflow; therefore, it is unclear what structure is being required by the claimed limitation.
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, 13, 16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nifenecker USPA 2021/0231034 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Nifenecker discloses a lattice coalescer and a method of making a coalescer (paragraph 51), comprising: an architected lattice having a cylindrical shape with an upstream end and a downstream end (cylindrical enclosure 6 having mesh 17), the architected lattice comprising a solid outer body and an interior body disposed within the solid outer body and substantially filled in three dimensions with tessellated unit cells (claim 1: mesh structure is formed by material having “spatial repetition”)
Depending on the condition of the airflow passing through the mesh of Nifenecker, the airflow moving through the architected lattice from the upstream end to the downstream end would exhibit a pressure drop of 2 psi or less and formation of water droplets of 10-40 microns. Claims directed to an apparatus must be distinguished in the prior art in terms of structure rather than function. MPEP 2114.
Regarding claims 2 and 16, Nifenecker discloses that the tessellated unit cells are arranged uniformly throughout the interior body (figure 2: mesh 17; claim 1).
Regarding claims 5 and 19, Nifenecker discloses that the tessellated unit cells have one or more of diamond configurations, body-centered cubic configurations, face-centered cubic configurations and octet configurations, and the cell map exhibits one or more of rectangular cell mapping, cylindrical cell mapping and spherical cell mapping (paragraph 55).
Allowable Subject Matter
Although all of the claims are rejected as being indefinite, claims 3, 4, 6, 7-14, 17, 18 and 20 are not rejected utilizing prior art. Depending on how the 112 2nd paragraph rejections are resolved, it appears that these claims would be either allowable (claims 7-13) or 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 (claims 3, 4, 6, 17, 18 and 20).
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Regarding claims 3, 4, 6, 17, 18 and 20, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious wherein the architected lattice further comprises solid swirl vanes with the tessellated unit cells disposed within interstitial regions between the solid swirl vanes, wherein the architected lattice further comprises solid concentric rings with the tessellated unit cells disposed within interstitial regions between the solid concentric rings, or wherein the cell map has one of an axial gradient and a radial gradient. Regarding claims 7-14, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious the claimed structure within an environmental control system of an aircraft.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER P JONES whose telephone number is (571)270-7383. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-6PM EST M-F.
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/CHRISTOPHER P JONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1776
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