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
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 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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Publication 2006/0080974 to Ono.
In Reference to Claim 13
Ono discloses a drying device for providing a process gas for a dryer plant, the drying device being associated with the dryer plant and with at least one external heat source, the drying device comprising: a heat pump unit for heating the process gas, the heat pump unit comprising at least one heat pump (Fig. 1, 120) which comprises a circuit fluid (Fig. 1, 160), an evaporator (Fig. 1, 150), a compressor (Fig. 1, 120), a gas cooler (Fig. 1, 130), a throttle unit (Fig. 1, 140), and a superheater (Fig. 1, 190) which is arranged between the evaporator and the compressor (as showed in Fig. 1), wherein, the superheater is, via at least one heat transfer fluid, connectable and/or heatable via the at least one external heat source which is/are spatially arranged outside the heat pump unit (As showed in Fig. 1) and/or free of a direct heat transfer from a heat-emitting side of the heat pump unit, so that, the circuit fluid is superheated via the superheater after exiting the evaporator so as to obtain a superheated circuit fluid, the superheated circuit fluid is compressed via the compressor so as to obtain a compressed superheated circuit fluid, and the compressed superheated circuit fluid is available to heat the process gas via the gas cooler.
In Reference to Claim 15
Ono discloses at least one of the dryer plant (Fig. 1, 110) and the at least one external heat source (Fig. 1, as showed the heater 190 is an electric heater).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14, 16-26 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.
Conclusion
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DEMING . WAN
Examiner
Art Unit 3762
/DEMING WAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 6/11/26
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