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 .
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I and Specie II in the reply filed on 07/02/2026 is acknowledged. Thus claims 1, 2, 5-6, 8-9, and 14-15 are being examined. Examiner reconsidered the non-elected claims after discovering prior art, and believes that it will make an undue burden to reject the non-elected claims.
Claims 8, 9, and 14-15 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: It would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of
Pena-Bach-Martin and reduce to practice the claimed subject matter of claim 8; therefore, it is Examiner’s opinion that claim 8 and its dependent claims shall be allowed if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim 1 and intervening claim 8.
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, 2, and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pena, Pedriant et al. (US 2022/0212046 A1), in view of Bach, James Carter (US 2013/0187781 A1), and further in view of Martin, Casandra Jolene (US 2015/0145703 A1).
Consider claim 1, Pena teaches, a fire detection and warning system, Pena teaches, “fire suppression system includes a temperature sensors, a suppression system activator, and processing circuitry.” See ¶ 0003, comprising:
kitchen exhaust hood connected to an exhaust fan configured to ventilate convective heat and cooking fumes released by one or more cooking appliances (stove ¶ 0088) installed under the kitchen exhaust hood, the kitchen exhaust hood having a plenum (202), Pena teaches, “FIG. 2 applied to an exhaust hood in a kitchen,” See ¶ 0088, Pena teaches, “temperature sensors 204 are configured to measure/monitor a temperature inside a hood (e.g., exhaust hood), shown as hood 202.” See ¶ 0048, nonetheless, in an analogous art, Bach teaches, “Range hood 115 is positioned over cook top 100. Range hood 115 typically includes one or more ventilation fans to circulate air or remove heat and fumes.” See ¶ 0019;
a fire suppression system operatively connected to the hood and positioned above the one or more cooking appliances, (par. 39, fig. 2) the fire suppression system being configured to be triggered by one or more fusible links with a predefined melting temperature (par. 41) to discharge a fire suppressing agent, Pena teaches, “the fire suppression system 10 further includes an automatic activation system 50 that controls the activation of the actuator 30. The automatic activation system 50 is configured to monitor one or more conditions and determine if those conditions are indicative of a nearby fire. Upon detecting a nearby fire, the automatic activation system 50 activates the actuator 30, causing the fire suppressant agent to leave the nozzles 42 and extinguish the fire.” See ¶ 0040, Pena teaches, “The fusible link 54 includes two plates that are held together with a solder alloy having a predetermined melting point. A first plate is coupled to the cable 52, and a second plate is coupled to the stationary object. When the ambient temperature surrounding the fusible link 54 exceeds the melting point of the solder alloy, the solder melts, allowing the two plates to separate. This releases the tension on the cable 52, and the actuator 30 activates.” See ¶ 0041,
at least one temperature sensor installed inside the plenum of the kitchen exhaust hood, Pena teaches, “the automatic activation system 50 includes a controller 56 that monitors signals from one or more sensors, shown as temperature sensor 58 (e.g., thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors, etc.).” See ¶ 0042 and Fig. 2;
a control module operatively connected to the at least one temperature sensor and receiving signals indicating a temperature measurement by the at least one temperature sensor, Pena teaches, “The controller 56 can use the signals from the temperature sensor 58 to determine if an ambient temperature has exceeded a threshold temperature. Upon determining that the ambient temperature has exceeded the threshold temperature, the controller 56 provides an electrical signal to the actuator 30. The actuator 30 then activates in response to receiving the electrical signal.” See ¶ 0042
wherein the control module is configured to generate a fire warning signal in response to a fume temperature T (par. 3) measured by the at least one temperature sensor reaching a predefined temperature threshold Tset, Pena teaches, “Controller 212 may output information to alarm device 214, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, alarm device 214 is configured to provide any of a visual and an aural alert in response to receiving a command from controller 212. In some embodiments, alarm device 214 includes one or more light emitting devices (e.g., light emitting diodes) and is configured to actuate the one or more light emitting devices in response to receiving a command/indication from controller 212. See ¶ 0051
With respect to, for a predefined period of time Tdur, Pena teaches, “Process 400 includes providing a warning to any of a nearby user or a remote person of interest (step 426) and analyzing temperature data for a time period Δt (step 428)” See ¶ 0083, nonetheless, in an analogous art, Bach teaches, “Range hood 115 is positioned over cook top 100. Range hood 115 typically includes one or more ventilation fans to circulate air or remove heat and fumes.” See ¶ 0019 Bach teaches, “a time delay can be provided between measuring or sensing a certain temperature level on the cook top and providing the user with a warning or other notification. For example, if a user temporarily removes a cooking utensil from a heating element 105 and leaves such heating element activated, these actions could cause the temperature as measured by the temperature sensor to spike and generate and unwanted warning. Accordingly, a time delay .DELTA.t could be provided to allow an interval before a warning or other notification is provided to the user. For example, a delay of 30 seconds could be provided between the time at which the range hood 115 measures a temperature that exceeds a predetermined temperature level T.sub.Ln and the time at which a warning device to alert the user is activated. During this time interval, if the measured temperature falls below the predetermined temperature level T.sub.Ln, then the notification would be given and the timer would be reset.” See ¶ 0036-0039.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the invention of Pena and Range hood 115 is positioned over cook top 100. Range hood 115 typically includes one or more ventilation fans to circulate air or remove heat and fumes and introduce a time delay to monitor the temperature over a period of time, as suggested by Bach, See ¶ 0036-0039, in an effort to “be used as an early detection and fire prevention system to detect a fire before it occurs, and notify a user such that the act to prevent the fire before the fire actually starts.” See ¶ 0047.
With respect to, the temperature threshold Tset and the time duration Tdur are selected based on a melting temperature rating of at least one of the one or more fusible links, Pena teaches, “Process 400 includes determining if any of T.sub.1, T.sub.2, and T.sub.3, individually exceed a threshold temperature value, T.sub.max,1 (steps 408-412),” See ¶ 0078, Pena teaches, “Process 400 includes providing an alert and monitoring a rate of change of a temperature value (steps 420 and 422), according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, steps 420 and 422 include providing an alert to a user or a remote person of interest regarding any of T.sub.avg being greater than 1.3.Math.T.sub.ref, or one or more of T.sub.1, T.sub.2, and T.sub.3 exceeding T.sub.max,1.” See ¶ 0081, Pena teaches, “The fusible link 54 includes two plates that are held together with a solder alloy having a predetermined melting point. A first plate is coupled to the cable 52, and a second plate is coupled to the stationary object. When the ambient temperature surrounding the fusible link 54 exceeds the melting point of the solder alloy, the solder melts, allowing the two plates to separate.” See ¶ 0041, In an analogous art, Martin teaches, “a fuse plug monitoring system includes a temperature monitoring unit in communication with a first temperature sensor disposed on the wheel and a second temperature sensor disposed on the brake assembly. The first temperature sensor is used to determine wheel temperatures, and the second temperature sensor is used to determine brake assembly temperatures.” See ¶ 0020. Martin teaches, “After one braking event or a plurality of braking events in a given period of time, a temperature of the fuse plug may increase toward the threshold temperature” See ¶ 0019, Martin teaches, “Based on the maximum wheel temperature, the temperature monitoring unit 602 may generate and/or communicate an alert. In some examples, the alert may indicate that the temperature of the fuse plug 300 has or will exceed the fuse plug melting temperature and, thus, is at risk of melting.” See ¶ 0036, Martin teaches, “During some braking events, the brake assembly temperature does not substantially increase, but sufficient heat is transferred to the wheel 214 to melt the fuse plug 300. For example, an extended period of light braking during taxiing may not increase the brake assembly temperature above 500 degrees, but sufficient heat may transfer to the wheel 214 to melt the fuse plug 300. Thus, in some examples, the temperature monitoring unit 602 does not use the example table 700 if the brake assembly temperature is below the predetermined brake assembly temperature. Instead, the example temperature monitoring unit 602 compares only the wheel temperature to the predetermined threshold temperature to determine if an alert indicating the fuse plug 300 may melt is to be communicated.” See ¶ 0047, therefore, the temperature threshold and the period of time are selected based on a melting temperature fuse plug 300.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of Pena and Bach and allow alert based on the melting temperature of the fuse and detected temperature over a period of time as suggested by Martin, in an effort to prevent “risk of melting” the fuse.
Consider claim 2, the fire detection and warning system according to claim 1, further comprising: the one or more cooking appliances installed under the kitchen exhaust hood, See Bach Figs 1 and 2, ¶ 0018-0019.
Consider claim 5, the fire detection and warning system according to claim 1, wherein the predefined temperature threshold Tset is below a predefined fusible link temperature, See Martin ¶ 0036 and 0047.
Consider claim 6, the fire detection and warning system according to claim 1, wherein the control module is configured to record the temperature sensor reading output for an extended period of time, Pena teaches, “fire detection and alert system 200 includes an ambient sensor (e.g., a thermocouple), shown as ambient temperature sensor 210. In some embodiments, ambient temperature sensor 210 is configured to measure (e.g., monitor, record, detect, sense, etc.) an ambient temperature outside of hood 202.” See ¶ 0054. Nonetheless, examiner takes Official Notice that it is well known to record the reading output for an extended period of time. Furthermore, claim 6 does not define bounds of the claimed “extended period of time.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Livchak, Andrey V. et al. (US 2015/0136430 A1) teaches, “a fire condition exists based on a status of a cooking appliance, and systems, devices, and methods for controlling an exhaust air flow rate in an exhaust air ventilation system based on the status of the cooking appliance. At least one sensor type generating a predefined signal is used to detect fire condition and appliance cooking state, the predefined signal being applied to a controller which differentiates, responsively the predefined signal, in combination with other sensor signals” See abstract.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Omer S. Khan whose telephone number is (571)270-5146. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am to 8:00 pm EST.
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/Omer S Khan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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