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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species I (claims 1-9) in the reply filed on 8/27/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 8/27/2026.
Claims 1-10 are examined in this office action.
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.
Claims 1 and 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Japanese Patent No. 6799657 B1 to Keisuke et al. (hereinafter “Keisuke”) in view of Japanese Patent Publication No. 2013-202581 A (Seiichi).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Keisuke teaches a water treatment system (an ultrapure water production system 2 in fig. 1) comprising at least one reverse osmosis membrane device (22A, 22B) and at least one electrodeionization device (25) that is located downstream of the at least one reverse osmosis membrane device (22A, 22B), the system comprising:
a first heat exchanger (21) that is located upstream of the at least one reverse osmosis membrane device (22A, 22B) and that adjusts the temperature of the water supplied to the at least one reverse osmosis membrane device (22A, 22B) according to the temperature of a raw water supplied to the water treatment system; and
a second heat exchanger (24) that is located between the at least one reverse osmosis membrane device (22A, 22B) and the at least one electrodeionization device (25) and that cools the water supplied to the electrodeionization device (25) (see fig. 1; paragraphs [0009]-[0010]).
Claims 1 and 10 differ from Keisuke in reciting that one of the first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger is an internal heat exchanger that exchanges heat inside the water treatment system, and the other is an external heat exchanger that exchanges heat with outside of the water treatment system.
Seiichi teaches an ultrapure water production device wherein a front-stage heat exchanger 45 (internal heat exchanger) using return water and a rear-stage heat exchanger 46 (external heat exchanger) using steam are described as heat exchangers (see paragraphs [0025], [0026], fig. 1-2).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use one of the first and second heat exchangers as the internal heat exchanger and the other as an external heat exchanger in the ultrapure water production system of Keisuke as suggested by Seiichi (see paragraphs [0025], [0026], fig. 1-2).
Regarding claim 6, Keisuke teaches a subsystem (3) located between the electrodeionization device (25) and a point of use (8), wherein:
the subsystem (3) includes a water treatment device (31-35) that further treats the treated water of the electrodeionization device (25), and a second recirculation line (L3) that returns the treated water of the water treatment device (31-35) to upstream of the water treatment device (31-35)(see fig. 1; paragraphs [0009], [0021]).
Regarding claim 7, Keisuke teaches that the temperature of the water to be treated and supplied to the reverse osmosis membrane device (22A) is adjusted to about 25°C by the first heat exchanger 21 (see paragraph [0010]).
Regarding claim 8, Keisuke teaches that the temperature of the water supplied to the electrodeionization device (25) is adjusted by the second heat exchanger (24) 10-23°C (see paragraph [0016]).
Regarding claim 9, Keisuke teaches that the raw water contains silica and boron, the silica concentration of the water treated by the reverse osmosis membrane device is 100 ppb or less, and the boron concentration is 50 ppb or less (see Table 1 in paragraph [0028]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN KIM whose telephone number is (571)272-1142. The examiner can normally be reached Maxi Flex.
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/John Kim/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1772
JK
9/21/26
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