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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
1. Claims 1, 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hastings et al (USPN 2011/0141644) in view of Sugisawa (USPN 2018/0248354).
Regarding claim 1, Hastings discloses a current breaker (250A shown in figure 8) configured to interrupt a current path (a current path 63), the current breaker comprising:
a first measurement unit (a DC shunt current sensor 202, see par. 0086) configured to measure current flowing in the current path (63) (see par. 0074);
a second measurement unit (274) including an air core coil (an air core coil shown in figure 8) wound around the current path (63), the second measurement unit being configured to measure, by the air core coil (274), a derivative of the current flowing in the current path (a rate charge of current on the conductor path 63, e.g. see par. 0064, 0066); and
a driver (such as a processor 72 includes a driver) configured to interrupt the current path by driving a circuit breaker 62) according to the derivative measured by the second measurement unit (see par. 0064).
Hastings does not explicitly disclose a pyro-fuse as claimed.
However, using a pyro-fuse as a circuit breaker is known in the art. Sugisawa discloses a short circuit protection device comprises a pyro-fuse (11) as a circuit breaker (see par. 0042).
It 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 to have modified a circuit breaker of Hastings to incorporate a pyro-fuse as disclosed by Sugisawa in order to provide high speed switching, safety, and reliability operations, therefore, improving a protection performance.
Regarding claim 6, Hastings discloses wherein the first measurement unit (202) includes a shunt resistor (see par. 0086) inserted in the current path (63), the shunt resistor being for measuring the current flowing in the current path, and the air core coil (202) is wound around the shunt resistor (the shunt resistor 202 is inserted in the current path 63, and the sensing core 274 is wound around the current path 63 which including the shunt resistor 202, see figure 8).
Allowable Subject Matter
2. Claims 2-5, 7-9 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
3. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANNY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2054. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica Lewis can be reached at 571-271-1838. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANNY NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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