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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 7-10, 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Price WO 2005/021098 A2.
Re claims 1, 9, Price teaches a multi-unit pressure washer system [fig. 12, the term “washer” has been broadly construed since a water delivery system would be capable of “washing”], comprising:
a plurality of pressure-washing units [520, 530, 550];
a manifold system [540a, 540b, or 570];
the manifold system comprising:
a plurality of inlet ports;
an outlet port; and
a converging channel [see Figs. 8A-8D for converging channels of manifold systems 540a, and 540b];
said converging channel connecting said plurality of inlet ports to said outlet port; and said converging channel converging at low angle.
connecting a plurality of pressure washer units to a plurality of inlet ports [ports of channels 815] on a manifold system;
connecting the inlet ports to an outlet port 818 on said a manifold system via a converging channel;
said converging channel converging at low angle [see figs. 8A-8D].
Re claims 5, 7, the manifold system further comprising:
said converging channel comprising two inlet ports [ports of channels 815]; two inlet channels 815; and a merged channel 810; the inlet ports each feeding into one of the inlet channels; each inlet channel feeding into said merged channel; and said merged channel feeding into said outlet port 818.
Re claim 8, two pressure washing units [530, 550 or 562a, 562b]; and a flow output section [either 562a, or 562b, or 570]; each of said pressure washing units connected to one of said plurality of inlet ports; and said flow output section connected to said outlet port.
Re claims 10, 16, providing water flow from the pressure washer units into the inlet ports on the Y-manifold system; and delivering the water flow from the pressure washer units to the outlet port by the converging channel [figs. 12].
delivering the water step further comprising: merging the water flow from each of said plurality of pressure washer units into a service water flow in said converging channel at a low angle [figs. 8A-8D, 12].
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) 2-4, 6, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2005/021098 A2 in view of Zhao CN 104806836 A.
Re claims 2-3, 6, 15, Price teaches the invention as discussed above for claim 10 but fail to teach a spread angle between the inlet port centerlines from about 20 degrees and about 30 degrees and a convergence angle between at least one of said inlet port centerlines and said inlet centerline of about 10 degrees and about 15 degrees.
Price teaches a convergence angle of 45 degrees. However, Price does teach the angle is a result effective variable to provide laminar flow through the manifold [“the inlets 815 are angled with respect to the main body 810, the flow from each inlet 815 is advantageously combined to create a substantially uniform laminar flow through the outlet 818”]. Furthermore, Zhao teaches a convergence angle of 25-35 degrees and a spread angle between 50-70 degrees.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to optimize the convergence and spread angle to the claimed ranges since Applicant has not shown criticality of the specific ranges and it has been held where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. MPEP 2144.05 II A.
Claim(s) 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Price WO 2005/021098 A2 in view of Metropoulous US 2017/0191768 A1.
Re claims 11-14, Price teaches the invention as discussed above for claim 10. Price teaches delivering over 8000 GPM, but fail to specifically teach providing a supply water flow rate of about 6 GPM to about 10 GPM from each the pressure washer units into the inlet ports; delivering water flow step comprising delivering a service water flow rate of about 12 GPM to about 20 GPM to the outlet port.
However, Metropolous teaches known volume rate for pressure washer machines of between 6-20 GPM [¶12, “pressure washers utilize enormous quantities of water. Pressure washers can consume from 6-20 gallons per minute depending on their size.”].
The only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is that the prior art is scaled to firefighting water GPMs. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities to incorporate the Y-manifold of Price with the pressure washer of Metropolous into a combined apparatus before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. No inventive effort would have been required, and the resulting combined apparatus would yield predictable results of delivering water at a specific pressure. Even in the context of a combined apparatus, the features of Y-manifold of Price, and the GPMs of Metropolous would be expected to work as intended, with each element in the combined apparatus performing the same function as it did separately. No new functionality would arise from the combination.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to scale the process of Price to the specific GPMs claimed would be an obvious design choice, since Applicant has not shown criticality of the specific ranges of GPM and it has been held that mere scaling a prior art process capable of being scaled, would not establish patentability in a claim to an old process as taught by Price. MPEP 2144.04 IV A
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art of Tracey US 2005/0011968 A1 teaches a Y-manifold for a pressure washer system (Fig. 1C), with two inlets [100, 102] and one outlet 104.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Carlos A. Rivera whose telephone number is (571)270-5697. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM -4PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Keller can be reached at (571) 272-8548. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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C. A. R.
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3723
/C. A. RIVERA/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3723
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