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 .
This Office action is in response to the application filed 06/21/2024. Claims 1-7 are pending.
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) 1-2, 5 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lu et al. (US Pat. 10,021,970).
Regarding claim 1, Lu discloses a single module refrigeration system (140) located into a room space (100) for controlling a temperature of an air filling the room space, the system comprising: an evaporator unit (195) for allowing the air to flow there through to provide latent heat to a refrigerant circulating within the single module refrigeration system (column 3, lines 28-39); a compressor unit (180) downstream of the evaporator unit for compressing the refrigerant (Fig. 4; column 4, lines 29-32); a condenser unit (190) downstream of the compressor unit (Fig. 4) to remove latent heat from the refrigerant; a pressure reducer unit (189) upstream of the evaporator unit (Fig. 4) for ensuring a gaseous state of the refrigerant entering the evaporator unit; and a housing (135, Fig. 2) for receiving the evaporator unit, the compressor unit, the condenser unit and the pressure reducer unit therein (column 3, lines 28-33); wherein the housing includes inlet (240, Fig. 3) and outlet (250) connectors for allowing a cooling fluid to flow into the condenser unit to receive latent heat from the refrigerant flowing through the condenser unit (column 3, lines 39-49).
Regarding claim 2, Lu discloses the system of claim 1, further comprising a fan unit (200) located within the housing to flow the air through the evaporator unit (column 3, lines 37-39).
Regarding claim 5, Lu discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the inlet (240) and outlet (250) connectors are quick-release type connectors (column 4, lines 53-60).
Regarding claim 7, Lu discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the housing (135) is generally closed or is a frame.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3-4 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu et al. (US Pat. 10,021,970) in view of Godecker et al. (US Pat. 9,676,483).
Regarding claim 3, Lu discloses the system of claim 1, and further teaches it is known for an electronic control system is used for controlling the refrigeration system (column 1, lines 53-61) but does not explicitly teach a control unit to control operation of the single module refrigeration system depending on the temperature of the air into the room space.
Godecker teaches the concept of a single module refrigeration system including a control unit (190) to control operation of the single module refrigeration system depending on the temperature of the air into the room space (column 2, lines 8-12) that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize as allowing the temperature to be controlled to a desired temperature for cooling the stored perishables. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify the refrigeration system of Lu to have a control unit to control operation of the single module refrigeration system depending on the temperature of the air into the room space taught by Godecker in order to allow a user to control the system to provide a desired setpoint temperature within the chilled storage space.
Regarding claim 4, Lu as modified discloses the system of claim 3, and Godecker further teaches the control unit (190) controlling operation of the single module refrigeration system depending on the temperature of the air of the room space just downstream of the evaporator unit (column 2, lines 8-12).
Regarding claim 6, Lu as modified discloses the system of claim 3, wherein the control unit (190) is located within the housing (140, Fig. 3).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH F TRPISOVSKY whose telephone number is (571)270-5296. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry-Daryl Fletcher can be reached at (571) 270-5054. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSEPH F TRPISOVSKY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763