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 .
Drawings
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
The drawings are objected to because of the following reason(s).
Each of Figures 7A-8B includes shading that is not in accordance with 37 C.F.R. 1.84(m).
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
CLAIMS 21-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crummel (US 3,048,983 A) in view of McClure (US 6,345,791 B1).
CLAIMS 21, 22 Crummel shows a flared end ramp (10) capable of managing the flow of material into a stormwater chamber, the flared end ramp comprising:
an inlet end (at 60) configured for connection to a pipe or an inlet end cap of the stormwater chamber;
an outlet end (the outlet end of 14) configured for placement within the stormwater chamber (e.g., a complementarily shaped stormwater chamber);
an inclined surface (14) extending between the inlet end and the outlet end of the flared end ramp and configured to deliver material from the pipe into the stormwater chamber; and
and at least one support foot (Crummel, 40 & 17, collectively) connected to a bottom surface of the outlet end.
Crummel fails to teach a drainage groove.
McClure shows configurations for both (a) various prior art hydrodynamic surfaces (Figs. 1-3), and (b) an embodiment of a skin friction drag-reducing hydrodynamic surface (Figs. 5 and 6), wherein each hydrodynamic surface includes at least one drainage groove (McClure, valleys such as 15 and 23) extending in the direction of fluid flow. It would have been an obvious modification for one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the inclined surface (Crummel, 14) of the prior art ramp with the addition of at least one groove (McClure, valleys such as 15 and 23) between the inlet end (Crummel, at 60) of the flared end ramp and the outlet end (Crummel, outlet end of 14) of the flared end ramp (Crummel, 10), as suggested by McClure. The motivation for making the modification would have been to include means for reducing turbulent flows along the ramp (McClure, col. 1, ll. 12-29) with a reasonable expectation of success.
CLAIM 23 In the prior art combination, the at least one support foot comprises: a first support foot (Crummel, 40 and 17) extending laterally from a first side wall of the flared end ramp; and a second support foot (Crummell, 40 and 18) extending laterally from a second side wall of the flared end ramp (Crummel, Fig. 1).
CLAIM 24 The claim further limits the stormwater chamber of CLAIM 21, but the scope of the claimed invention is exclusive of the stormwater chamber.
CLAIM 25 In the prior art combination, the at least one support foot (Crummel, 40, 17) is configured to extend below a width of the stormwater chamber (Crummel, Fig. 1).
CLAIM 26 In the prior art combination, the at least one support foot (Crummel, 40, 17) is configured to secure the flared end ramp relative to the stormwater chamber (Crummel, col. 2, ll. 29-32).
CLAIM 27 In the prior art combination, the at least one support (Crummel, 40, 17) foot is configured to have a width equal to a width of the stormwater chamber (Crummel, via attachment to the flared ramp 10).
CLAIM 28 In the prior art combination, the at least one support foot (Crummel, 40, 17) is configured to have a width larger than a width of the stormwater chamber (Crummel, via attachment to the flared ramp 10).
Allowable Subject Matter
CLAIMS 29-39 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.
CLAIM 40 is allowed.
Conclusion
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/TARA MAYO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3671
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27 June 2026
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