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 Interpretation
The claims recite a “thermal accept system”. The term is defined in the disclosure as a heat exchanger for a solid-state refrigeration system (see specification at paragraph [0003]”) and is therefore being interpreted as such for examination purposes.
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.
Claims 1-2, 5-7, 10-12, 15-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tuskiewicz (US 2005/0210884).
As to claim 1, Tuskiewicz discloses a method of operating an actively cooled container 10, comprising:
determining to initiate a defrost cycle for the actively cooled container 10 (paragraph 68, lines 1-6);
deactivating a cooling system of the container 10 (paragraph 68, lines 6-8);
activating a defrost heater of the container 10 (paragraph 68, lines 10-13);
determining to deactivate the defrost heater (paragraph 68, lines 23-28);
waiting a set duration of time to allow for melted frost to drip into a collection tray (paragraph 68, lines 28-31);
activating the cooling system of the container 10 while maintaining one or more fans deactivated, and activating the one or more fans after the temperature of the thermal accept system is at or below a set threshold temperature (paragraph 68, lines 31-40).
As to claim 2, Tuskiewicz discloses deactivating the one or more fans (paragraph 68, line 18).
As to claim 5, Tuskiewicz discloses the threshold as zero Celsius (paragraph 68, line 38).
As to claim 6, Tuskiewicz discloses determining to deactivate the defrost heater by determining that the heater has been activated for a predetermined amount of time (paragraph 68, lines 11-13) and determining that a temperature of the thermal accept system cross above a set threshold (paragraph 68, lines 21-23).
As to claim 7, Tuskiewicz discloses initiating a defrost cycle upon reaching an elapsed time since prior defrost (paragraph 68, lines 4-6).
As to claim 10, Tuskieqicz operates to refrigerate the interior of container 10 and thus ensures that the temperature of the actively cooled container 10 does not rise above an allowable limit.
As to claims 11-12, 15-17, and 20, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejections above.
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 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tuskiewicz as applied to above.
As to claims 8 and 18, Tuskiewicz does not explicitly teach an alarm as claimed. However, Official Notice is taken that a defrost alarm is a common and typical feature of a cooling system that would have been obvious to use in conjunction with the defrost operation of Tuskiewicz for the purpose of alerting the user to potential operation issues.
Claims 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tuskiewicz as applied above, and further in view of Lukasse (US 2017/0184333).
As to claim 9 and 19, Tuskiewicz does not explicitly teach determining that a threshold number of defrost cycles have been performed. However, Lukasse teaches determining that a threshold number of cycles has been performed to ensure that the exchanger is fully defrosted (paragraphs 155-157). Therefore it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify Tuskiewicz to operate as claimed and taught by Lukasse in order to ensure the effectiveness of the system operation.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN BRADFORD whose telephone number is (571)270-5199. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 - 4:00 ET.
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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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/JONATHAN BRADFORD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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