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
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) 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2003139685 (Oda), see translation in view of Watanabe-US2020/0116566. As to claim 1, Oda discloses a photometric analysis apparatus for a liquid chromatography including a lamp house (3); a lamp (1) including a light emitting part that emits light and a base end portion (see fig. 2, left end) from which a lead wire (as in fig. 2) from the light emitting part is drawn out, the lamp (1) being attached to the lamp house (3) in a state where the light emitting part is accommodated in the lamp house and the base end portion is exposed to an outside of the lamp house (see fig. 2); a housing (casing 14) having an internal space and ventilation ports (at fans 8/9 intake ports for casing) for taking air from outside of the internal space into the internal space and exhausting the air from the internal space, and accommodating the lamp house (3) in the internal space in a manner that the lamp house and the base end portion of the lamp are located on a flow path of the air(see fig. 1 showing fan 8/9 placement) flowing through the internal space; a fan (8/9) provided so as to form a flow of the air in the internal space of the housing (casing 14), see translation and figs. 1-3. Oda however, lacks a direct teaching for a heater for heating the air taken into the internal space of the housing, wherein the base end portion of the lamp and the lead wire are heated by receiving the air heated by the heater. However, Oda does teach “heat generating parts” such as “electric system part 7” which can be designated as a “heater” where the base end portion and lead wire would be also heated by such an electric system as a matter of design choice since Oda teaches the heating of parts. In the alternative in a related prior art device, Watanabe et al disclose a similar spectroscopic detector using a light source with a lamp house 6 and a cooling fan 30 with housing 4 where a heater 22 heats the lamp house, see fig. 1. It is further indicated that the heater along with the cooling fan 30 controls the temperature of the lamp house 6, see par[033]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have included an additional heater as disclosed by Watanabe et al since such a heater can be controlled to control the temperature of the lamp house to a preset temperature as well as maintaining the temperature and also since Oda discloses the usage of “heat generating parts”. As to claim 2, note the temperature sensor 5 with fan control section 6 and control section 12 in Oda where the temperature sensor is connected to the control section 12 where the controller 12 detects the temperature of the sensor 5 and controls rotation speed of the cooling fan 8, see translation. As to claim 3, wherein the heater (22) of Watanabe is provided to directly heat the lamp house (6) while being in thermal contact with the lamp house and the base end portion and the lead wire are heated by the air having passed through the lamp house and indirectly heated by the heater via the lamp house, see fig. 1 of Watanabe showing the heater directly coupled to the lamp house for controlling heating. As to claim 4, note the heater of Oda (electric system 7) is in the “vicinity” of a ventilation port found at cooling fan 9 which functions as an inlet port of taking into the internal space, see fig. 1 of Oda. As to claim 5, note the base end portion of Oda as seen in fig. 2 appears to be “downstream” of the “heat” generating electrical system 7 when air flows from the fan 9 towards the lamp. As to claim 6, Oda discloses a temperature sensor (5) provided at a position in the vicinity of the base end portion and the lead wire (seen in fig. 2 depiction); and a controller (control unit 12 along with fan controller 6) configured to control output of the fan but lacks a teaching for a heater so that the temperature detected by the temperature sensor becomes set temperature, wherein temperature of air passing through the base end portion and the lead wire are maintained to be constant, so that temperature of the base end portion and the lead wire are maintained to be constant. In the Watanabe reference, the heater 22 is disclosed as heating the lamp house 6 and further discloses using the temperature sensor 32 to read whether the lamp house 6 reaches the “set temperature” and uses it to control the cooling fan 30 and the heater 22 to maintain the set temperature, see par[049—050]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have included the Watanabe teaching for controlling the temperature with both a heater and a cooling fan in order to maintain the set temperature to the system of Oda in order to be able to control the temperatures of the lamp house.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 1 appears to be incomplete as the body of the claim fails to indicate liquid chromatography detection. In claim 2, on line 6, “and/or” is unclear and indefinite. In claim 6, on line 6, “and/or” is unclear and indefinite.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The additional prior art cited on PTO-892 include other state of the art detectors.
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/N.S.F/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/DANIEL S LARKIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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