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 . Claims 1-25 are pending in the current application.
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.
Claims 15, 18, and 20, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Specifically, Claims 15, 18, and 20, are rejected since the term “if” is indefinite.
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 1-4, 10, 12-14, 16, 17, 19, and 21-25, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kumar et al. (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2021/066013 A1, hereinafter “Kumar”).
Specifically, regarding Claim 1, Kumar discloses a circuit breaker for protecting an electrical multi-phase low-voltage AC circuit (Abstract), the circuit breaker comprising a housing having grid-side phase connections (FIG. 1) and load-side phase connections (FIG. 1) for phase conductors of the electrical multi-phase low-voltage AC circuit (FIG. 1; ¶ [0005]), series circuits each having a mechanical phase contact and an electronic switch (116), wherein each of said series circuits electrically connects one of said grid-side phase connections to one of said load-side phase connections (from 110 to 112; FIG. 1), said mechanical phase contacts being switched to an open state together to prevent a flow of current or to close together to allow the flow of the current (FIG. 1), each said electronic switch (116) having semiconductor-based switching elements and being switched, by means of said semiconductor-based switching elements (FIGS. 1 and 21), to a high-impedance state of said semiconductor-based switching elements in order to prevent the flow of the current or to a low-impedance state of said semiconductor-based switching elements in order to allow the flow of the current (¶ [0045]; FIG. 21), the circuit breaker configured such that each said electronic switch (116) being switched independently of one another to the high-impedance state or the low impedance state (¶ [0045]; FIG. 21), temperature sensors (152; FIG. 1), in each case at least one of said temperature sensors (152) is provided for each of said series circuits (FIG. 1), and the circuit breaker being configured such that, when a first temperature threshold value of said at least one temperature sensor of one of said series circuit is exceeded, said electronic switch (116) of said series circuit is switched to the high-impedance state to prevent the flow of the current to prevent overheating (¶ [0055]; FIG. 21),
Regarding Claim 2, Kumar discloses current sensors, a respective current sensor of said current sensors is provided for each of said series circuits, for determining in each case a level of the current of a respective phase conductor of the phase conductors; and a controller connected to said current sensors, said temperature sensors (152), said mechanical phase contacts and said electronic switches (116), the circuit breaker is configured such that a process for preventing the flow of the current in a phase conductor is initiated by said electronic switch (116), when at least one first current threshold value is exceeded in the phase conductor (FIG. 1; ¶ [0056]).
Regarding Claim 3, Kumar discloses that the mechanical phase contacts are assigned to said load-side connections and said electronic switches (116) are assigned to said grid-side connections (each of the contacts and switches are in series with a respective 110 and 112; FIG. 1).
Regarding Claim 4, Kumar discloses a grid-side neutral conductor connection (FIG. 1; e.g., a first one of Line-IN lines 110) and a load-side neutral conductor connection (FIG. 1; e.g., a first one of Line-OUT lines 112), and a mechanical neutral conductor contact (120; FIG. 1) electrically connecting said grid-side neutral conductor connection to said load-side neutral conductor connection (FIG. 1), said mechanical neutral conductor contact is switched together with said mechanical phase contacts (FIG. 1).
Regarding Claim 10, Kumar discloses a communication unit connected to said controller (control unit 102 is connected to an external interface “Panel” via the “Comm/Control Bus” connection 124; FIG. 1).
Regarding Claim 12, Kumar discloses that a level of a temperature of at least one of said temperature sensors (152) or an equivalent is issued by means of said communication unit (displayed via the SSCB; ¶ [0043]).
Regarding Claim 13, Kumar discloses that each said mechanical phase contact is opened, but not closed, by way of said controller (¶ [0046]).
Regarding Claim 14, Kumar discloses a mechanical handle (144; ¶ [0059]), wherein said mechanical phase contacts can be operated by way of said mechanical handle to switch between an opening of said mechanical phase contacts or a closing of said mechanical phase contacts. (¶ [0059]).
Regarding Claim 16, Kumar discloses that when the first temperature threshold value of said at least one temperature sensor of one of said series circuits is exceeded, all of said electronic switches (116) are switched to the high impedance state to prevent the flow of the current to prevent overheating (¶ [0055]).
Claims 17, 21, 23, 24, and 25, include language similar to that of Claims 1, 8, 11, 12, and 16, respectively, and are rejected for reasons at least similar to those discussed 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 6-8 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumar.
Kumar discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention and further discloses a warning issued by means of a communication unit (¶ [0043]), as recited in Claim 11, but does not disclose the claimed ranges. However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to prevent thermal overload and switching malfunction since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 U.S.P.Q. 233.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 9, 19, and 22, 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure. Zhou (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0078633 A1) discloses a circuit breaker including first and second terminals, and a number of temperature sensors that output a number of temperature values corresponding to a number of the conductors.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is 313-446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 10:30am – 9:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Luebke, can be reached at (571) 272-2009. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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