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 .
Status of Application
Claims 1-13 are pending and have been examined in this application. This communication is the first action on the merits. The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on 08/19/2024 has been considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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) 1-9 & 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Publication Number 2021/0061061 A1 to Tsumagari in view of JP3480507B2 to Kondo and further in view of JPH10227299A to Kudo.
A) As per Claims 1-2, Tsumagari teaches an air conditioning device (Tsumagari: Figure 4) comprising:
an air conditioning case (Tsumagari: Figure 4, Item AC) defining an air passage through which a ventilation air flows to an air-conditioning target space;
an air cooler (Tsumagari: Figure 4, Item 16) arranged inside the air conditioning case to cool the ventilation air by absorbing heat from the ventilation air;
a blower fan (Tsumagari: Figure 4, item 14) arranged inside the air conditioning case on a downstream side of an air flow of the air cooler, to generate an air flow passing through the air cooler.
Tsumagari does not teach a resonator provided outside of the air passage, wherein the resonator includes a cavity portion having a predetermined volume, and a communication portion through which the cavity portion and the air passage communicate with each other on at least a downstream side of the air flow of the blower fan in the air passage, and
the cavity portion is provided with a partition member that divides an internal space of the cavity portion into multiple closed spaces, and each of the multiple closed spaces is configured to communicate with the air passage via the communication portion.
However, Kondo teaches a resonator provided outside of the air passage, wherein the resonator includes a cavity portion having a predetermined volume, and a communication portion through which the cavity portion and the air passage communicate with each other on at least a downstream side of the air flow of the blower fan in the air passage (Kondo: Figure 1, Item 52 with communication portion Item 56 downstream blower 12).
At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the teachings of Tsumagari by adding a resonator downstream of the blower, as taught by Kondo, with a reasonable expectation of success of arriving at the claimed invention. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Tsumagari with these aforementioned teachings of Kondo with the motivation of reducing fan noise in the duct.
Tsumagari in view of Kondo does not teach that the cavity portion is provided with a partition member that divides an internal space of the cavity portion into multiple closed spaces, and each of the multiple closed spaces is configured to communicate with the air passage via the communication portion.
However, Kudo teaches the cavity portion is provided with a partition member that divides an internal space of the cavity portion into multiple closed spaces, and each of the multiple closed spaces is configured to communicate with the air passage via the communication portion (Kudo: Figure 1, partitions Item 24 with multiple cavities Item 23).
At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the teachings of Tsumagari in view of Kondo by having multiple cavity portions, as taught by Kudo, with a reasonable expectation of success of arriving at the claimed invention. At the time the invention was effectively filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Tsumagari in view of Kondo with these aforementioned teachings of Kudo with the motivation of further reducing different frequencies of blower noise.
B) As per Claim 3, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the air conditioning case includes: a first housing that houses the air cooler (Tsumagari: Figure 4, portion of Item AC above Item 144 around Item 16); a second housing that houses the blower fan (Tsumagari: Figure 4, portion of AC below Item 144 around Item 14); and a fan connector (Tsumagari: Figure 4, Item 144) that connects the first housing and the second housing, and the cavity portion is provided at a position between the fan connector and the second housing (Kondo: Figure 1, Item 52 with communication portion Item 56 downstream blower 12).
C) As per Claim 4, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the second housing includes a fan outlet through which air blown out from the blower fan passes, and the communication portion is provided at a portion of the fan outlet adjacent to the cavity portion (Kondo: Figure 1, Item 52 with communication portion Item 56 downstream blower 12).
D) As per Claim 5, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that, the blower fan is a centrifugal fan configured to draw air in an axial direction along an axis of a shaft of the blower fan, and to blow out air in a direction away from the axis of the shaft, and the fan outlet is provided to overlap with the blower fan in the direction away from the axis of the shaft (Tsumagari: Figure 4, Item 14).
E) As per Claim 6, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the partition member includes a rib provided in the air conditioning case (Kudo: Figure 1, Item 24).
F) As per Claim 7, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the rib is provided on a second housing side to protrude towards the first housing (Kudo: Figure 1, Item 24 projects from each side of housing to split cavity).
G) As per Claim 8, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the communication portion includes multiple through holes provided at the air conditioning case (Kudo: Figure 1, Item 22).
H) As per Claim 9, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the resonator has multiple resonance portions configured by multiple closed spaces and multiple through holes, and at least a part of the multiple resonance portions are configured to have a resonance frequency different from other resonance portions (Kudo: Figure 1; Abstract).
I) As per Claim 13, Tsumagari in view of Kondo and Kudo teaches that the resonator is arranged at an upstream side of the blower fan in the air flow, and the communication portion is provided with a plurality of through holes open toward downstream in the air flow to cause each of the multiple closed spaces of the resonator to communicates with the downstream side of the air flow of the blower fan in the air passage through the through holes while without directly communicating with an upstream side of the air flow of the blower fan through the through holes (Kondo: Figure 1, Item 52 with communication portion Item 56 downstream blower 12).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-12 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALLEN SCHULT whose telephone number is (571)272-8511. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, HELENA KOSANOVIC can be reached at 571-272-9059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Allen R. B. Schult/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762
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