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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Veit et al. (DE10121582A1).
With respect to claim 1, Veit et al. disclose a damping member (3) for a pneumatic valve (7, 8) of a pneumatic system of a vehicle, wherein the valve includes an air outlet section for exhausting pressurized air (Fig 2), the damping member including: a scaffold structure (Fig 2; 14); wherein the scaffold structure is adapted to damp sound emission of pressurized air by conducting the air through the scaffold structure (third to last paragraph of page 3 of attached translation); and wherein the damping member is adapted to be mounted to the air outlet section for damping the sound emission of the pressurized air (Figs 1-2).
With respect to claim 2, wherein the scaffold structure is a repetitive structure and/or a layered structure (Fig 2).
With respect to claim 3, wherein the scaffold structure includes a plurality of pores (19-22) for damping sound emission of the air being conducted through the damping member.
With respect to claim 4, the limitation that the damping member is made by an additive manufacturing process is a method of forming that is not germane to the issue of patentability itself and has therefore not been given patentable weight.
4. The damping member as claimed in claim 1, wherein the damping member is made by an additive manufacturing process.
With respect to claim 5, wherein the scaffold structure includes a functional guiding member that guides the air through the damping member, and wherein the functional guiding member deflects a main air flow of the air and/or splits the air into a plurality of sub-flows (guided and deflected by the angled walls 22 of channels 19).
With respect to claim 6, wherein the damping member defines a flow direction of air being conducted through the damping member; and wherein the functional guiding member reverses at least one component of the flow direction while the air is conducted through the damping member (when flowing in the direction of around 34 in Fig 2, air would wrap around the larger cross section 21 and reverse direction to fill the bulge area 28 within each insert 14).
With respect to claims 7 and 8, wherein the functional guiding member includes a labyrinth-type, meandering and/or undulating shape (undulates between smaller and larger cross sections 20 and 21).
With respect to claim 9, wherein the damping member is made of a polymer plastic; page 4, first paragraph of attached translation), of metal, and/or of a composite material, wherein the polymer is a thermoplastic and/or a thermoset polymer.
With respect to claim 10, wherein the damping member includes a mounting portion (16) for fixing the damping member directly to a valve body of the valve (Fig 2; third to last paragraph of page 3 of attached translation).
With respect to claim 11, wherein the damping member includes one or more functional portions (31, 32) to impede water ingress, for creating a pressure gradient, for self-cleaning, and/or for providing a mounting portion for a sensor (insert 15 is “able to” impede water ingress).
With respect to claim 12, Veit et al. disclose the damping member as discussed above and also a pneumatic system of a vehicle (Fig 1 and claim 1 of attached translation), the pneumatic system including: a valve with an air outlet section for exhausting pressurized air (Figs 1-2); wherein the damping member is mounted to the air outlet section for damping sound emission of the pressurized air by conducting the air through the damping member (Figs 1-2).
With respect to claim 13, wherein the pneumatic system is a pneumatic suspension system and/or a pneumatic brake system (fourth to last paragraph of page 3 of attached translation).
With respect to claims 14 and 15, further comprising a vehicle and pneumatic system including the damping member as claimed in claims 1 and 12, respectively (claim 1 of attached translation).
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 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Veit et al. in view of Mendoza et al. (USPub 2023/0286639).
With respect to claim 16, Veit et al. disclose the invention discussed above but do not disclose a method for manufacturing that includes the steps of: obtaining a model of the damping member; and performing additive manufacturing, based on the model, and producing the damping member via the additive manufacturing. Mendoza et al., however, disclose an acoustic damping member that is manufactured by obtaining a model of the damping member; and performing additive manufacturing, based on the model, and producing the damping member via the additive manufacturing [0119]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the invention was filed to modify the invention of Veit et al. in view of the teachings of Mendoza et al. to manufacture the damping member as discussed above in order to create complex shapes, minimal material waste, and rapid design changes since molds are not necessary.
With respect to claim 17, wherein the model is dependent on a geometry of the valve, of the air outlet section and/or of a valve body ([0120] of Mendoza et al.; design accuracy and build size is determined, and the size would be determined based on the geometry of the valve and other components).
With respect to claim 18, Mendoza et al. disclose a computer program and/or computer-readable storage medium, including instructions which, when the program is executed by a data processing device causes the data processing device to carry out the method of claim 16 [0119].
With respect to claim 19, further comprising a data set that represents the model of the damping member ([0119] of Mendoza et al.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DREW J BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-1362. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday.
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DREW BROWN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3616
/DREW J BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617
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