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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I, claims 1-5 in the reply filed on 2/20/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that all of the claims are presented in the same action, undue diverse searching should not be required, and all claims should be examined together. This is not found persuasive because the groups would provide a serious search and examination burden if not restricted for the reasons stated in the previous action, and the groups are distinct from each other for the reasons stated in the previous action.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wamura et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0340678, hereafter Wamura ‘678).
Claim 1: Wamura ‘678 teaches a method of monitoring a liquid raw material in a gas supply device (abstract), the gas supply device comprising:
a raw material storage tank (60) configured to store the liquid raw material (Fig. 1, [0030]);
a liquid level detector (74) configured to detect a liquid level of the liquid raw material in the raw material storage tank (Fig. 1, [0031]);
a gas inlet (96) provides in the raw material storage tank and connected to a carrier gas supply (108) that supplies a carrier gas carrying a raw material to the raw material storage tank (Fig. 1, [0039], [0041]);
a gas outlet (98) provided in the raw material storage tank and connected to a gas discharger (102) that discharges raw material gas and carrier gas from the raw material storage tank (Fig. 1, [0039], [0040]); and
a raw material inlet (100) provided in the raw material storage tank and connected to a liquid raw material supply (114) that supplies the liquid raw material to the raw material storage tank (Fig. 1, [0039], [0041]),
the method comprising:
taking measurements including the flow rate of the raw material gas and supply of the liquid raw material and determining the remaining amount of liquid raw material ([0010], [0047], [0086], [0087], [0090]);
taking measurements including the flow rate of the raw material gas and supply of the liquid raw material, performing calculations, and determining detection results ([0010], [0047], [0086], [0087], [0090]); and
monitoring the liquid raw material based on the liquid level detector and the calculations and measurements (abstract, [0010], [0047], [0086], [0087], [0090]).
Claim 2: Wamura ‘678 taches that the usage amount of the raw material can be calculated from a time when the raw material is being used and includes other values, which corresponds to the claimed coefficient related to the raw material ([0047], [0086], [0087]).
Claim 3: Wamura ‘678 teaches that the replenishment amount is based on the flow rate and time of the supply of the liquid raw material ([0010], [0047], [0086], [0087], [0090]).
Claim 4: Wamura ’678 teaches that the method can include taking measurements including the flow rate of the raw material gas, supply of the liquid raw material, and initial amount of liquid raw material and determining the remaining amount of liquid raw material ([0010], [0047], [0086], [0087], [0090]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art fails to teach or render obvious a method of monitoring a liquid raw material in a gas supply device including when the detection result of the liquid level detector does not match with the estimated detection result of the virtual sensor, determining that the liquid level detector has failed as to the context of claim 5.
Conclusion
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/BG/
/SHAMIM AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1713
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