DETAILED ACTION
This detailed action is in response to the application filed on August 13, 2024, and any subsequent filings.
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 Objections
Claims 1-7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In Claim 1, the indefinite article “an” should appear before “electric” in line 1 to render the claim grammatically correct; and,
In Claims 2-7, the definite article “the” should appear before “electric” in line 1 to render the claims grammatically correct.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-7 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.
As to Claim 1, the method is directed towards operating an electric deionizer yet nothing in the claim lays out what steps perform this method of operation.
Claim 1 recites a structural relation exists between the concentration chambers, desalination chambers, and ion exchange membrane without providing enough specificity to understand the exact structure.
Claims 3 and 5 each recite the limitation "feed water" in line 2 of each claim. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shin, Japanese Publication No. JP 2004267907A (“Shin”). A machine translation accompanies this detailed action and the claims are mapped to that translation and the drawings in the original document.
Applicant’s claims are directed towards a method.
Regarding Claims 1-7, Shin discloses a method for operating electric deionizer (Fig. 1, item 10, Paragraph 31 (“Pr”)), wherein concentration chambers (Fig. 1, items 15, Pr31) and desalination chambers (Fig. 1, items 16, Pr31) are alternately formed between an anode and a cathode by an ion exchange membrane (Fig. 1, items 11-14, Pr31), concentrated water flows through the concentration chambers (Fig. 1), and water to be treated flows through the desalination chambers and extracted as product water (Fig. 1), and wherein the concentrated water is passed into all of the concentration chambers in an opposite direction of a water-passing direction of the water to be treated in the desalination chambers (Fig. 1).
Additional Disclosures Included: Claim 2: wherein an electrical conductivity of a feed water is 0.1 mS/m to 2.0 mS/m (Pr29). Claims 3, 5: wherein an inorganic carbon concentration of a feed water is 50 μg/L to 300 μg/L as C (Pr22,29,39). Claim 4, 6, 7: wherein a space velocity SV of the desalination chamber is 70/h to 150/h (Pr47) and a space velocity SV of the concentration chamber is 5/h to 150/h (Pr47).
Conclusion
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/PATRICK ORME/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1779
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