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 without traverse of Species A (claims 1-12) in the reply filed on 5 November 2025 is acknowledged.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 6-10 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.
Claim 6 recites the limitation “the convex part and the concave part.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim.
Claims 7-10 depend from claim 6 and fail to remedy its deficiencies.
Claim 7 recites the limitation “the bonding part.” 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 6 (as far as the claim(s) are definite and understood) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Li (CN 212106332 U). Note claims 1-3 are being rejected under Li interpretation A and claims 1, 2, 4 and 6 are being rejected under Li interpretation B.
Li interpretation A
Regarding claim 1, Li (interpretation A) teaches an air blower comprising
a blowing part (Fig.1-3) including:
a fan (410);
a motor for driving the fan (machine translation page 3, note “the fan mechanism comprises a fan front cover, a fan back cover, fan blade, fan rotating shaft and the first driving component”; it is well-known in the electric blower art for a driving component to be a motor as claimed);
a motor cover (300) holding the motor; and
a case part (600/624) storing the motor cover,
wherein the case part includes
a first member (600) fixed to the motor cover, and
a second member (624) connected to the first member detachably, having an air intake port through which air that the fan takes in flows (Fig.2, note slotted configuration of 624).
Regarding claim 2, Li further teaches a support part including a support leg (210) inserted into a slit (610a) of the case part and pivotally attached to the motor cover (Fig.7/8, note pivot attachment between 210 and 300).
Regarding claim 3, Li further teaches the slit is formed in the first member (Fig.3).
Li interpretation B
Regarding claim 1, Li teaches an air blower comprising
a blowing part (Fig.1-3) including:
a fan (410);
a motor for driving the fan (machine translation page 3, note “the fan mechanism comprises a fan front cover, a fan back cover, fan blade, fan rotating shaft and the first driving component”; it is well-known in the electric blower art for a driving component to be a motor as claimed);
a motor cover (300) holding the motor; and
a case part (600/624) storing the motor cover,
wherein the case part includes
a first member (624) fixed to the motor cover (via 600), and
a second member (600) connected to the first member detachably, having an air intake port through which air that the fan takes in flows (Fig.1-3).
Regarding claim 2, Li further teaches a support part including a support leg (210) inserted into a slit (610a) of the case part and pivotally attached to the motor cover (Fig.7/8, note pivot attachment between 210 and 300).
Regarding claim 4, Li further teaches in a cross section of a bonding part (Fig.2, part defined where perimeter of 624 meets 600) of the first member and the second member, each of the first member and the second member has one surface side projecting with respect to the other surface side (Fig.2), and
the first member and the second member are bonded to each other such that a convex part of the first member faces a concave part of the second member and a concave part of the first member faces a convex part of the second member (Li Annotated Fig.2).
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Regarding claim 6, Li further teaches the first member and the second member each have the convex part and the concave part fitting to each other in a surface facing an attaching and detaching direction of each other (Li Annotated Fig.2).
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Xiao et al – hereafter Xiao – (CN 111075769 A).
Regarding claim 1, Xiao teaches an air blower comprising
a blowing part (Fig.3-6) including:
a fan (not shown, attaches to shaft of 4);
a motor (4) for driving the fan;
a motor cover (3) holding the motor; and
a case part (1/2) storing the motor cover,
wherein the case part includes
a first member (2) fixed to the motor cover (Fig.6), and
a second member (1) connected to the first member detachably, having an air intake port through which air that the fan takes in flows (Fig.3-6).
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.
Claim(s) 7 and 10 (as far as the claim(s) are definite and understood) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (interpretation B).
Regarding claim 7, Li teaches all the limitations of claim 6, see above, and further teaches the bonding part of the first member and the second member has a pair of vertical sides extending in an up and down direction and a lateral side connecting ends of the vertical sides (Li Annotated Fig.2),
the first member and the second member have a first convex part and a first concave part and a second convex part and a second concave part fitting each other in a surface facing an attaching and detaching direction of each other (Li Annotated Fig.2), and
the first convex part and the first concave part are provided in the vertical sides and the second convex part and the second concave part are provided in the lateral side (Li Annotated Fig.2), however, does not explicitly teach the lateral side connecting upper ends of the vertical sides.
However, it has been held that if shifting the position of a component in a device would not have modified the operation of said device, said position shift of said component is unpatentable, additionally, a particular placement of a component in a device has been held to be an obvious matter of design choice. In the current instance, there is no evidence that having the lateral side connecting upper ends of the vertical sides instead of the lower ends of the vertical sides, would change the operation of the air blower assembly, therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the air blower assembly of Li by shifting the position/placement of the lateral side to connect upper ends of the vertical sides instead of the lower ends of the vertical sides as an obvious matter of design choice (MPEP 2144.04 VI C).
Regarding claim 10, Li teaches all the limitations of claim 6, see above, however, does not explicitly teach at least one of the convex part and the concave part has a tapered surface at a position facing the concave part or the convex part provided in a surface that the at least one of the convex part and the concave part faces.
However, it is noted that applicant has not disclosed that having the at least one of the convex part and the concave part has a tapered surface at a position facing the concave part or the convex part provided in a surface that the at least one of the convex part and the concave part faces results in an unpredicted result not seen in the prior art and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with convex and concave parts, as taught by Li. Accordingly, absent persuasive evidence that the at least one of the convex part and the concave part has a tapered surface at a position facing the concave part or the convex part provided in a surface that the at least one of the convex part and the concave part faces is functionally significant, the limitations above constitute a matter of choice of changes in shape and fail to patentably distinguish over the prior art. See MPEP 2144.04(IV)(b).
Claim(s) 11-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of PennEngineering (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GwxIGoFgpI - published 13 Dec 2017).
Regarding claim 11, Xiao teaches all the limitations of claim 1, see above, and further teaches in the first member, a thread is embedded (23), the thread having a screw hole to which a bolt for connection with the second member is screwed in (machine translation page 4 note “by means of rotary locating screw bolt after passing the mesh 1 through shell 2 of the screw stud hole 12 screwed into the post 23”), and the second member includes a through hole (12) to which the bolt is inserted, however, does not explicitly teach the thread being part of a nut embedded in the first member.
PennEngineering teaches nuts with threads embedded in a plastic member where only threads are exposed after a molding operation, thereby eliminating the need for secondary steps or installation equipment when adding threaded nuts to a plastic member.
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the air blower assembly of Xiao by having the thread being part of a nut embedded in the first member based on the teachings of PennEngineering because this would allow providing durable threads while eliminating the need for secondary steps or installation equipment when adding threaded nuts to a plastic member.
Regarding claim 12, Xiao and PennEngineering further teach the nut is embedded in the first member such that at least a part of a surface of a side formed with the screw hole is covered by a resin (note PennEngineering screenshot above, additionally, the full video shows how at least a part of a surface of a side formed with the screw hole is covered by a resin).
Relevant Prior Art References
The following prior art references are relevant with respect to the disclosed invention and teach various air blower configurations with motor and case parts: JP S60192897 A, JP S63297795 A and CN 212536164 U.
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.
Claims 8-9 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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 following claim limitations were not found in the prior art.
the second member has a shape whose lower side is opened, and the first member has a shape extending to an opened portion of the second member (as in the context of claim 5).
the concave part is a long hole and the convex part is a protrusion provided so as to extend along the long hole at a position corresponding to the long hole (as in the context of claim 8).
the concave part is a long hole and the convex part is a protrusion provided in plural along the long hole at a position corresponding to the long hole (as in the context of claim 9).
The closest prior art references (Li and Xiao) do not disclose the second member having a shape with a lower side being opened. Furthermore, said prior art references do not disclose long hole/protrusion configurations.
No other prior art reference was found that would anticipate or allow establishing a prima facie case of obviousness in view of the cited prior art above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN G FLORES whose telephone number is (571)272-3486. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:30pm Pacific Time.
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/JUAN G FLORES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745