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 § 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.
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) 1-3, 6-7, and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakamoto et. al (US 6,455,813 B1) in view of Pehkonen et. al (US 2020/0187311 A1).
With respect to claim 1 Sakamoto discloses a weed burner1, comprising a control arm [reference character 10], a burner tip [reference character 1], a housing [reference character 11], and a heater [within housing 11, see column 5 lines 29-44] , the burner tip being connected to the control arm [see Fig. 6], the control arm being movably connected to the housing [see Fig. 6], wherein; the heater is secured to the housing [see column 5 lines 29-44], the burner tip comprises a magnetizer [copper, see column 2 lines 38-52] that is heated; the burner tip has a heating position where the magnetizer is located in the heater [tip 1 inserted into 12] to perform heating and an operating position [shown in Fig. 6] where the magnetizer is located outside the heater to perform weed burning2.
Sakamoto does not disclose that the heater comprises an electromagnetic coil or that the magnetizer is electromagnetically heated.
Pehkonen discloses an induction heated tool heating system that includes an electromagnetic coil [reference character 2] where a magnetizer (the tool) [reference character 7] is inserted into the coil in order to be inductively heated [paragraph 0076].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date of the invention to modify the heater taught by Sakamoto by replacing the resistance heater with an inductive heater as taught by Pehkonen in order to heat the burner tip without contact between the burner tip and the heating element.
With respect to claim 2 the combination of Sakamoto and Pehkonen disclose that the housing comprises a jacket [see annotated Fig. below] sleeved over an outer periphery of the burner tip, a front end of the jacket being formed with a through hole [reference character 12] for the burner tip to pass through, the electromagnetic coil being secured in the jacket [in combination with Pehkonen].
With respect to claim 3 the combination of Sakamoto and Pehkonen disclose that the jacket is an insulation jacket [see aluminum nitride in column 5 lines 35-37 and the Abstract, which is an electrical insulator isolating the tool from the heating element].
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With respect to claim 6 the combination of Sakamoto and Pehkonen disclose that a front end of the housing is provided with a stand [see annotated Fig. below] configurable to abut against the ground to retain the housing, the control arm being movable relative to the housing [moved in and out of the housing] to allow for the burner tip to access the operating position.
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With respect to claim 7 the combination of Sakamoto and Pehkonen disclose that the burner tip is formed by the magnetizer [see column 2 lines 38-52 of Sakamoto].
With respect to claim 10 the combination of Sakamoto and Pehkonen disclose that the housing is provided with a circuit board [see Fig. 5] configured to control operation of the electromagnetic coil; and/or, the housing is provided with a battery [column 5 lines 12-14] which supplies power to the electromagnetic coil.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5 and 8-9 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 VIVEK K SHIRSAT whose telephone number is (571)272-3722. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:20AM.
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/VIVEK K SHIRSAT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762
1 Though not explicitly disclosed by Sakamoto a person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize that the burner tip could be heated and used to burn weeds.
2 See footnote 1.
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