DETAILED ACTION
1. This action is in response to applicant's amendment received on 12/29/2025. Amended claims 1 and 5 are acknowledged and the following new grounds of rejection below are formulated. The amendments to the drawings have been considered and accepted.
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
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 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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masahiko (JP 3576286), hereinafter “Masahiko” in view of Sato et al. (U.S. Patent 5,907,971), hereinafter “Sato”.
Regarding claim 1, Masahiko discloses the same invention substantially as claimed such as an assembly to turn off one or more cylinders of an engine to reduce load from a crankshaft, wherein the said assembly comprises: one or more butterfly valves (9) of a pre-defined shape housed inside one or more corresponding intake manifolds (manifold of intake passages 10a) of at least one cylinder of the engine, wherein each of the one or more butterfly valves (9) comprises at least one hole (9c and 9c’) sized to allow an air flow greater than a clearance volume (volume of air in the cylinder when the piston is at TDC) of the one or more cylinders to pass through when the one or more butterfly valves are closed, the at least one hole being placed at a pre-defined position in the corresponding at least one butterfly valve (9, shown in figure 2), and configured to reduce effect of negative pressure; and at least one actuator (13) operatively coupled to the corresponding one or more butterfly valves (9), and configured to operate the corresponding cylinders of the engine (paragraphs 14-17), but is silent to disclose the actuator being controlled by the ECM. However, Sato teaches the use of an ECM controlling the throttle valve actuator (3) for the purpose of allowing from an engine from failing to start and to take into account other engine operating parameters before opening the throttle valve to help protect the engine from failure (column 1, lines 29-59). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Masahiko by incorporating an ECM to control the throttle valve actuator as taught by Sato for the purpose of allowing from an engine from failing to start and to take into account other engine operating parameters before opening the throttle valve to help protect the engine from failure. Examiner notes that Masahiko’s holes (9c and 9c’) allow for an air flow greater than a clearance volume of the cylinder to pass through since the intake manifold portion is large. The clearance volume is just the amount of air within a cylinder at TDC which is somewhat small. The throttle body (10) of Masahiko shown in figure 6 after the throttle valve (9) is fairly large. Surely there is more air volume withing throttle body (10) after the throttle valve (9) compared to a clearance volume of the cylinder. Examiner notes that when the throttle valve is closed, maybe at idle, a lot of air flow still stacks up within the throttle body over time and would be greater than the clearance volume.
Regarding claim 2, Masahiko discloses the assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the engine comprises one of a petrol engine (spark ignition) or a diesel engine (compressed ignition). Examiner notes that it is inherent that the engine is either a spark ignition engine or a compression ignition engine.
Regarding claim 3, Masahiko discloses the assembly as claimed in claim1, wherein the one or more cylinders comprising the butterfly valve (9) corresponds to one of alternate butterfly valves, butterfly valves (9, shown in figure 2) in series, or one or more customized butterfly valves.
Regarding claim 4, Masahiko discloses the assembly as claimed in claim1, wherein the one or more conditions comprises one of a no-load condition (idle condition mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 9), an engine start condition, or a combination thereof.
Regarding claim 5, Masahiko and Sato disclose the assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the engine control module (Masahiko, claim 1, controller) is configured to turn off the corresponding at least one butterfly valve to reduce negative pressure inside the cylinder which reduced a load of the crankshaft (claim 2, cylinder deactivation is present, and due to shutoff, it is inherent that the load on the crankshaft will be reduced).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/29/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that Masahiko does not describe sizing the air hole relative to the clearance volume in any manner. Examiner notes that the sizing of the hole according the amended claims just needs to be greater than the clearance volume of the cylinder, which is the case. Explanation is given above in the rejection of claim 1.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 with the ECM controlling the actuator, have been considered but are moot because the new grounds of rejection relies on the new Sato reference.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/SYED O HASAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747 4/7/2026