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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5 December, 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim 1-4 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 1 is replete with inexact or unclear limitations justifying rejections. Not all have been described in this office communication, but they nonetheless motive suggestions below.
In claim 1, the phrase “mutually facing tank side holes of the tank side hole” is unclear, as a hole cannot have a hole,
In claim 1, the phrase “first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole is an elongated hole having a length longer than a length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction, the first hole being configured to communicate with the second hole in a plurality of number” is also unclear and contradicting because either they are in the tank length direction or they are configured to communicate with each other, and therefore the examiner assumes that the claim 1 is replaced with the following suggestions:
Claim 1 states: “A heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between air and a heat transfer medium undergoing a phase change between a liquid phase and a gaseous phase, the heat exchanger comprising: core portions provided such that a plurality of core portions are overlapped in an air-flow direction, the core portions each having header tanks provided as a pair facing with each other and a plurality of tubes configured to connect the header tanks to each other and to perform the heat exchange between the heat transfer medium flowing inside the tubes and the air flowing around the tubes; and a passage forming member provided between a first header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, and a second header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, wherein the first header tank and the second header tank each has, at a mutually facing portion thereof, a tank side hole, the passage forming member has a communication hole, the communication hole being configured to allow mutually facing tank side holes of the tank side hole to communicate with each other, and a first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole is an elongated hole having a length longer than a length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction, the first hole being configured to communicate with the second hole in a plurality of number.”
It is assumed that claim 1 is replaced with the following suggestions:
Claim 1, “A heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between air and a heat transfer medium undergoing a phase change between a liquid phase and a gaseous phase,
the heat exchanger comprising: core portions provided such that a plurality of core portions are overlapped in an air-flow direction, the core portions each having header tanks provided as a pair facing with each other and a plurality of tubes configured to connect the header tanks to each other and to perform the heat exchange between the heat transfer medium flowing inside the tubes and the air flowing around the tubes;
and a passage forming member provided between a first header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, and a second header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, wherein the first header tank and the second header tank each has, at a mutually facing portion thereof, a tank side hole, the passage forming member has a communication hole, the communication hole being configured to allow mutually facing tank side holes first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole is an elongated hole having a length longer than a length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction,
Claim(s) 2-4 are rejected because they are based on claim 1.
Claim Interpretation
Regarding claim 1, in light of the specification, the Examiner interprets the first hole and second hole of the tank side hole in the tank length direction as shown in the figure below. Examiner interprets that the length of the first hole of the tank side hole is longer than the second hole of the same tank side hole.
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Second hole of the tank side hole in the tank length direction)][AltContent: textbox (First hole of the tank side hole)]
PNG
media_image1.png
310
636
media_image1.png
Greyscale
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) 1-2,4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over SATOSHI et al. (JP 2015175560-A-published 5 October,2015), in view of BEOMCHAN et al. (EP-3141859-B1-published 16 May,2018).
As to claim 1, SATOSHI discloses a heat exchanger (1) configured to perform heat exchange between air and a heat transfer medium undergoing a phase change between a liquid phase and a gaseous phase (Abstract), the heat exchanger comprising: core portions provided such that a plurality of core portions are overlapped in an air-flow direction, the core portions each having header tanks (7) provided as a pair facing with each other and a plurality of tubes configured to connect the header tanks to each other and to perform the heat exchange between the heat transfer medium flowing inside the tubes and the air flowing around the tubes; and a passage forming member (11) provided between a first header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, and a second header tank of the header tanks, which is arranged so as to be overlapped, wherein the first header tank and the second header tank each has, at a mutually facing portion thereof, a tank side hole, the passage forming member has a communication hole (15), the communication hole being configured to allow mutually facing tank side holes (17) to communicate with each other. SATOSHI also discloses that the first hole and the communication hole is an elongated hole (See Annotated Figure SATOSHI).
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Passage forming member with communication hole that is configured to allow mutually facing tanks side holes to communicate with each other )][AltContent: textbox (Communication hole and tanks side holes are elongated holes )][AltContent: textbox (Pair of header tanks facing each other in the airflow direction adjacent to each other)]
PNG
media_image2.png
448
487
media_image2.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image3.png
293
556
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Annotated Figure (SATOSHI)
SATOSHI, however, does not disclose that a first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole having a length longer than a length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction.
BEOMCHAN, however teaches that a first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole having a length equal to the length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction.
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Plurality of communication holes that communicate with mutually facing tank side holes in the tank length direction )][AltContent: textbox (Plurality of tank side holes that communicate with the communication hole in the tank length direction )][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow]
PNG
media_image4.png
891
659
media_image4.png
Greyscale
Annotated Figure (BEOMCHAN)
While, SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN still does not teach that the first hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole having a length longer than a length of a second hole of the tank side hole and the communication hole in the tank-length direction, one having ordinary skill in the art would have found this modification entirely obvious, as it has been held the shape of an object is a matter of choice which one having ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious absent present evidence that the particular configuration of the claimed shape is significant. See MPEP 2144.04 IV (b). Looking at the specification of the present invention, in paragraph 52, it is recited, “A first hole 62 of the tank side hole 62 and the communication hole 90 is the elongated hole having the length longer than the length of a second hole 90 of the tank side hole 62 and the communication hole 90, and the first hole 62 being configured to communicate with the second hole 90 in a plurality of number.”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify SATOSHI with the teachings of BEOMCHAN and incorporate a generally varying length the tank holes are arranged in, as the change in form or shape is an obvious engineering design, which the Applicant, without any new or unexpected results directed to an outcome of the claimed shape, has not placed any criticality thereon.
As to claim 2, SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN teaches the limitations of claim 1, SATOSHI further teaches the heat exchanger (1), wherein the header tanks (7) have a plurality of tube insertion ports (23) into which the tubes are respectively inserted (Paragraphs 37 - 39), the header tanks being formed to have a tubular shape (See Annotated Figure SATOSHI) elongated in an arrangement direction of the tubes, and when an imaginary region extending in a circumferential direction of the header tanks through a connecting portion provided between adjacent tank side holes of the tank side hole is assumed, the tube insertion ports include a tube insertion port opening in the imaginary region (See Annotated Figure SATOSHI).
As to claim 4, SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN teaches the limitations of claim 1, SATOSHI further teaches the heat exchanger, wherein the first core portion and the second core portion, which are arranged so as to be overlapped (Figure 7), each has a plurality of divided core portions, the divided core portions being formed by being divided in an the arrangement direction of the tubes and each having independent flow path of the heat transfer medium, and the passage forming member is provided between the header tanks of the respective divided core portions, which are arranged so as to be overlapped (Paragraphs 55 -56 indicates that the one core part and the other core part, which are disposed so as to overlap, each have a plurality of divided core parts that are divided in the alignment direction of the tubes and in which the respective flow paths of the refrigerant are independent, and the passage formation member is provided between the header tanks of the respective divided core parts, which are disposed so as to overlap, See Annotated Figure SATOSHI).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over SATOSHI et al. (JP 2015175560-A-published 5 October,2015), in view of BEOMCHAN et al. (EP-3141859-B1-published 16 May,2018), and MORIMOTO et al (US-10352601-B2-published 16 July,2019).
As to claim 3, SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN teaches the limitations of claim 1, SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN however does not teach the heat exchanger, wherein a length dimension of the first hole is longer than a length dimension from a first end to a second end of the second holes in adjacent positions as a pair.
MORIMOTO, however teaches the heat exchanger, wherein a length dimension of the first hole is longer than a length dimension from a first end to a second end of the second holes in adjacent positions as a pair (See Annotated Figure MORIMOTO).
[AltContent: textbox (Length dimension of the first hole is longer than the length dimension of the from a first end to a second end of the second holes in adjacent positions as a pair )][AltContent: textbox (Elongated first hole of the header tank side hole)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow]
PNG
media_image5.png
554
554
media_image5.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image6.png
753
567
media_image6.png
Greyscale
Annotated Figure (MORIMOTO)
MORIMOTO teaches that such arrangement allows for a more controlled distribution of the heat transfer medium (Paragraph 68).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify SATOSHI as modified by BEOMCHAN with the teachings of MORIMOTO and incorporate a length dimension of the first hole is longer than a length dimension from a first end to a second end of the second holes in adjacent positions as a pair to control the distribution of the heat transfer medium of the heat exchanger.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BIGYAN BHATTACHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-8767. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30 AM - 5 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Len Tran can be reached at (571) 272-1184. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BIGYAN BHATTACHAN/
Examiner, Art Unit 3763
/LEN TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3763
Prosecution Insights