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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 1/6/2025 and 11/5/2025 was/were in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are 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(s) 6-17 is/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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
The term “low-frequency conditions” in claim 6 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “low frequency” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For purposes of examination “ejecting refrigerant flow through the ejector and the bypass under high-temperature and low-frequency conditions” will be considered - - ejecting refrigerant flow through the ejector and the bypass under high-temperature conditions and below a preset low-frequency value condition - - .
Claim(s) 7-17 are rejected to as being dependent from a rejected claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1-6 are allowed.
Claim(s) 6-17 is/are 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.
Reasons For Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The prior art does not anticipate nor render obvious the combination set forth in the independent claims, and specifically does not disclose the following: a bypass, one end of the bypass communicating with an outlet pipe a compressor, and another end of the bypass communicating with an outlet of the first electric valve in the outlet conduit, the bypass being equipped with a second electric valve and an ejector; and a third branch pipe, one end of the third branch pipe communicating with the ejector, and another end of the third branch pipe communicating with an inlet of the first electric valve, the third branch pipe being equipped with a third electric valve.
Although the closest prior art of record Zhuo et al. (CN 110677014) teaches a variable frequency drive cooling device comprising: an inlet conduit (1), one end of the inlet conduit communicating with an outlet pipe of a condenser (6); an outlet conduit (5) equipped with a first electric valve (521), one end of the outlet conduit communicating with an inlet pipe of an evaporator (pipe entering 8); a first branch pipe (22) and a second branch pipe (32), connected in parallel between the inlet conduit (1) and the outlet conduit (5), the first branch pipe being configured to cool a variable frequency drive cabinet (41), and the second branch pipe being configured to cool a variable frequency drive module (42), there is no teaching in the prior art of record that would, reasonably and absent impermissible hindsight, motivate one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of the prior art to provide a bypass, one end of the bypass communicating with an outlet pipe a compressor, and another end of the bypass communicating with an outlet of the first electric valve in the outlet conduit, the bypass being equipped with a second electric valve and an ejector; and a third branch pipe, one end of the third branch pipe communicating with the ejector, and another end of the third branch pipe communicating with an inlet of the first electric valve, the third branch pipe being equipped with a third electric valve, in combination with all other claimed features.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
McSweeney et al. (US 9,494,354) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Stover (US 2009/0241592) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Lakhkar et al. (US 11,206,743) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Rodriquez et al. (US 8,826,675) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Burchill et al. (US 2009/0314018) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Pham et al. (US 10,962,009) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Kido et al. (US 2012/0279251) teaches variable frequency drive cooling system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID J TEITELBAUM whose telephone number is (571)270-5142. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:00 am-4:30 pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FRANTZ JULES can be reached on (571) 272-66816681. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DAVID J TEITELBAUM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
Prosecution Insights