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 Invention I (Claims 1-5, 11, 12, 14, 15) in the reply filed on 01/25/2026 is acknowledged.
Upon further consideration, claim 6 recites the same limitations as 11 and 12 and does not appear to be patentably distinct, and therefore claims 6 has been rejoined and examined with claims 1-5, 11, 12, 14, and 15. Claim 13 depends from claim 6 and therefor has also been rejoined because it does not appear to be patentably distinct subject matter.
Claims 1-6 and 11-15 will be examined together.
Claims 7-10 remain withdrawn from consideration.
Claim 7-10 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 01/25/2026.
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, 11, 12 and 15 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.
Regarding claim 6, 11, and 12 the phrase "especially" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Claim 6, 11, 12 recites:
“especially testing function of an internal consumer pressure relief valve;”
“respectively, especially when the aircraft is on ground”
“especially during flight.”
It is unclear whether testing function of an internal consumer pressure relief valve is required in the claims because “especially” appears to be used akin to “preferably”. For examination purposes, these limitations will be interpreted to be optional.
Claim 15 is indefinite because it depends from indefinite claim 12.
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, 2, 3, 5, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hagihara (US 2018/0002000).
Hagihara discloses:
1. An onboard hydraulic system for an aircraft, comprising:
a motor-pump unit comprising an electric motor (31) and a hydraulic pump (32) driven by the motor,
a hydraulic consumer (21, 22) supplied with pressurized hydraulic fluid from the motor-pump unit, a fluid reservoir (implicit reservoir that the pump draws from),
a pressure sensor (34) for sensing pressure of the pressurized hydraulic fluid,
a control unit (4) for controlling the motor-pump unit, and
a pressure setting means (implicitly disclosed with "pressure command", [0033]) for adapting a pressure setting of the motor-pump unit for ground service or maintenance or specific flight conditions (paragraph [0028] discloses selectively supplying gear actuator 21 with oil from the pump, which is able to happen during specific flight conditions such operation while grounded or during landing, etc.).
2. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the motor-pump unit in a first flight mode to supply the pressurized hydraulic fluid with a nominal system operation pressure and in a ground service and/or maintenance and/or testing mode and/or a second flight mode to supply the pressurized hydraulic fluid with a pressure different to the nominal system operation pressure and set by the pressure setting means (paragraph [0037] discloses a pressure command, controller controlling electric motor so that the discharge pressure of the pump 32 reaches the target discharge pressure; and the controller paragraph [0038], [0039] discloses operation during flight, and during landing, with different pressures).
3. The hydraulic system according to claim 2, wherein the pressure setting means is configured to at least one or several of the following:
a) set a pressure higher than the nominal system operation pressure for testing a consumer function;
b) set a pressure higher than the nominal system operation pressure and below a hydraulic system relief pressure in order to test an internal pressure relief valve of the hydraulic consumer connected to the motor-pump unit;
c) set a pressure lower than the nominal system operation pressure for ground service, maintenance or testing; and/or
d) set a pressure lower than the nominal system operation pressure during ground service and changing to nominal system operation pressure during ground service on demand of the consumer or of at least one of several of the hydraulic consumers (see Figs. 3-5 which shows the pressure higher than the nominal system operation pressure).
5. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, wherein the motor-pump unit is chosen from the group consisting of:
a hydraulic power pack including the electric motor, the pump and the reservoir,
an electric motor pump,
a motor-pump unit of fixed displacement type and speed-controlled motor,
a motor-pump unit with fixed motor speed and controlled variable displacement, and
a motor-pump unit with controlled variable displacement and controlled motor speed (see Fig. 2, paragraph [0024]).
14. An aircraft comprising a hydraulic system according to claim 1 (paragraph [0002] discloses the system is for raising/lowering the landing gear of an aircraft).
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) 1-6, 11-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nfonguem et al. (US 11440639), hereinafter ‘Nfonguem’ in view of Fukui (US 8434301).
Regarding claim 1, Nfonguem discloses: an onboard hydraulic system for an aircraft, comprising:
a motor-pump unit (32a, 32b, 32c) comprising an electric motor (42a) and a hydraulic pump (40a) driven by the motor,
a hydraulic consumer (48a) supplied with pressurized hydraulic fluid from the motor-pump unit,
a fluid reservoir (38),
a control unit (47) for controlling the motor-pump unit, and
a pressure setting means for adapting a pressure setting of the motor-pump unit for ground service or maintenance or specific flight conditions (Col. 7 lines 32-53 discloses during a cruise phase, a lower operating pressure is set to reduce electrical power consumption during that time;
during other flight operations that demand more pressure, the HPPs are controlled to that pressure level on an on-demand basis).
Nfonguem does not explicitly disclose a pressure sensor for sensing the pressure of the pressurized hydraulic fluid.
However, Fukui discloses an onboard hydraulic system for an aircraft similar to Nfonguem and the present application and therefore constitutes analogous art. Fukui discloses a motor-pump unit comprising an electric motor (42) and a hydraulic pump (41) driven by the motor, a hydraulic consumer (27) supplied with pressurized hydraulic fluid from the motor-pump unit, a fluid reservoir (implicitly disclosed, connected to 46), a pressure sensor (48) for sensing pressure of the pressurized hydraulic fluid, a control unit (55) for controlling the motor-pump unit, and a pressure setting means (55) for adapting a pressure setting of the motor-pump unit for ground service or maintenance or specific flight conditions. Fukui discloses using a pressure sensor 48 to detect the pressure on the pump output line to determine whether a pump has failed and to use the pressure information to control the pump operation (Col. 7 lines 35-58).
Since Nfonguem remains silent as to how pump failure is determined, and since using pressure sensors in aircraft control systems for feedback control and determining pump failure is known in the art, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to have modified the system of Nfonguem to have used a pressure sensor for sensing pressure of the pressurized hydraulic fluid as taught by Fukui as a matter of applying a known technique to a known system ready for improvement to yield only the predictable result of an aircraft system having pressure feedback control.
The combination of Nfonguem and Fukui further renders obvious:
All of the limitation mapping below refer to the Nfonguem reference.
2. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the motor-pump unit in a first flight mode to supply the pressurized hydraulic fluid with a nominal system operation pressure and in a ground service and/or maintenance and/or testing mode and/or a second flight mode to supply the pressurized hydraulic fluid with a pressure different to the nominal system operation pressure and set by the pressure setting means (Col. 7 lines 32-53 discloses during a cruise phase [first flight mode], a lower operating pressure is set to reduce electrical power consumption during that time;
during other flight operations [second flight mode] that demand more pressure, the HPPs are controlled to that pressure level on an on-demand basis, pressure set by the pressure setting means 47A, 47B).
3. The hydraulic system according to claim 2, wherein the pressure setting means is configured to at least one or several of the following:
a) set a pressure higher than the nominal system operation pressure for testing a consumer function;
b) set a pressure higher than the nominal system operation pressure and below a hydraulic system relief pressure in order to test an internal pressure relief valve of the hydraulic consumer connected to the motor-pump unit;
c) set a pressure lower than the nominal system operation pressure for ground service, maintenance or testing; and/or
d) set a pressure lower than the nominal system operation pressure during ground service and changing to nominal system operation pressure during ground service on demand of the consumer or of at least one of several of the hydraulic consumers (Col. 7 renders obvious setting a pressure lower than the nominal system operation pressure when test a cruise control mode on the ground based on the aircraft operation demand).
4. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, further comprising
a first subsystem with a first motor-pump unit for supplying the first subsystem with pressurized fluid and a second subsystem (Fig. 3, first subsystem 32C with its adjacent connections) with
a second motor-pump unit for supplying the second subsystem of the hydraulic system with pressurized fluid (Fig. 3, second subsystem 32E with its adjacent connections), the first and second motor-pump units being controlled by the control unit (47), wherein the control unit is configured for controlling the first and second motor-pump units during a flight mode such that one of the motor-pump units supplies hydraulic fluid with nominal pressure and the other of the motor-pump units supplies hydraulic fluid with a different pressure set by the pressure setting means (pressure setting means within control modules; Col. 7 renders obvious operation of one subsystem at full nominal pressure and operation of the second subsystem at a lesser pressure depending on the demand of the actuator).
5. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, wherein the motor-pump unit is chosen from the group consisting of: a hydraulic power pack including the electric motor, the pump and the reservoir (32C, 32D, 32E are hydraulic power packs including an electric motor 42, pump 40, and reservoir 38),
an electric motor pump, a motor-pump unit of fixed displacement type and speed-controlled motor,
a motor-pump unit with fixed motor speed and controlled variable displacement, and
a motor-pump unit with controlled variable displacement and controlled motor speed.
6. A method for operating the hydraulic system according to claim 1, comprising at least one or several of the steps:
a) testing a function of the hydraulic consumer, especially testing function of an internal consumer pressure relief valve;
b) operating of consumers with a flow and/or pressure that is lower as a nominal flow and nominal pressure, respectively, especially when the aircraft is on ground;
c) operating of consumers with a pressure lower than nominal pressure for reducing heat load of the hydraulic system when the aircraft is on ground or in a specific flight mode;
d) managing power consumption and/or power sharing between several parts of the hydraulic system, especially during flight (Col. 7 discloses managing power consumption and/or power sharing depending on demand of various actuators and pump failures, etc.).
11. The hydraulic system according to claim 1, wherein: the pressure setting means is part of the control unit (control units 47A, 47B control the HPPs which controls the pressure, therefore the pressure setting means is part of the control unit); and/or
the control unit is configured to cause the hydraulic system to carry out the steps:
a) testing a function of the hydraulic consumer, especially testing function of an internal consumer pressure relief valve;
b) operating of consumers with a flow and/or pressure that is lower as a nominal flow and nominal pressure, respectively, especially when the aircraft is on ground;
c) operating of consumers with a pressure lower than nominal pressure for reducing heat load of the hydraulic system when the aircraft is on ground or in a specific flight mode;
d) managing power consumption and/or power sharing between several parts of the hydraulic system, especially during flight (Col. 7 discloses managing power consumption and/or power sharing depending on demand of various actuators and pump failures, etc.).
12. A control unit for the hydraulic system according to claim 1, configured to automatically control the hydraulic system and carry out the steps of:
a) testing a function of the hydraulic consumer, especially testing function of an internal consumer pressure relief valve;
b) operating of consumers with a flow and/or pressure that is lower as a nominal flow and nominal pressure, respectively, especially when the aircraft is on ground;
c) operating of consumers with a pressure lower than nominal pressure for reducing heat load of the hydraulic system when the aircraft is on ground or in a specific flight mode;
d) managing power consumption and/or power sharing between several parts of the hydraulic system, especially during flight (Col. 7 discloses managing power consumption and/or power sharing depending on demand of various actuators and pump failures, etc.).
13. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, is configured to perform the method of claim 6 (Col. 6 lines 1-14 discloses control modules 47A, 47B which implicitly or inherently have a computer-readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, is configured to perform the method of claim 6 which is rendered obvious in Col. 6).
14. An aircraft (10) comprising a hydraulic system according to claim 1 (see Figures; hydraulic system of Fig. 3 is implemented on aircraft 10 of Fig. 1).
15. An aircraft (10) comprising a control unit according to claim 12 (see Figures, control unit that is part of hydraulic system of Fig. 3 is implemented on aircraft of Fig .1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
McCormick et al. (US 2017/0233064), Kondo et al. (US 9422052) discloses pertinent hydraulic systems for an aircraft
Cannestra (US 2002/0112475) discloses a controller setting a pressure for the system depending on the work operation and discloses adjusting the relief valve setting to the appropriate value to obtain a desired pressure for the work operation
Funabiki et al. (US 10253482) and Stratton et al. (US 6408676) discloses a hydraulic system with a control valve diagnostic system that includes testing relief valves
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Dustin T Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)270-0163. The examiner can normally be reached M - F: 8:00am - 4:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathaniel E. Wiehe can be reached at (571) 272-8648. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DUSTIN T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745 March 20, 2026
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