DETAILED ACTION
1. This action is in response to applicant's amendment received on 10/30/2025. Amended claim 1 is acknowledged and the following new grounds of rejection below are formulated.
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 § 102
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 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) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hakeem et al. (U.S. Publication 2016/0102623), hereinafter “Hakeem”.
Regarding claim 1, Hakeem discloses an internal combustion engine (10), comprising: an intake passage (140); a throttle valve (115) provided in the intake passage; a flow rate regulating valve (158) provided at a downstream side of the throttle valve in the intake passage (shown in figure 2); a first passage (252) that connects a crankcase to a section of the intake passage between the throttle valve and the flow rate regulating valve (shown in figure 2), fresh air being introduced into the crankcase via the first passage (paragraph 57 mentions the fresh air can be routed to crankcase); and a second passage (254) that connects the crankcase (255) to a section of the intake passage at a downstream side of the flow rate regulating valve (158, shown in figure 2), blow-by gas in the crankcase being drawn into the intake passage via the second passage (paragraph 41).
Regarding claim 2, Hakeem discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 1, further comprising a controller (12) that adjusts an opening degree of the flow rate regulating valve (158), wherein the controller includes a processing circuitry configured to execute a process of adjusting the opening degree of the flow rate regulating valve based on at least one of an engine coolant temperature, an engine oil temperature, an engine rotation speed, and an opening degree of the throttle valve (paragraphs 14 and 19).
Regarding claim 3, Hakeem discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to execute a process of correcting the opening degree of the throttle valve (115) to suppress a change in an intake air amount that accompanies adjustment of the opening degree of the flow rate regulating valve (158, paragraph 19).
Regarding claim 4, Hakeem discloses the internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein a fuel of the internal combustion engine is gas fuel (inherent for an internal combustion engine with crankcase gases).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new grounds of rejection relies on the new reference Hakeem.
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 2/12/2026