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 § 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 1-2 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.
The term “favorable” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “favorable” 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. As such, it is not clear as to what are the boundaries regarding the limitation: “so that the mixture has favorable dielectric and heat transfer properties.”
In order to expedite prosecution, the phrase so that the mixture has favorable dielectric and heat transfer properties” is construed as how it might be interpreted by a person having ordinary skill in the art.
Claim 2 is rejected under 112 because of its dependency from a rejected parent claim.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Loray” (US 11,005,241).
Regarding claim 1, Loray anticipates 1. A method of insulating electrical contacts and removing heat therefrom, comprising the steps of: (a) mixing a first fluid with a second fluid, different from the first fluid, that is miscible with the first fluid so as to form a mixture; and (Fig. 1, col. 1, lines 17-19, col. 5, lines 4-14, col. 6, lines 21-23; a method of distributing a dielectric insulating liquefied gas mixture to high-voltage electrical equipment, the insulating mixture 103 comprises carbon dioxide and at least one component selected from the fluoronitriles having at least four carbon atoms, the mixture in the supercritical phase will therefore be intrinsically homogeneous)
(b) disposing the mixture about the electrical contacts while maintaining the mixture at a temperature and at a pressure that causes the mixture to be in a supercritical phase so that the mixture has favorable dielectric and heat transfer properties. (Fig. 1, col. 6, lines 62-64; The mixture 103 in the storage means 101 is therefore at high temperature 107 and pressure 110 (temperature above ambient temperature and pressure of some tens of bar), the mixture 103 in the supercritical phase has favorable dielectric and heat transfer properties. Examiner’s note: see the 112 rejection above regarding the construction of the limitation “favorable”. Loray’s mixture 103 has dielectric and heat transfer properties, therefore, Loray anticipates this limitation.)
Regarding claim 2, Loray anticipates 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting the first fluid and the second fluid from a list of substances consisting of: sulfur hexafluoride; carbon dioxide; oxygen; hydrogen; trifluoroiodomethane; perfluoropentanone; perfluorohexanone; perfluoronitrile; hexafluoroethane; tetrafluoromethane; perfluoropropane; octafluorocyclobutane; ethane; and combinations thereof (Fig. 1, col. 1, lines 17-19, col. 5, lines 4-14, col. 6, lines 21-23; a method of distributing a dielectric insulating liquefied gas mixture to high-voltage electrical equipment, the insulating mixture 103 comprises carbon dioxide and at least one component selected from the fluoronitriles having at least four carbon atoms which is perfluoronitrile).
Conclusion
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/STANLEY TSO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2847
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