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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-13 in the reply filed on 1/27/2026 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 12/3/2024 was/were considered by the examiner.
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) 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhlmann WO 2004099607 in view of Carré FR 2547360.
Regarding claim 1, Kuhlmann discloses a wind turbine comprising:
a lower mount (upper portion of 14);
a nacelle (Fig. 1);
a hub (10) rotatably coupled to the nacelle and configured to rotate about a longitudinal axis (x-x) of the hub;
a generator (12) housed within the nacelle and configured to convert kinetic energy of the hub to electricity;
a plurality of blades (Fig. 1), the annular shroud coupled to the nacelle by at least one support member (13) that is inclined so as to extend frontward and radially outward from the nacelle to the annular shroud (Fig. 1);
wherein the lower mount is configured to passively rotate (Description 1st paragraph “freely pivoting”) about a mast (2).
However, it does not teach pivotable blades, wherein each is configured to pivot about a second longitudinal axis of the pivotable blade.
Carré teaches a wind turbine comprising forward slanted blades that are pivotable about a second longitudinal axis (Fig. 3) in order to optimize the capture of wind energy and improve the turbine’s efficiency. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the turbine as taught by Kuhlmann by utilizing pivotable blades as taught by Carré in order to optimize the capture of wind energy and improve turbine efficiency.
Regarding claim 2, Carré further teaches that the plurality of pivotable blades are configured to pivot simultaneously (Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 3, Carré further teaches that the plurality of pivotable blades are angled inward towards the longitudinal axis of the hub (Fig. 3).
Claim(s) 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhlmann WO 2004099607 in view of Carré FR 2547360 as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Gu CN 106894939.
Regarding claim 4, the combination does not teach the limitations of the claim. However, Gu teaches a wind turbine comprising pivotable blades (4) cooperatively coupled to a piston (9) of a linear actuator (Fig. 1).
Because both combination and Gu teach turbines with pivotable blades, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to replace pivot means as taught by the combination by simply substituting in pitching means of Gu in order to achieve the predictable result of a inducing a rotation in the blades. See KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007), MPEP 2143 (I)(B).
Regarding claim 5, Gu further teaches that each of the plurality of pivotable blades is cooperatively coupled to the piston by a rack-and-pinion gear mechanism (15).
Regarding claim 6, Gu further teaches that the plurality of pivotable blades are caused to pivot by movement of the piston of the linear actuator (Fig. 1).
Claim(s) 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhlmann WO 2004099607 in view of Carré FR 2547360 as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Ollgaard US 8593010.
Regarding claim 9, the combination does not teach the limitations of claim 9. However, Ollgarrd teaches a wind turbine comprising a rotating electrical conduit (1) to allow transmission of converted electricity from the generator to a power grid. Ollgarrd so teaches in order to prevent twisting of the cables during yaw (col. 2 ln. 44-47). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the turbine as taught by the combination by utilizing a slip ring as taught by Ollgarrd in order to prevent the electrical cables from twisting during yaw of the turbine.
Regarding claim 10, Ollgarrd further teaches that the rotating electrical conduit is housed within the lower mount (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 11, Ollgard further teaches an upper electrical wire (7a) and a lower electrical wire (7b) electrically connected to the rotating electrical conduit (1), wherein the rotating electrical conduit allows for the upper electrical wire to rotate with the annular shroud while the lower electrical wire remains stationary (Fig. 1).
Claim(s) 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhlmann WO 2004099607 in view of Carré FR 2547360 as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Rubak US 20130266439.
Regarding claim 12, the combination does not teach the limitations of claim 12. However, Rubak teaches a wind turbine wherein the annular shroud (124) comprises vortex generators (130) that induce turbulence around the annular shroud ([0073]). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the shroud as taught by Kuhlmann by utilizing vortex generators as taught by Rubak in order to induce turbulence and thereby prevent separation of a fluid boundary layer over the shroud.
Claim(s) 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhlmann WO 2004099607 in view of Carré FR 2547360 and Rubak US 20130266439 as applied to claim 12 above further in view of Fujiwara US 10077762.
Regarding claim 13, the combination does not teach the limitations of claim 13. However, Fujiwara teaches a wind turbine comprising a first shaft (35) of the generator coupled to a second shaft (2) of the hub via a gearbox (3), wherein the gearbox converts a low-speed rotation of the second shaft into a high-speed rotation of the first shaft (Fig. 2) in order to optimize the output of the electricity produced by the generator. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the turbine as taught by the combination by utilizing a gearbox as taught by Fujiwara in order to optimize the electrical generation of the generator.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach all the limitations of claim 7. It may only be reconstructed with impermissible hindsight reasoning.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN O PETERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3711