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 .
Preliminary Amendment
Acknowledgement is hereby made to the Preliminary Amendment filed 24 January 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application. Claims 1-15 have been amended. Claims 16-20 are new.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1, 2, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu (U. S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0318648) in view of Homma et al. (U. S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0234406)1.
As to claim 1, Hu discloses an electric pump (FIG.’s 1-5, Abstract), comprising
a first cavity 90 (FIG. 1, para. 0018, second chamber 90) for containing a working medium (Id., second chamber holds working medium or fluid) when the electric pump works,
a control assembly 4 (para. 0016, circuit board) and a rotating assembly 1, 2 (Id., and para. 0017, rotor assembly 1 and shaft 5 form recited rotating assembly) wherein the control assembly 4 is located in the first cavity 90 (circuit board 4 forms bottom of chamber 90, as shown), and at least part of the rotating assembly 1, 2 is located in the first cavity 90 (shown);
the control assembly 4 comprises a circuit board, Id.
However Hu is silent as to the control assembly comprises a magnetic element and a sensor, the circuit board is in electrical connection and/or signal connection with the sensor, one end portion of the rotating assembly relatively close2 to the circuit board is connected fixedly or limitedly to the magnetic element; the circuit board comprises a first surface facing the magnetic element, at least part of the sensor is located on the first surface, and the magnetic element is located within a sensing range of the sensor; and a projection of the magnetic element on the first surface at least partially overlaps with the sensor, or the sensor is located within a projection range of the magnetic element on the first surface. To this point, Homma teaches an electric pump having a control device 70 with circuit board (FIG. 1, para. 0037), rotation sensor (not shown) and sensor magnet 73 disposed proximate to the shaft. The rotation sensor faces the sensor magnet for detecting variation in magnetic flux (para.’s 0038-0040) such that the sensor is within a projection range of the magnet in the manner claimed. This arrangement forms a Hall effect sensor commonly used in motors for speed detection and closed-loop control.3 With this in mind, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application to modify Hu so that its control assembly includes a magnetic element and a sensor, in electrical connection and/or signal connection with the sensor with one end portion of the rotating in proximity to the circuit board with the magnetic element is located within a sensing range of the sensor in order to provide the controller rotation speed of the shaft to use in feedback control by the motor electronics as demonstrated by Homma.
As to claim 2, Hu and Homma further teach or suggest the rotating assembly comprises a first end portion (Homma, Hu – both disclose ends of their shaft/rotors), the magnetic element connected fixedly or limitedly to the first end portion (Homma – 73, para. 0037, as shown); and the electric pump has a first channel (Hu – 20, para. 0021, second passage 20), the first opening formed at a side wall of the first end portion and is communicated with the first cavity 90 (as shown under broadest reasonable interpretation of the term side wall).
As to claim 14, Hu and Homma further teach or suggest the magnetic element (Homma – 73, upon modification) comprises an upper magnetic surface and a lower magnetic surface (Homma – FIG. 1, shown), the upper magnetic surface is farther away from the circuit board than the lower magnetic surface (as shown) in an axial direction of the rotating shaft (shown). However, the applied art is silent as to an axial distance between the lower magnetic surface and the sensor is less than or equal to 2 cm. However, this distance would be based upon the range of the magnetic field of the magnet. That is, the sensor must be within his range to operable and detect the magnet. It logically follows to make this distance small to provide a compact form factor. In this regard, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application, to make the axial distance between the magnet and sensor less than or equal to 2cm so that the sensor is within magnetic field of the magnet in order to it to operate properly and detect with the magnet is within range.
As to claim 15, Hu further discloses a base wall 802 (FIG. 1, para. 0021) and the electric pump has a second cavity 801 (FIG.1, para. 0016); in an axial direction of the electric pump, the second cavity (surrounding rotor assembly 1) is located on one side of the base wall (shown), and the first cavity 90 is located on the other side of the base wall (shown); and the electric pump comprises a second channel 10 (para. 0021) extending through the base wall 802 from an upper surface to a lower surface of the base wall (shown), and the second channel 10 communicates the first cavity 90 with the second cavity 801 (as shown).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-13 and 16-20 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 of record either alone or in combination does not teach or fairly suggest an electric pump including each and every limitation recited in claim 1 further including the limitations in the claims objected to, specifically including, inter alia, a rotating shaft with end portion and channel having at least one opening arranged on the sidewall of the shaft and/or the magnetic element, all configured in the manner claimed.
Rotating shaft 6 including channel 40, first opening 401 at end portion 61 and magnetic element 33 are shown best in Applicant’s FIG.’s 3 & 4. There is no nexus in the available prior art that teaches or suggests the combination of these feature. It is the Examiner’s opinion that modification of Hu and/or Homma in the manner claimed is neither contemplated nor reasonably foreseeable without the benefit of the disclosure of the instant invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH J HANSEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6780. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (MT).
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/KENNETH J HANSEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746
1 An English-language equivalent to CN 209818295 that was cited in the ISR.
2 Para. 0049 of the specification indicates that “the first end portion 61 being relatively close to the circuit board (or the sensor) so that the magnetic element 33 and the sensor may cooperate to monitor the rotation of the second rotor assembly 31.” The term “relatively close” indicates that the distance must allow the magnetic element and the sensor be close enough to monitor rotation. As such, the term is not indefinite under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) in light of this definition.
3 Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect_sensor.