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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 objected to because of the following informalities: the claim refers to “positing” grooves, which as best interpreted by the specification should read “positioning” grooves. Appropriate correction is required.
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 and 8 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, the claim recites the limitation that the upper and lower housings are “tightly” connected to each other, however it is not clear as to what “tightly” means as it is a term of degree. For the purpose of examination, it will be interpreted as the two pieces being connected such that they are not separable without an applied force.
Regarding claim 8, it is not clear as to how the baffle holes would correspond in position to the respective blades as claimed since the blades would be rotating during use and the baffle holes would not.
Any claims which depend from those above are rejected for the same reasons due to their dependency thereon.
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 –
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 Scilingo US 2020/0355527.
Regarding claim 1, Scilingo teaches a flow sensor (fig. 1), comprising: a housing 33 through which water flow passes (paragraph 0086),
a fixing seat 30 and a holder 85 are provided in the housing,
a central rotating shaft 26 is rotatably connected between the fixing seat and the holder,
an impeller 27 is secured and mounted on the central rotating shaft, the impeller includes a plurality of blades (vanes), at least one of the blades has a magnet mounting groove 72 that is integrally formed with an outer side of the blade (fig. 10),
a magnet 28 is detachably connected in the magnet mounting groove (paragraph 0078 describes the magnet as being an interference fit), and
a Hall sensor 15 is mounted on an outer wall of the housing and corresponds in position to the magnet.
Regarding claim 2, the magnet of Scilingo is an interference fit as claimed (paragraph 0078).
Regarding claim 3, Scilingo discloses plural magnet mounting grooves (top and bottom of fig. 10) including multiple magnets evenly distributed in corresponding blades around an axis of the impeller as shown in fig. 10.
Regarding claim 4, the fixing seat 30 and holder 85 of Scilingo are detachably mounted in the housing (paragraph 0081 discloses the fixing seat 30 as being separate from the housing 33) and the fixing seat and holder are detachably connected to each other via shaft 26.
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) 5-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scilingo and Steckhan.
Regarding claim 5, Scilingo teaches the claimed invention and as seen in fig. 1, including a lower housing wherein the fixing seat is inserted into the lower housing in a top down direction to abut against a positioning step (adjacent seal 73), but does not explicitly teach the upper housing portion as claimed. Steckhan teaches a flow sensor as seen in fig. 1 and 2 which includes an upper housing section 12 and lower housing section 3 which when assembled allows for the upper housing section to be detachably connected to the lower housing section and press down against a fixing seat (bearing pivot 23). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have combined the teachings of Steckhan with those of Scilingo in order to provide a similar upper housing element which would abut and press down against the fixing seat of Scilingo to better hold it in place during operation.
Regarding claim 6, in combination, the lower end of the upper housing is inserted into the upper end of the lower housing and the two elements are tightly connected to each other as claimed.
Regarding claim 7, Scilingo and Steckham teach the claimed invention but do not explicitly disclose the positioning grooves for insertion and position of the holder. Steckhan does however disclose a positioning groove 17 which allows for positioning of the upper housing element 12 and it therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have provided similar positioning means to any elements which would require or benefit from alignment such as the holder to ensure proper flow in the system is measured.
Regarding claim 8, Scilingo teaches the claimed invention but does not explicitly disclose the baffle plate provided on the fixing seat with a plurality of water distribution holes as claimed. Steckham teaches a flow meter which includes a rotating impeller 7 in a housing 3 and a baffle 12 comprising a plurality of water distribution holes 18 that are evenly distributed and correspond to a position to the respective blades 9 below (the holes are arranged in line with the blades as they rotate). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have combined the teachings of Steckham with those of Scilingo in order to provide a similar baffle on the fixing seat to allow for smaller amounts of water to impact the impeller and be detected during use (Steckham, paragraph 0012).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mark A. Shabman whose telephone number is (571)272-8589. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30 EST.
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/MARK A SHABMAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
