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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 3,566,840 to Willinger in view of U.S. Patent No. 2,533,936 to Holmes et al and China Patent CN 217336936 to Liang.
Regarding Claim 1, Willinger teaches a pet water dispenser (Willinger pet fish), comprising: a water tank (Willinger Fig. 1 and 8 tank #22 and #22b) for storing liquid; an upper cover (Willinger Fig. 1 #20) installed above the water tank, wherein a surface of the upper cover is provided with a sink (Willinger Fig. 1 #26) and a water leakage opening (Willinger Fig. 1 #32b) communicating with the water tank; and a water pump (Willinger Fig. 1 #24) which extends into or onto the upper cover from a lower part of the water tank and has a water supply opening (Willinger Fig. 1 #32a) in a surface above the upper cover; the water pump internally comprises: a first accommodating chamber (Willinger Fig.1 and 3 #24 in hermetically sealed chamber; Col. 2 lines 8-27) in which a motor is arranged, the motor driving pump blades (Willinger Fig. 1 #24c) below the first accommodating chamber to rotate through a rotating shaft (Willinger Fig. 1 #24b); second accommodating chambers (Willinger Fig. 1 #24a) of which walls define a pump chamber with a downwards-extended wall of the first accommodating chamber; a centrifugal water pump which is formed by pump blades (Willinger Fig. 1 #24c) and matched motor (Willinger Fig. 1 motor on top of #24), and a water discharging opening (Willinger Fig. 7 #28c); and a water supply channel which is formed by the second accommodating chambers communicating with the water discharging opening of the water pump and further communicating with the water supply opening (Applicant doesn’t claim how they structurally “communiucate”); wherein the water pump comprises a pump core (Willinger Fig. 3 #24) and a pump shell (Willinger Fig. 3 #28), and the first accommodating chamber is arranged in the pump core (Willinger Fig. 1 motor is top part of #24); the pump shell is detachably connected to the pump core (Willinger Fig. 1 #24 and #28 detach), and the pump shell sleeves the pump core (Willinger Fig. 3 #28 surrounds #24); and when the pump shell sleeves the pump core, gaps between the pump shell and the pump core form the second accommodating chambers (Willinger Fig. 3 gap in area around pump blades, chamber created by #24 and #28).
Willinger teaches a centrifugal pump, but is silent on wherein the pump shell comprises a water inlet filter screen; and the water inlet filter screen is arranged at a bottom part of the pump shell and covers the water inlet of the centrifugal water pump; the water pump which is formed by pump blades in the pump chamber and comprises a water inlet communicating with the water tank. However, Holmes teaches the general knowledge of one of ordinary kill in the art that it is known to extend the pump chamber to include the pump blades (Holmes Fig. 2 #21 and #29) and a filter screen at the inlet (Holms Fig. 1 and 2 #15 and #41 filter). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Willinger with the teachings of Holmes before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success for filtering features taught by Holmes. The modification is merely the application of a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results.
Willinger as modified is silent on a filter box is arranged below the water leakage opening of the upper cover; and a circulating filter screen is arranged in the filter box and used for filtering liquid flowing from the water leakage opening. However, Liang teaches the general knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art that it is known to filter water discharged from an outlet by a filter box (Liang Fig. 10 #303) in close contact with an inner wall of the water tank (Liang Fig. 9 #302) and a circulating filter screen is arranged in the filter box and used for filtering liquid flowing from the water leakage opening (Liang teaches four layers of filter structure in #303). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further modify the teachings of Willinger with the teachings of Liang before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to improve water quality as taught by Liang. The modification is merely the application of a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results.
Regarding Claim 3, Willinger as modified teaches water outlets can be formed in the pump shell or the pump core (Willinger Fig. 1 #28c).
Regarding Claim 6, Willinger as modified teaches edges of the water outlets in the filter box (Liang Fig. 10 #303) are in close contact with an inner wall of the water tank (Liang Fig. 9 #302 is in close contact with wall of tank #2); and the close contact is performed to guide water to flow along the inner wall of the water tank so as to reduce noise (italics indicates functional language the structure of Liang is capable of performing)
Regarding Claim 8, Willinger as modified teaches the upper cover is provided with an installation hole (Willinger Fig. 1 #20d) for the water pump to pass through, and the surface of the water pump is provided with a limiting protruding edge; and the limiting protruding edge is matched with the edge of the installation hole (Willinger edge of motor housing rests on Fig. 1 #20e), and the water pump is fixedly installed above the water tank in a clamped mode (Willinger clamped via closed lid #20h, applicant does not structural claim the features of the clamp, the lid of Willinger satisfies the broad nature of the claim limitation).
Regarding Claim 9, Willinger as modified teaches the motor drives the pump blades through the rotating shaft (Willinger Fig. 1 #24b, #24c) the rotating shaft is sleeved with a sealing piece (Willinger Fig. 1 #24a), and the sealing piece is matched with the inner wall structure of the first accommodating chamber to realize sealing (Willinger Fig. 3).
Regarding Claim 10, Willinger as modified teaches a motor and a rotor (Willinger Fig. 7 #24c) of the motor is connected to the pump blades (Willinger Fig. 7 #24d) so as to drive the pump blades to rotate.
Willinger is silent on explicitly teaching the motor is a brushless motor. However, the examiner takes official notice that brushless motors are old and notoriously well-known for driving centrifugal pumps and does not present a patentably distinct limitation over the prior art of record. The modification is merely an obvious engineering design choice derived through routine tests and experimentation to optimize performance. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further modify the teachings of Willinger before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to reduce noise levels and to provide higher efficiency, both known characteristics and industry standard of brushless motors. The modification is merely the simple substitution of one known motor with another to obtain predictable results.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 3,566,840 to Willinger in view of U.S. Patent No. 2,533,936 to Holmes et al and China Patent CN 217336936 to Liang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0144964 to Wang.
Regarding Claim 7, Willinger as modified teaches the filter box is positioned below the water leakage opening, but is silent on the filter box (Liang #303) is clamped below the water leakage opening through an elastic hook. However, Wang teaches that it is old and notoriously known to attach components via elastic hooks (Wang Fig.5 #51). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further modify the teachings of Willinger with the teachings of Wang before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success for ergonomic ease of replacing the filter and or cleaning as taught by Wang. The modification is merely an obvious engineering design choice derived through routine tests and experimentation to select a known fastener to make known components separable [In re Dulberg, 289 F.2d 522, 523, 129 USPQ 348, 349 (CCPA 1961)]. The modification is merely the application of a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 3, and 6-10 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any combination of reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
The examiner maintains that applicant hasn’t patentably distinguished over the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action due to new claim scope. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREA M VALENTI whose telephone number is (571)272-6895. The examiner can normally be reached Available Monday and Tuesday only, eastern time.
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/ANDREA M VALENTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3643
06 May 2026
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