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 Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 10, line 1; the phrase “An air-conditioning device” should be changed to --the air-conditioning device-- for proper antecedent basis.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
2. 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 1-7 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1, recites the limitation of “A drainage control method for an air-conditioning device”, however, it is unclear how the drainage control method can be implemented without a means; such as - a drainage control program; as disclose in applicant specification paragraph [0017]. In so far that this limitation may require a structure, is not understood what that structure is (manually or other means). It is unclear what structure would yield this function as described within the claim. As such the claim limitation is indefinite.
Claims 2-7 are rejected based upon their dependency from claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
3. Claim 8 is 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.
Claims 9 and 10 are allowed.
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
4. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record when consider as a whole, alone or in combination, neither anticipates nor renders obvious the recited limitations of independent claim 9.
The following references (CN-113739351-A) to ZOU, Hai-ru, (JP-2016114278-A) to AOKI TOSHIKAZU and (JP-H11351603-A) to SEKIGUCHI YUTAKA; are the most relevant references; however, they fail to anticipate or render obvious the invention of independent claim 9. Therefore, the independent claim and dependent claims thereof have been found to be allowable.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EMMANUEL E DUKE whose telephone number is (571)270-5290. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday; 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FRANTZ JULES can be reached on (571)272-6681. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/EMMANUEL E DUKE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
07/17/2026
Prosecution Insights