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 § 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 –
(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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gu et al. (CN 116729071).
Reg. Cl. 1, Gu et al. discloses; An air conditioner for a vehicle comprising: an air conditioning case in which an air passage and a plurality of air discharge ports are formed; and a cooling heat exchanger (40) and a heating heat exchanger (30) sequentially arranged in the air passage of the air conditioning case in an airflow direction, wherein the air conditioning case is formed by assembling a plurality of cases, and includes a condensate guide part (62) provided at a joint part of the cases to guide the condensate generated inside the air conditioning case toward the interior of the air conditioning case (Figs. 1-3).
Reg. Cl. 2, Gu et al. discloses; wherein the condensate guide part includes a drainage hole (64) formed at the bottom of the joint part to communicate with the interior of the air conditioning case (Fig. 2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-18 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant is advised to review all the prior art list on the PTO-892.
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/TERRELL L MCKINNON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3632