Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed 02/10/2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. Namely, the document provided for EP 2235490 B2 (Foreign Reference Cite No. 4) includes a translation of the abstract of DE 102008004358 A1 and a copy of US 20110041594 A1, with no statement of relevance. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. The remainder of the IDS filed 02/10/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the remainder of the IDS is being considered by the examiner.
The IDS submitted on 12/08/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS is being considered by the examiner.
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.
3. Claims 1-20 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.
The term “substantially” in claim(s) 1-2, 8-9, 13, 16, and 18 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “substantially” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. As written, it is unclear what, if any, tolerance that elements of the claim limitations may be from concentrically aligned [claims 1, 8-9, 13, 16, and 18], preventing an ingress [claim 2], or co-planarly aligned [claim 8]. For the purposes of examination, Examiner will remove “substantially” from the claim(s), and read the limitation(s) as without tolerance.
As claims 2-15 depend upon claim 1, claims 10-15 depend upon claim 9, claim 14 depends upon claim 13, claim 17 depends upon claim 16, and claims 19-20 depend upon claim 18 – they inherit the deficiencies described above.
The term “substantially similar” in claim 6 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “substantially similar” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. As written, it is impossible to ascertain what shape the protective cover must take to be "similar" to a cross-sectional shape of said vent system opening. For the purposes of examination, Examiner will interpret the shape of the protective cover to be "circular" as described in para. [0064] and shown in Fig. 7 of the instant application.
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In regard to independent claims 1, 16, and 18, Englund (US RE38300 E; Englund, D. et al.) teaches:
[claim 1] a pressure gauge [pressure transducer module 10] comprising: a housing [housing/transducer body 14] including a hollow bore extending therethrough [shown in Figs. 3-4], said housing comprising: a first connector [pressure fittings 16]; a second connector opposite said first connector [pressure fitting 18, opposite shown in Figs. 2-4], said first connector concentrically aligned with the hollow bore for allowing fluid to enter the hollow bore [shown in Fig. 1], said second connector concentrically aligned with the hollow bore for allowing fluid to exit the hollow bore [shown in Fig. 1]; an access oriented generally perpendicularly to said hollow bore [cavity 30, shown perpendicular at least in Figs. 3-4]; a hollow chamber defined therein [shown in Figs. 3-4, the intersection of the cavity 30 and hollow bore 28 form the annular lip 32]; a vent system comprising an opening [vent 26, opening shown in Fig. 2], and a protective cover [housing 14 functions as a cover for the vent]; and a pressure sensor positioned within said access and recessed from said hollow bore [shown at least in Figs. 3-4], said hollow chamber sized to contain said pressure sensor therein [shown at least in Figs. 3-4];
[claim 16] that said vent opening includes a cavity having a pre-defined volume between said pressure sensor and said vent system opening [col. 5 lines 53-58 define region of the cavity 30], said cavity sized to facilitate equalizing the pressure between said pressure sensor and the environment surrounding the pressure gauge [col. 5 lines 28-41 describes venting the cavity to the external environment] , and said pressure sensor for measuring pressure of the fluid flowing trough said hollow bore [abstract]; and
[claim 18] coupling the upper portion of the housing to the lower portion of the housing such that the pressure sensor is contained in position within the access [shown at least in Figs. 3-4] and
coupling a protective cover to the vent system to prevent ingress into the vent system opening [housing 14 would protect ingress into the vent system opening from objects larger than the opening].
Yet, Englund is silent as to the vent system opening being concentrically aligned with said pressure sensor [Figs. 2-4 show that the axis of the vent system opening would be perpendicular to a center axis of the pressure sensor] and that the protective cover extends across said vent system opening [Fig. 2 shows that the housing surrounds the vent opening].
Schmidt (WO 2020074050 A1; Schmidt, L. et al.) similarly teaches a pressure gauge [abstract] with a housing including a hollow bore extending therethrough [flow tube 2 with a flow channel 21] with a first and second connector [inlet 22 and outlet 23] with the connectors concentrically aligned with the hollow bore for allowing fluid flow [Fig. 1, abstract] with an access [electronics housing] perpendicular to the hollow bore [Fig. 1] with a hollow chamber defined therein [Fig. 1] and a pressure sensor [pressure sensor 5] positioned within said access and recess from said hollow bore [Fig. 1] with the hollow chamber sized ton contain said pressure sensor therein [Fig. 1]; Schmidt, while teaching a bore 31 with an opening 311 concentrically aligned with the sensor for the purposes of shielding a sensor from pressure surges, does not teach a vent system with a protective cover extending across a vent opening.
Charter (US 4625548 A; Charter, I.) also teaches a pressure sensor for measuring fluid pressure [abstract] with a venting system [atmospheric vent] concentrically aligned with a pressures sensor [pressure sensor 14; shown in Fig. 1] – yet Charter is silent as to the vent opening being concentric with the pressure sensor.
Kenji (US 7367233 B2; Kenji, N.) also teaches a pressure sensor [pressure sensor module 2] with a vent system including a vent hole [pressure adjusting hole 115, vent hole shown in Fig. 1] with a protective cover extending across the opening [second case 12 covers the vent hole, Fig. 1] – Kenji is silent that the vent hole is concentrically aligned with the pressure transducer [Fig. 1 shows pressure adjusting hole 115 offset from pressure sensor element 20]. The use of a protective cover for a venting system is well-known in the art of sealed instruments, as shown by Waagen (US 20170181606 A1; Waagen, T. et al.) [Figs. 4-5 shows membrane 422 and cap section 206 covering the opening of the passage 420].
Additionally, although Jones (US 20170370795 A1; Jones, R. et al.) teaches a pressure gauge [100, abstract] with a vent hole that is concentric with the pressure sensor {para. [0030] states that side cavity 150 can be formed as a vent hole in a typical gauge pressure sensor, Fig. 2 shows that the side cavity 150 is concentric with the sensing elements 149}, neither Jones nor any of the above prior art or combinations thereof provide the rationale to combine the feature of the vent hole concentrically aligned with the pressure sensor.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL QUINN whose telephone number is (571)272-2690. The examiner can normally be reached T-R 07:00-19:00, F 07:00-11:00.
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/DANIEL M QUINN/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/JOHN E BREENE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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