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 .
Application Status
This communication is in response to the Amendment and Request for Reconsideration filed 30 April 2025. Claims 1 and 3-15 are pending in the application. Claims 1, 7 and 11 have been amended. Claim 2 has been cancelled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 11, 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (U. S. Patent No. 11,585,357).
Regarding claim 11, Chen et al. discloses an axial fan (FIG.’s 2-4, Abstract) comprising:
a fan frame 100 comprising an outer frame body 2 and a mounting portion 3 (FIG. 4, col. 2, ll. 30-55), wherein the outer frame body 2 and the mounting portion are connected by a plurality of ribs 4, 42 (Id., four support members forming recited ribs);
a motor disposed on the mounting portion 3 (col. 3, ll. 20-30, “electricity to fan … stator of the fan disposed on seat 3,” __indicating presence of a motor) and having an electrical connection cable (Id., electric cable located in cable slot 43, not shown) overlapping a first rib of the ribs 4 (as shown, overlapping the rib since it is located in slot 43 under the broadest reasonable interpretation of the term),
wherein the electrical connection cable does not project beyond an edge of the first rib in a width direction of the firs rib (FIG. 4, as shown, cable in slot 43 does not extend beyond edge of the width since it is located inside slot 43); and
an impeller (col. 2, ln. 33, “mounting a fan”, not shown) pivotally connected to the motor (col. 3, ll. 20-30).
Re. claim 12, Chen further discloses the first rib has a greater width than that of the other ribs of the ribs (refer to an Annotated copy of Chen FIG. 4 attached below, as shown and indicated due to the first rib with cable slot 43 not having the indicated necked down area present on the remaining ribs resulting in at least that portion of the first rib having a greater width than that of the others).
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Annotated Chen FIG. 4
Re. claim 14, Chen further discloses the first rib has a greater width than that of the electrical connection cable (as shown, cable located in slot 43 requires the rib to have a greater width than the slot holding the cable).
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 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (U. S. Patent No. 11,585, 357) in view of Yuan et al. (U. S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0317841).
As to claim 15, Chen is discussed above but is silent as to its impeller having a windward side of each blade with a plurality of convex flow-guiding structures. To this point, Yuan teaches an axial flow impeller having a fan blade with convex flow-guiding structures 222 arranged on the leading edge of the blade (FIG. 2, para. 0034-0036, “[a] projection of the leading edge 222 of the blade 112 on the normal plane in the direction of the rotation axis X is a first curve, wherein the first curve has two inflection points a and b … inflection points are demarcation points between concave arcs and convex arcs”). With this in mind, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application to modify Chen with the impeller of Yuan so that its impeller blades have a plurality of convex flow-guiding structures in order to forcibly split a large shed vortex that originally gathered on the upper surface of the blade near the leading edge into multiple small vortices effectively reducing turbulence and dissipation losses as taught by Yuan (para. 0039).
Claims 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (U. S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0291924) in view of Chen et al. (U. S. Patent No. 11,585, 357).1
As to claim 11, Zhang et al. discloses an axial fan (FIG.’s 1-5, Abstract) comprising:
a fan frame 13 (FIG. 4, para. 0029, base forms recited fan frame) comprising an outer frame body 111 and a mounting portion (proximate 132), wherein the outer frame body 111 and the mounting portion 131 (para. 0023) are connected by a plurality of ribs 14 (para.0029, connecting components 14 form ribs);
a motor (FIG. 5, para. 0037, “axial flow fan further includes a motor … received in third hosing space 215”, not shown separately) disposed on the mounting portion 132, and having an electrical connection cable (para. 0029, guide the power wires, (not shown) overlapping a first rib 14 of the ribs 14 (Annotated Zhang FIG. 4, as shown and indicated, location of cable interpreted as overlapping the first rib according to the broadest reasonable interpretation of the term since the cable/power wire runs along the rib accordingly); and
an impeller 20 (para. 0013) pivotally connected to the motor (as described).
Zhang however is silent as to the electrical connection cable does not project beyond an edge of the first rib in a width direction of the first rib. To this point, Chen teaches an axial fan having fan frame 100 and a mounting portion 3 (FIG. 4, col. 2, ll. 30-55) connected by a plurality of ribs 4, (Id., four support members forming recited ribs). The electrical connection cable does not project beyond an edge of the first rib in a width direction of the firs rib (FIG. 4, as shown, cable location is slot 43 does not extend beyond edge of the width since it is inside slot 43). With this in mind, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application to modify Zhang by configuring its first rib with a cable slot so that its electrical cable does not extend beyond the edge in order to supply electricity to the fan in a manner that routes the cable inside the rib as taught by Chen, Id.
As to claim 13, Zhang further discloses the ribs 14, except for the first rib, comprises a plurality of second ribs 14 having airflow guiding inclined surfaces (Annotated Zhang FIG. 4, as shown and indicated, note that the ribs are inclined in this view as noted by beveled connection to frame clearly showing an angle).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 and 3-10 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 1 and dependents has been amended to incorporate the indicated allowable subject matter of now cancelled claim 2. Reasons for allowance were set forth in the previous Office-action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 11 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicant has not presented any substantive arguments with regard to the rejections of the dependent claims over the art of record including the combinations of proposed modification, rationale, or motivations to make those combinations. Applicant simply asserts that they are allowable for the same reasons made for the independent claims.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. 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 KENNETH J HANSEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6780. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (MT).
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/KENNETH J HANSEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746
1 Note parallel rejection of claim 11 due to claim breadth and applicability of Zhang to specific dependent claim features.
Prosecution Insights