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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 13, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Parkin (US PG-pub 20210198977).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 25, Parkin teaches a pilot valve 78 (fig. 7) configured to selectively allow fluid to flow through the pilot valve; a hydraulic main valve 76 (fig. 6, fig. 7) fluidicly coupled to the pilot valve, comprising: a main valve tube (valve housing shown in fig. 16) having a main valve tube volume and fluidicly coupled to the hydraulic pilot valve; a main valve orifice 88 having an opening to allow the fluid to flow through the main valve orifice; a main valve element 166 longitudinally movable in the main valve tube between the pilot valve and the main valve orifice and selectively engageable with the opening of the main valve orifice to selectively allow the fluid to flow through the main valve orifice; and a flow bleed path channel fluidicly coupled between the main valve tube volume and a low pressure zone (para 0072 “When the poppet valve 166 is open, flow is allowed to exhaust and thus create low pressure on the illustrated left side of poppet valve 166. The illustrated central area 105 of the shuttle 100/poppet valve 166 may be open to atmosphere, e.g. open to the annulus, via passages 170”); wherein the main valve element comprises comprising erosion resistant material (i.e. carbide; para 0078, lines 1-3).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 4-24 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Parkin fails to disclose (claims 2 and 7) a spring element; (claims 4 and 6) the main valve element having contours; (claim 5) the main valve element to rotate around a transverse axis of the main valve element; (claim 8) a pilot valve tube coupled to the pilot valve and slidably engaged with the main valve tube; (claim 19) wherein the main valve element is upstream of the pilot valve.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to P. MACADE NICHOLS whose telephone number is (571)270-5428. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00 P.M..
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/P. MACADE NICHOLS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
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