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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s response of 5/22/2026 is received. Claims 1, 11, and 17 are amended, claims 18 and 19 are cancelled, and claims 1-17 and 20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wong '199 in view of Katz '773 and Reekers (U.S. 2021/0244110). Wong discloses the invention substantially as claimed. Wong teaches a hard hat fan system, comprising a shell 140; a fan 18 coupled to an outer surface of the shell 140, the fan 18 comprising: an inlet 48; an outlet 50, a motor configured to be turned on and off (disclosed as a motor driven fan with a power button or switch 59) and a battery cell 16 coupled to the fan 18 and configured to provide power to the motor. Fans conventionally include fan blades to generate airflow. However, Wong doesn't teach the fan comprises a processing unit and the processing unit is configured to detect a battery charge level of the battery cell and a fan blade coupled to the motor, wherein when the motor is on, the motor rotates the fan blade and the fan blade draws air into the fan through the inlet and pushes air out through the outlet. Wong also doesn't teach a processing unit configured to detect a battery charge level of the battery cell and when the processing unit detects the battery charge level, the processing unit compares the battery charge level to a predetermined battery charge to determine if the battery charge level is below the predetermined battery charge; and wherein, if the battery charge level is below the predetermined battery charge, then the processing unit generates a first control signal configured to change a first speed level of the fan to a second speed level different from the first speed level to provide a haptic indicator of the battery charge level to a user of the hard hat fan system and wherein after a predetermined amount of time, the processing unit generates a second control signal configured to change the second speed level of the fan to the first speed level of the fan and wherein the processing unit repeats sending the first control signal followed by the second control signal after the predetermined amount of time, a predetermined number of times. Katz teaches a motor driven fan 19 as part of a hard hat, with the fan having blades 21 coupled to the motor 22 such that the motor activates the fan blade rotation upon receipt of a signal from the temperature sensor to draw air through the vent holes of the hard hat. Paragraph 19 of Reekers teaches an analagous wearable fan assembly for a mask, with the fan assembly comprising a battery for supplying power to the fan and electronic circuitry integrated into the controller (equivalent to the processing unit) for determining the power level of the battery, the circuitry configured to provide a trigger signal to the controller when the power level of the battery drops below a pre-determined power level such that the controller changes the drive signal (control signal) of the fan. Thus, the battery power level is automatically checked (considered as equivalent to the processing unit comparing the battery charge level to a predetermined battery charge to determine if the battery charge level is below the predetermined battery charge) and communicated to the user before the battery is drained completely without requiring any intervention from the user. Paragraph 8 discloses changing the drive signal comprises changing the rotation speed of the fan such that the resulting change of the rotation speed results in a noticeable change to the user as there is a change in provided air into the mask and hitting the face of the user or sound or vibration produced by the fan (haptic indicator). Paragraph 9 teaches the fan speed is reduced to switch off for an amount of time, e.g. 2 seconds, then resumes the same speed as before switching off and paragraph 10 discloses that this action is repeated 1 or more times to make it more noticeable for the user (equivalent to the processing unit generating a second control signal configured to change the second speed level to the first speed level of the fan and the processing unit repeating the first control signal followed by the second control signal after the predetermined amount of time, a predetermined number of times). Paragraphs 12 and 13 disclose different speed patterns for the fan rotation such as a pulsating speed and intermittent high and low speeds. Modifying Wong’s fan assembly to include the controller with integrated circuitry to monitor the battery power level and change the fan speed accordingly as taught by Reekers is expected to improve the operation of the fan system as the wearer is apprised of the battery charge level of the fan without interruption of the wearer’s activities and the fan speed is automatically adjusted accordingly. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Wong’s fan system by providing the fan blade coupled to the motor such that the motor rotates the fan blade when the motor is on and the fan blade draws air through the inlet and pushes air through the outlet as Katz discloses that a fan structure includes a fan blade for generating airflow. It also would have been obvious to modify Wong to provide a processing unit configured to detect a battery charge level of the battery cell and when the processing unit detects the battery charge level, the processing unit compares the battery charge level to a predetermined battery charge to determine if the battery charge level is below the predetermined battery charge; and wherein, if the battery charge level is below the predetermined battery charge, then the processing unit generates a first control signal configured to change a first speed level of the fan to a second speed level different from the first speed level to provide a haptic indicator of the battery charge level to a user of the hard hat fan system and wherein after a predetermined amount of time, the processing unit generates a second control signal configured to change the second speed level of the fan to the first speed level of the fan and wherein the processing unit repeats sending the first control signal followed by the second control signal after the predetermined amount of time, a predetermined number of times, as Reekers teaches it’s known in the art to provide a motor driven fan powered by a battery with a processing unit that monitors the battery charge level and modifies fan speed according to the charge level and this modification is expected to improve Wong’s hard hat fan system as the change in fan speed serves as a haptic indicator to the user that the battery charge level has changed before the battery is drained and fan operation ceases.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wong ‘199 in view of Katz ‘773 and Reekers ‘110 as applied to claim 17 above, and further in view of Salem ‘812. Wong discloses the invention substantially as claimed. However, Wong doesn’t teach the hard hat fan system of claim 17, further comprising a sensor communicably coupled to the processing unit of the fan, the sensor configured to detect environmental condition data and generate a data signal that is indicative of the environmental condition data, wherein the sensor communicates the data signal to the processing unit. Salem teaches a helmet/hard hat with a fan system, the fan system including a sensor 70 communicably coupled to a processing unit of the fan 18, the sensor 70 configured to detect environmental condition data (ambient temperature) and generate a data signal communicated to the processing unit 68 ("electronic temperature controller 68 may include a microcontroller or microprocessor that receives signals from temperature sensor 70" as in par.35) such that the operation of the fan can be determined by the detected environmental condition data. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Wong's hard hat fan system to comprise a sensor communicably coupled to the processing unit of the fan, the sensor configured to detect environmental condition data and generate a data signal that is indicative of the environmental condition data, wherein the sensor communicates the data signal to the processing unit as taught by Salem to improve Wong’s hard hat fan system as the rotation rate of the fan will adjust according to the temperature data to improve the comfort of the hard hat wearer.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-16 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s remarks have been considered. As indicated herein, claims 1-16 are allowable. The rejection of claims 17 and dependent claim 20 are revised in view of Applicant’s remarks to the limitations of amended claim 17 and further review of the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications should be directed to Primary Examiner Katherine Moran at (571) 272-4990 (phone). Please note that any internet communication directed to katherine.moran@uspto.gov requires prior submission of an Authorization for Internet Communications form (PTO/SB/439). The examiner can be reached on Monday-Thursday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, and alternating Fridays.If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Khoa Huynh, may be reached at (571) 272-4888. The official and after final fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is (571) 273-8300. General information regarding this application and
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/KATHERINE M MORAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3732
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