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 .
Summary
This is the initial Office Action based on the 19/098,664 application filed on 04/02/2025.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been fully considered.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-5, 7, 10-12 and 14-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bilak et al. (US 8,618,406) in view of Harding (US 2016/0284962).
Addressing claims 1 and 14, Bilak discloses a system for recycling waste hear air (figs. 1-4), the system comprising:
a chiller unit comprising:
a cabinet (enclosure 110) comprising:
at least one side panel 108;
an air inlet 116;
an air outlet 118; and
at least one thermoelectric module 102 coupled to at least one of the at least one side panels of the cabinet (figs. 1-2B), the at least one thermoelectric module comprising:
a first heat transfer surface (the combination of the inner heat sink 124, fig. 2A) located on or toward an interior of the cabinet (figs. 1-2A); and
a second heat transfer surface (outer heat sink 126) located on an exterior of the cabinet wherein the first heat transfer surface is configured to be heated by air moving through the air inlet thereby creating a temperature gradient between the first heat transfer surface and the second heat transfer surface (col. 2 ln 63 to col. 3 ln 33).
Bilak further discloses a fan 312 attached to the outer heat transfer surface 126 to force air through the heat sink to increase the temperature gradient across the TE module (col. 6 ln 20-33).
Bilak is silent regarding an air movement unit disposed in the cabinet.
Harding discloses a system for recycling waste heat air using thermoelectric modules similarly to that of Bilak; wherein, the system comprising fans for direct waste heat air into the thermoelectric modules, including fans internal to the servers within the cabinet [0028].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Bilak with the fan disposed in the cabinet 110 as suggested by Harding in order to move waste heat air over the first heat transfer surface of the thermoelectric modules.
Addressing claims 2 and 15, the system of Bilak in view of Harding is configured to recycle waste heat air, which means it is configured for recycling waste heat air from a data center.
Addressing claims 3, 5, 16 and 18, fig. 8 shows the battery or the load 840 as the structural equivalence to the claimed at least one external powered device electrically coupled to the thermoelectric module.
Addressing claims 4, 7 and 17, Bilak discloses in col. 7 ln 18-26 LEDs that correspond to the claimed lamp.
Addressing claim 10, the claimed temperature difference does not structurally differentiate the claimed system from that of the prior art when it is read in light of the specification because the temperature difference depends on the atmospheric temperature to which the second heat transfer surface is exposed, which changes according to season. Similarly, the second heat transfer surface of Bilak is exposed to external environment similarly to that of the claimed thermoelectric module; therefore, the chiller unit of Bilak in view of Harding is also positioned in an environment where a temperature difference of greater than 10o C exists.
Addressing claims 11-12 and 19-20, figs. 1-2B of Bilak show the claimed configurations.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bilak et al. (US 8,618,406) in view of Harding (US 2016/0284962) as applied to claims 1-5, 7, 10-12 and 14-20 above, and further in view of Bass (US 6,053,163).
Addressing claim 6, Bilak is silent regarding the battery comprises 6-V or 12-V battery.
Bass discloses a battery for storing electrical power generated by the thermoelectric modules; wherein, the battery is 12-V battery (col. 2 ln 12-26).
At the time of the effective fling date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify system of Bilak with the known 12-V battery disclosed by Bass in order to obtain the predictable result of storing electrical power generated by the TE modules (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2143).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bilak et al. (US 8,618,406) in view of Harding (US 2016/0284962) as applied to claims 1-5, 7, 10-12 and 14-20 above, and further in view of Makosinski et al. (US 2016/0284965).
Addressing claim 8, Bilak discloses a battery module for storing the electrical energy generated by the thermoelectric modules; however, Bilak is silent regarding the claimed range of energy storage.
Ilercil discloses a system utilizing thermoelectric modules to generate electrical power similarly to that of Bilak; wherein, the system includes batteries with capacity of 100 mAh [0057].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the system of Bilak with the known batteries having 100 mAh capacity as disclosed by Ilerci in order to store the electrical energy generated by the thermoelectric modules (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2143).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bilak et al. (US 8,618,406) in view of Harding (US 2016/0284962) as applied to claims 1-5, 7, 10-12 and 14-20 above, and further in view of Horio et al. (US 2005/0000559).
Addressing claim 9, Bilak is silent regarding the dimension of the thermoelectric module.
Horio discloses thermoelectric module for generating electrical power from temperature difference between two surfaces similarly to that of Bilak; wherein, the thermoelectric module has a dimension of 40 mm width and length [0115].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify system of Bilak with a plurality of known thermoelectric modules having the dimension disclosed by Horio in order to obtain the predictable result of generating electrical energy from temperature difference between opposing heat transfer surfaces (Rationale B, KSR decision, MPEP 2143).
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bilak et al. (US 8,618,406) in view of Harding (US 2016/0284962) as applied to claims 1-5, 7, 10-12 and 14-20 above, and further in view of Nakamura (WO2019003582 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 13, Bilak is silent regarding the system comprises at least 64 thermoelectric modules.
Nakamura discloses a plurality of thermoelectric modules 10 attached to a heat source (heat pipe 60) for generating electrical power (fig. 9); wherein, the number of thermoelectric modules correspond to the power generated [0043, 0065].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, absent evidence of unexpected results associated with the claimed range of thermoelectric modules, one with ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at the claimed range of at least 64 thermoelectric modules when perform routine experimentation with the number of thermoelectric modules in Bilak’s system in order to optimize or to obtain the desired amount of power.
Conclusion
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 02/26/2026