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 response to the Amendment/Request for Reconsideration filed on 06/09/2026.
Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application.
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 Karrat et al. (US 2018/0352683) in view of Bilak (US 8,618,406) and Harding (US 2016/0284962).
Addressing claims 1-2 and 14-15, Karrat discloses a system for recycling waste heat air (figs. 4-5), the system comprising:
a chiller unit 430 comprising an active cooling assembly and a cabinet (figs. 4-5), the active cooling assembly including an evaporator coil (cooling coil 438, [0059]) disposed within the cabinet for cooling air drawn into the cabinet [0052-0059], the cabinet comprising:
at least one side panel (fig. 5);
an air inlet (paragraph [0054] discloses a closed system where air continuously cycles between being cooled by cooling coil 438 and cooling computers/servers 454, which implies the existence of an inlet in the cabinet in order for air exhausted from the data center/server room 450 to be introduced into the cabinet to be cooled by cooling coil 438);
an air outlet (figs. 4-5 show air being exhausted from the cabinet 430 to the data center/server room 450, which implies the existence of an outlet); and
an air movement unit (blower 434) disposed within an interior of the cabinet (figs. 4-5) and oriented to draw air from the air inlet across an interior of the at least one side panel (fig. 5).
Karrat further expresses the desire to lower energy costs [0030].
Karrat is silent regarding at least one thermoelectric module coupled to at least one of the at least one side panels of the cabinet, the at least one thermoelectric module comprising a first heat transfer surface located on or toward an interior of the cabinet; and a second heat transfer surface 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 via the air movement unit thereby creating a temperature gradient between the first heat transfer surface and the second heat transfer surface.
Harding discloses a thermoelectric generator 38 having its hot side contacting the hot air exhausted from data center/server room 100 and the cold side contacting ambient air [0027-0028] in order to generate electrical energy to power information technology equipment in the data center [0005-0006].
Bilak discloses a thermoelectric power generation unit 100 connected to an air inlet duct 300 that carries heated air for power generation. The TE power generation unit comprises thermoelectric module 102 coupled to at least one side panels of the enclosure 110 (walls 108, fig. 1, col. 3 ln 34-40). The TE module comprises a first heat transfer surface (124+202) located on or toward an interior of the enclosure 110 (figs. 1-2A) and a second heat transfer surface (126) located on an exterior of the cabinet (figs. 1-2A) wherein the first heat transfer surface is configured to be heated by air moving through the air inlet via 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 47).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious system of Karrat with the thermoelectric power generation unit 100 attached to the air inlet of the cabinet as disclosed by Bilak in order to generate additional electrical power from the waste heated air from the data center/server room for powering information technology equipment in the data center (Harding, [0005-0006]) that satisfies Karrat’s desire of lowering the energy cost. In the modified system of Karrat in view of Bilak and Harding, where the thermoelectric power generation unit of Bilak is attached to the inlet of the cabinet (similarly to the way in which the TE power generation unit 100 is positioned between the duct 300 and duct 302) for generating electrical power from the heated air exhausted from the data center/server room, the enclosure 110 of Bilak is part of the Karrat’s cabinet that results in the at least one thermoelectric module with a first and second heat transfer surfaces arranged in the claimed manner.
Addressing claims 3, 5, 16 and 18, Harding discloses in fig. 1 and paragraph [0032] at least one external powered device (battery 66) coupled to the thermoelectric module, which subsequently delivers power to the servers 50.
Addressing claims 4, 7 and 17, Bilak discloses in col. 7 ln 18-26 LEDs that correspond to the claimed lamp. Therefore, the limitation of current claims would have been obvious based on the teaching of Karrat in view of Bilak and Harding in order to use the power generated by the thermoelectric modules to power light or lamp in the data center.
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 Karrat et al. (US 2018/0352683) in view of Bilak (US 8,618,406) and 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 Karrat in view of Bilak and Harding 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 Karrat et al. (US 2018/0352683) in view of Bilak (US 8,618,406) and 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 and Harding disclose 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 Karrat in view of Bilak and Harding 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 Karrat et al. (US 2018/0352683) in view of Bilak (US 8,618,406) and 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, Karrat, Bilak and Harding are 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 Karrat in view of Bilak and Harding 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).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any combination of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 BACH T DINH whose telephone number is (571)270-5118. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Friday 8:00 - 4:30 EST.
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 06/23/2026
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