DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claims filed on 01/26/2026.
Claims 1-6 are currently pending and have been examined below.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because:
Newly added figures 10-14 have new matter issues. Note that the listed new matter issues are non-exhaustive list and applicant is to find and correct all other new matter issues found in the new drawings. Applicant seems to have added these figures in response to the missing claimed features/parts listed in the previous drawing objections. Applicant needs to show these missing features/parts in diagram or schematic view using the original drawing figures to avoid new matter issues.
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The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the following features must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Claim 1 - “a blast door control system”, “a main controller and a backup controller”, “a first manual rocker”, “motor output shaft”, “a first reducer”, “a manual rocker gear”, “a gear set”, “push rod teeth”, “a power output end of the first reducer”, “a driving gear”, “a drive train”, “a second reducer”, “an input end of the second reducer”, and “an output shaft of the locking servo motor”.
Claim 2 - “a rotating pin”.
Claim 3 - “a plurality of groups of the opening and closing device of electric cylinder of rotatable upright door body”.
Claim 5 - “a second manual rocker”, “a restriction servo motor”, “a power output end of the restriction servo motor”, and “a third reducer”.
Note that these parts listed above are shown in the newly added drawings, however since the new drawings have significant amount of new matter issues, examiner is maintaining these drawing objections so applicant can properly show these parts using the original drawings.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper content of an abstract of the disclosure.
A patent abstract is a concise statement of the technical disclosure of the patent and should include that which is new in the art to which the invention pertains. The abstract should not refer to purported merits or speculative applications of the invention and should not compare the invention with the prior art.
If the patent is of a basic nature, the entire technical disclosure may be new in the art, and the abstract should be directed to the entire disclosure. If the patent is in the nature of an improvement in an old apparatus, process, product, or composition, the abstract should include the technical disclosure of the improvement. The abstract should also mention by way of example any preferred modifications or alternatives.
Where applicable, the abstract should include the following: (1) if a machine or apparatus, its organization and operation; (2) if an article, its method of making; (3) if a chemical compound, its identity and use; (4) if a mixture, its ingredients; (5) if a process, the steps.
Extensive mechanical and design details of an apparatus should not be included in the abstract. The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph within the range of 50 to 150 words in length.
See MPEP § 608.01(b) for guidelines for the preparation of patent abstracts.
The abstract filed on 02/28/2025 is objected because it exceeds the word range of 150 words. Also, the language “After the present invention is used in the practical application, it can solve the problems of inconvenient maintenance and poor safety of the operation in the prior art of blast doors adopting a hydraulic drive system” on the last sentence refers to speculative applications of the invention and should be deleted.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In line 24 of claim 1, “its motor output shaft” should read --a motor output shaft--.
Appropriate correction is required. Above provides non-limiting examples, the applicant(s) must find and correct all issues similar to those discussed above.
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. (CN 108386080) (hereinafter “Zheng”) in view of Abraham (US 4712441).
Claim 1
(Zheng discloses) An electrically driven control system for a rotatable upright blast door (figures 1-6), characterized in that it comprises:
a blast door (5) for mounting onto a mounting base (1), the blast door comprising a door body (body of door 5) which is rotatable, upright, and is a side hung door (figure 4);
an opening and closing device of an electric cylinder (3) of the rotatable upright door body for implementing an electrical opening and closing of the door body (figure 4), the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body including a push rod (19; figure 3); the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body being hinged relative to the mounting base and the push rod being hinged to the door body (figures 1 and 3);
a blast door control system (device remote monitoring system; Excerpt 1 from pages 8-9 below) for implementing an operation of the electrically driven control system, wherein, the blast door control system is a redundant control system (Excerpt 1 discussing two sets of independent control system), and the blast door control system includes a main controller (automatic mode; Excerpt 1 below) and a backup controller (manual mode; Excerpt 1 below), and both the main controller and the backup controller can independently control the operation of the electrically driven control system, and when the main controller fails, the backup controller intervenes the operation (Excerpt 1 below);
the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body includes a door body mounting base (Annotated figure 3 below) for fixing onto the door body, an opening and closing cylinder (18), the push rod movably mounted on the opening and closing cylinder (figure 4), and a fixed base (15) which is fixed relative to the mounting base;
one end of the push rod is positioned within the opening and closing cylinder (figure 4 showing an end of 19 within the cylinder 18), and another end of the push rod is positioned outside the opening and closing cylinder (Annotated figure 3 below);
a manual-electric locking device (device shown in figures 5-6) for the door body provided on the door body;
the manual-electric locking device for the door body includes a locking servo motor (23) and a drive train (Annotated figure 6 below) for a handwheel (21) and a connecting rod (Annotated figure 5 below), and the drive train for the handwheel and the connecting rod is provided on the door body (figures 5-6), and a lock tongue (33) is provided at a movable end of the drive train for the handwheel and the connecting rod (figure 5);
and the drive train for the handwheel and the connecting rod includes the handwheel (21), with which the locking servo motor can be coupled (figure 5), and the locking servo motor is used to provide electric power to the drive train for the handwheel and the connecting rod (Excerpt 2 from page 8 below), or the handwheel is used to provide manual work to the drive train for the handwheel and the connecting rod (see manual mode discussed in Excerpt 1 below);
the manual-electric locking device for the door body is mounted on a front of the door body (figure 1a);
and the manual-electric locking device for the door body includes the handwheel, a gear transmission pair (22; figure 6), the locking servo motor, a guide rod mounting seat (Annotated figure 5 below), a guide rod (26), a connecting rod bracket (27), the connecting rod (Annotated figure 5 below), a second reducer (25) and the lock tongue (33), and the handwheel is connected to an input end of the second reducer (figure 5); a driven gear (first gear of the gear transmission pair mounted to handwheel 21) of the gear transmission pair is fixed on the handwheel; a driving gear (second gear of the gear transmission pair fixed to the motor 23) of the gear transmission pair is fixed on an output shaft (Annotated figure 6 below) of the locking servo motor; the guide rod is fixedly connected to an output shaft of the second reducer (output shaft of reducer 25 discussed on Excerpt 3 from page 8 below); the guide rod is slideable in the guide rod mounting seat (Excerpt 3 below); the connecting rod bracket is connected to the guide rod (Excerpt 3 below); the connecting rod is linked to the guide rod through the connecting rod bracket (figure 5); and the lock tongue is provided at an end of the connecting rod (see lock tongue 33 at the end of 28 in figure 5).
Zheng fails to disclose:
(i) the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body including a drive motor module;
(ii) the push rod coupled to a power output end of the drive motor module;
(iii) a door body opening and closing servo motor for providing power which is provided on the opening and closing cylinder, a first manual rocker which is integrated on the opening and closing servo motor of the door body and is able to manually drive its motor output shaft to rotate, a first reducer connected to a power output end of the door body opening and closing servo motor for decelerating,
(iv) the door body opening and closing servo motor and the first manual rocker are integrated as a whole and compose the drive motor module;
(v) the door body opening and closing servo motor includes the motor output shaft, on which a manual rocker gear is arranged for rotating synchronously, and the first manual rocker is intermeshed with the manual rocker gear through a gear set for manually driving the manual rocker gear to rotate;
(vi) the opening and closing cylinder is structurally formed in an elongated cylindrical shape: a restriction rail is provided within the opening and closing cylinder: the push rod is mounted into interior of the opening and closing cylinder through a linear bearing; and a restriction groove structure that fits with the restriction rail is provided on the push rod;
(vii) push rod teeth are provided on the push rod, the push rod teeth are arranged in a straight line along an axis of the push rod, and the push rod is slidably provided in the opening and closing cylinder, and a power output end of the first reducer is provided with a driving gear, and the driving gear is meshed with the push rod teeth.
However, Abraham discloses:
(i) an opening and closing device of an electric cylinder (10; Abraham figure 1) including a drive motor module (Annotated figure 1 below);
(ii) a push rod (64) coupled to a power output end of the drive motor module (64 is coupled by way of other elements in between to an output end of the module of 44; Annotated figure 1 below);
(iii) the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder includes a door body opening and closing servo motor (44) for providing power which is provided on the opening and closing cylinder (60), a first manual rocker (48) which is integrated on the opening and closing servo motor of the door body and is able to manually drive its motor output shaft (92) to rotate (figure 1), a first reducer (50) connected to a power output end of the door body opening and closing servo motor (50 is coupled by way of other elements in between to an output end of 44) for decelerating (gear 50 is discussed as a speed reduction gear on lines 22-26 of col. 3, thus it is capable of decelerating);
(iv) the door body opening and closing servo motor and the first manual rocker are integrated as a whole and compose the drive motor module (Annotated figure 1 below);
(v) the door body opening and closing servo motor includes the motor output shaft (Abraham figure 1), on which a manual rocker gear (52) is arranged for rotating synchronously, and the first manual rocker is intermeshed with the manual rocker gear through a gear set (48 and 52 are intermeshed via the set of gears combining 48, 50, and 52; Abraham figure 1) for manually driving the manual rocker gear to rotate (Abraham figure 1);
(vi) the opening and closing cylinder (60) is structurally formed in an elongated cylindrical shape (Abraham figures 1 and 3); a restriction rail (Annotated figure 3 (II) below) is provided within the opening and closing cylinder (Annotated figure 3 (II) below); the push rod (64) is mounted into interior of the opening and closing cylinder through a linear bearing (70; Abraham figure 1); and a restriction groove structure (Annotated figure 3 (II) below) that fits with the restriction rail is provided on the push rod (Annotated figure 3 (II) below);
(vii) push rod teeth (teeth of screw 54) are provided on the push rod (64), the push rod teeth are arranged in a straight line along an axis of the push rod (Abraham figure 1), and the push rod is slidably provided in the opening and closing cylinder (60), and one end of the push rod is positioned within the opening and closing cylinder, and another end of the push rod is positioned outside the opening and closing cylinder (see longitudinal ends of 64 respectively inside and outside of cylinder 60), and a power output end of the first reducer is provided with a driving gear (gear of reducer 50), and the driving gear is meshed with the push rod teeth (via gear 52; Abraham figure 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to provide the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of Zheng with the drive motor module and motor parts of Abraham and to replace the hydraulic opening and closing device of Zheng with the linear actuator of Abraham, with a reasonable expectation of success, for providing automation to the opening and closing device of Zheng and anti-rotation features to the electric cylinder as such the device maintains control, reduces vibrations, and improves stability as it is being moved by the drive motor module. Additionally, the provision of the linear parts of Abraham would improve the efficiency of controlling the electric cylinder as such it is less energy-demanding. Furthermore, the substitution to the linear actuator of Abraham provides precise control to the extension of the push rod relative to the opening and closing cylinder as such the blast door can be opened partially depending on the user’s needs thus improves security and privacy.
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Annotated figure 3
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Annotated figure 3 (II)
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Excerpt 1
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Excerpt 2
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Excerpt 3
Claim 2
(Zheng, as modified above, discloses) The electrically driven control system for the rotatable upright blast door according to claim 1, characterized in that,
the door body mounting base is a unitary structure, and the door body mounting base is fixedly arranged on the door body (both clauses are shown in Annotated figure 3 above);
the fixed base is a unitary structure (Annotated figure 3 above), and the fixed base is fixedly arranged on a door frame of the blast door or is fixedly arranged on the mounting base (see fixed base arranged on the mounting base in figure 1; note that this was interpreted as an “or” clause therefore only one of the options is required to be taught by the prior art);
one end of the opening and closing cylinder is hinged to the fixed base through a rotating pin (Annotated figure 3 above), and one end of the push rod is hinged to the door body mounting base through a rotating pin (Annotated figure 3 above).
Modified Zheng is silent regarding:
(i) the door body mounting base is a metal member;
(ii) the fixed base is a metal member;
However, since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of design choice, therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the door body mounting base and fixed base of modified Zheng such that they both are metal members or made of metal, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the expected and predictable benefits of making both mounting bases sturdy, durable, less affected by the environment, and provide impact absorption.
Claim 3
(Zheng, as modified above, discloses) The electrically driven control system for the rotatable upright blast door according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises:
a plurality of the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body (Excerpt 4 from page 4 below discloses the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder to be arranged with multiple groups).
Modified Zheng is silent regarding the plurality of the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body are arranged at intervals in a height direction.
However, examiner is directing the attention to the fact that the courts have held that the particular placement of [an element] was held to be an obvious matter of design choice. In re Kuhle, 526 F.2d 553, 188 USPQ 7 (CCPA 1975).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to rearrange plurality of the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder of the rotatable upright door body such that they are arranged at intervals in the height direction, with a reasonable expectation of success, for providing a balanced operating control along the height of the door when opening or closing the door body as such each opening and closing device operates with an even amount of weight of the door body.
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Excerpt 4
Claim 4
(Zheng, as modified above, discloses) The electrically driven control system for the rotatable upright blast door according to claim 1, characterized in that,
a door body guide and servo motor driven locking device (2; figure 1) is further included, which is used for restricting and locking the opening of the door body when the door body is opened to an extreme position (Excerpt 5 from page 7 below).
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Excerpt 5
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng in view of Abraham, as applied to claims 1-4 above, in further view of Purssey (US 5525963).
Claim 5
(Zheng, as modified above, discloses) The electrically driven control system for the rotatable upright blast door according to claim 4,
the door body guide and servo motor driven locking device includes: a lifter mounting base (8; figure 2b), a restriction rod (9) and a restriction seat (7; figures 1 and 2a);
the restriction seat is fixed relative to a ground (figure 1).
The door body guide and servo motor driven locking device of modified Zheng fails to disclose:
(i) a second manual rocker, a lifter, and a restriction servo motor;
(ii) the lifter includes a lifter cylinder, in which a liftable screw rod is provided; a power output end of the restriction servo motor is connected to the liftable screw rod through a third reducer for driving the liftable screw rod to rotate and lift in the lifter cylinder; the second manual rocker is integrated as a whole with the restriction servo motor; the restriction rod is connected to the liftable screw rod;
(iii) the restriction rod is fitted with the restriction seat by insertion.
However, Purssey discloses:
(i) a door body guide and servo motor driven locking device (100; Purssey figures 1-4) includes: a second manual rocker (120), a lifter (152 and 156), a restriction servo motor (150), a lifter mounting base (102), and a restriction rod (106);
(ii) the lifter includes a lifter cylinder (156), in which a liftable screw rod (152) is provided; a power output end of the restriction servo motor (end of 150 at 154) is connected to the liftable screw rod through a third reducer (154) for driving the liftable screw rod to rotate and lift in the lifter cylinder (lines 51-55 of col. 5); the second manual rocker is integrated as a whole with the restriction servo motor (Purssey figure 4); the restriction rod is connected to the liftable screw rod (Purssey figure 4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide modified Zheng with the door body guide and servo motor driven locking device of Purssey, with a reasonable expectation of success, because both door body guide and servo motor driven locking devices of modified Zheng and Purssey were known in the art as evidenced above, and one of ordinary skill in the art could have substituted one known element for another, using known methods with no change in their respective functions [i.e., keeping the door body in place relative to the ground]. Such a substitution would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made, since the elements perform as expected and thus the results would be expected.
(iii) (Zheng, as modified above, discloses) the restriction rod is fitted with the restriction seat by insertion (note that since the door body guide and servo motor driven locking device of Purssey have a vertically-oriented restriction rod similar to the restriction rod of Zheng, and the restriction rod of modified Zheng is now capable of being inserted, the restriction rod of modified Zheng is taught to be fitted with the restriction seat by insertion).
Claim 6
(Zheng, as modified above, discloses) The electrically driven control system for the rotatable upright blast door according to claim 5, characterized in that,
the door body opening and closing servo motor, the locking servo motor and the restriction servo motor are all servo motors with brakes (all three motors are taught to have a reducer, thus they all meet the limitation of “all servo motors with brakes”; [for the door body opening and closing servo motor: discussed on lines 22-26 of col. 3 of Abraham]; [for the locking servo motor: via reducer 25 and discussed on Excerpt 2 above of Zheng]; and [for the restriction servo motor: discussed on lines 38-42 of col. 5 of Purssey]);
an emergency power supply system (emergency manpower during manual mode discussed on Excerpt 6 from page 9 below) is further included, which is connected to each of electrical devices of the electrically driven control system (this is taught in light of the combination above), and is used to provide backup power in a power-off state (Excerpt 6 below).
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Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments directed to the drawing objections have been considered. Applicant added figures in response to the previous drawing objections, however these figures have significant amount of new matter issues. Therefore, examiner has maintained the objections such that applicant can properly show the missing features/parts using the original drawings.
Applicant’s amendments directed to the claim objections and 112(b) rejections have been considered.
Applicant's arguments filed on 01/26/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. These responses below are directed to applicant’s arguments found on pages 2-4 of the Remarks section.
Regarding “Therefore, Abraham discloses a drive screw-drive nut threaded transmission, whereas currently amended claim 1 is directed to meshing between the drive gear and the push rod teeth (arranged linearly along the axis), which belongs to gear-rack meshing transmission…Applicant believes such an interpretation is unreasonable and thus improper”, examiner notes that the claims do not recite nor require that the opening and closing device of the electric cylinder cannot operate via a screw-drive nut threaded transmission. Furthermore, the claims also do not require that it only operates via gear-rack meshing transmission and examiner adds that the claims do not even recite a rack nor a gear meshed with a rack, for example, claim 1 merely recites “the driving gear is meshed with the push rod teeth”. As such, examiner notes that the interpretation for claim 1 is reasonable under the broadest reasonable interpretation and if applicant wants the invention to be a gear-rack transmission, applicant should properly claim that invention.
Regarding “It is therefore respectfully submitted that this structure is only suitable for ordinary thrust output scenarios of general industrial equipment. In contrast, amended claim 1 is directed to a gear-rack meshing transmission adapted to long-stroke, high-precision linear drive requirements of blast doors, and there is no gap error caused by threaded fitting during transmission. Therefore, Applicant respectfully believes that attempting to equate technical features taught in Abraham to features (i) and (vi), identified in the Office Action as missing in Zheng, is unreasonable and an ordinary skilled artisan would not have found it obvious to somehow include such features in Zheng to arrive at amended claim 1 based on the teachings of Abraham”, as noted above, none of the limitations of claim 1 bar the usage of a screw-nut mechanism nor only a gear-rack meshing transmission would only be the only transmission used.
Regarding “Thus, it should be appreciated that in amended claim 1, the restriction rail is directly integrated into the opening and closing cylinder, and the push rod fits precisely with the rail through the restriction groove, without requiring additional independent anti-rotation components. On the contrary, the anti-rotation design of Abraham relies on a square nut plus reaction surfaces on the inner wall of the cylinder, where the object of anti-rotation is the nut constrained by the reaction surfaces inside the tube, and thus the technical objective and structural mechanism are both substantially different from amended claim 1. In addition, Abraham requires special processing of the drive nut to achieve its advantageous effects, which may result in additional costs”, as applicant mentioned, Abraham also discloses an anti-rotation feature for the cylinder and the push rod. The restriction rail of Abraham is also directly integrated into the opening and closing cylinder, and the push rod fits precisely with the rail through the restriction groove, without requiring additional independent anti-rotation components. With these evidences, examiner notes that Abraham meets the limitations of the amended claim 1.
Additionally, the square nut 58 of Abraham is an essential component of the cylinder (i.e., the push rod would not extend without the nut 58 or the nut 58 is removed) as such examiner notes that the nut 58 is not an additional component, rather it is an essential element of Abraham's invention.
Examiner also notes that square nuts are well-known parts (see sample squared nuts publicly available below), as such they do not require special processing nor it would incur additional costs.
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Different variations of square nuts readily available
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 PATRICK B PONCIANO whose telephone number is (571)272-9910. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30-4:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Cahn can be reached at (571) 270-5616. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PATRICK B. PONCIANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3634
/CATHERINE A KELLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619