DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1-20 are pending for consideration following applicant’s preliminary amendment filed 3/12/2025.
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
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 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 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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by McGill (US Patent 2,209,991).
Regarding Claim 1, McGill discloses a flow path switching device (multiport valve) comprising: a housing (including 7 and 8); a valve body part (including 12 and 14) placed in the housing (as shown in Figure 1); in which the valve body part includes: a fixed disk 14 (disk 14 is seen to be fixed in the same manner as achieved by applicant’s device in which applicant’s fixed disk is axially movable); a drive disk 12 stacked on the fixed disk 14 (stacked on the seat rings 45 and 46 of the fixed disk 14 as shown in Figure 1), the drive disk 12 being to rotate with respect to the fixed disk (via stem 11; col. 2, lines 26-32); and a rotary shaft 11 for rotating the drive disk 12 (col. 2, lines 26-42), the housing (7 and 8), the fixed disk 14, and the drive disk 12 each include a plurality of communication paths (31 and 32, 33 and 34, and 35 and 36, respectively), which are connected by rotation of the drive disk 12 to form flow paths of a fluid (as shown in Figure 1), a seal member (“seat ring” 45 and “seat ring” 46 provide seal members as shown in Figure 1; it is noted that the claim does not recite any particular material of the seat ring) is provided in the flow paths (as shown in Figure 1) at least between the fixed disk 14 and the drive disk 12 (as shown in Figure 1) to suppress leakage of the fluid (the seat rings as show in Figure 1 seat against the drive disk to suppress leakage of the fluid), wherein a leading end portion of the rotary shaft 11 (i.e. the lower end of shaft 11) is provided to be able to make contact and engagement with the fixed disk 14 (at recess 51), and the fixed disk 14 is configured to reciprocally move in an axial direction (against spring 22) by making contact and engagement with the leading end portion of the rotary shaft 11 (i.e. via pressing of the leading end portion of the rotary shaft against the recess 51) in association with rotation of the rotary shaft (the phrase “in association with rotation of the rotary shaft” is a broad term and is seen to be met by the structure of McGill; i.e. the fixed disk may be reciprocated while the rotary shaft is rotated; alternatively, the rotary shaft may be seen to include 11 and 54 as shown in the embodiment of Figure 2 and the rotation of screw 54 causes reciprocation of the fixed disk 14).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-20 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Whitlock (US Patent 2,633,325) teaches a rotary valve in which the rotor is raised from the sealing gaskets prior to rotation of the rotor (col. 4, lines 55-69). McGill (US Patent 2,209,993) teaches a rotary valve with a mechanism for separating the seat 25 from the rotor 21.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN MURPHY whose telephone number is (571)270-5243. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8am-4pm.
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/KEVIN F MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
