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 .
The examiner notes that applicant has not filed an IDS in the subject application.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-8, 11, 13-14, 16, 19-20, 22-23 and 25-29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cola (2012/0193244). Cola discloses a gas cylinder on which the claimed hydrogen pressure vessel reads. It is formed by a multitude of longitudinally extending segments 11, 12 as required in the last paragraph of claim 1. The segments also have the other features in the last paragraph of the claim.
What Cola may not disclose is construction from steel having the specific yield strength claimed, and the storage of hydrogen at a pressure greater than 200 bar, as also claimed. On the other hand, the missing features are conventional. For example, see Cola at [0008]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to provide the Cola apparatus with the missing features for the purpose of facilitating the convenient and safe storage of hydrogen gas in the Cola cylinder.
Cola may also not disclose features such as the claimed length and other dimensions of the vessel or its parts. However, these features are well within the level of skill of one of ordinary skill in the relevant art to provide. Therefore, it would have been obvious in view of Cola to provide the Cola apparatus with the missing features, in order to adapt the shell for particular applications.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JACOB K ACKUN whose telephone number is (571)272-4418. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 11am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Orlando E. Aviles can be reached at (571) 270-5531. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JACOB K ACKUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3736
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