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 sent in response to Applicants’ Communication received on September 22, 2025 for application number 19/167,649. This Office hereby acknowledges receipt of the following and placed of record in file: Specification, Drawings, Abstract, Oath/Declaration, and Claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on September 22, 2025; December 1, 2025 and August 17, 2026 are noted. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are considered by the examiner.
Drawings
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 “circuitry” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. In Claim 1 the limitation “circuitry”, fails to comply with the written description requirement. However, to advance prosecution, the Examiner will interpret and read said limitation as “circuit”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kinomura (JP 2008169748 A), hereinafter “Kinomura”.
Regarding claim 1, Kinomura discloses a control device for a cooling device that cools an internal combustion engine using cooling water (Abstract), the control device comprising: circuitry (Fig. 1 (defined by elements 7a, 7b, 7c)), wherein the circuitry (Fig. 1 (defined by elements 7a, 7b, 7c)) is configured to: determine boiling of the cooling water; and control a flow rate of the cooling water based on a result of the boiling determination (paragraphs 13-16), and the circuitry (Fig. 1 (defined by elements 7a, 7b, 7c)) determines the boiling of the cooling water based on a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of a temperature of the cooling water during a predetermined time and a subcooling degree that is based on the temperature of the cooling water (paragraphs 13-16, 20).
Regarding claim 2, Kinomura discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry (Fig. 1 (defined by elements 7a, 7b, 7c)) determines that the cooling water is boiling when magnitude of the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the temperature of the cooling water is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and the subcooling degree is at a predetermined position or lower (paragraphs 16, 20-22).
Regarding claim 3, Kinomura discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the cooling device includes an electric water pump (Fig. 1 (5)) that circulates the cooling water, and the circuitry controls the flow rate of the cooling water by controlling the electric water pump (Abstract; paragraphs 13-15).
Regarding claim 4, Kinomura discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry controls the flow rate of the cooling water based on a use environment of the internal combustion engine (paragraphs 14-18).
Regarding claim 5, Kinomura discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the subcooling degree is a difference between the temperature of the cooling water and a temperature corresponding to a use environment of the internal combustion engine (paragraphs 18-25).
Regarding claim 6, Kinomura discloses the control device according to claim 4, wherein the use environment of the internal combustion engine is an outside air pressure of the internal combustion engine (paragraphs 14, 15).
Regarding claim 7, Kinomura discloses a control method performed by a processor (Fig. 1 (50)) to control a cooling device that cools an internal combustion engine using cooling water (Abstract), the control method comprising: determining boiling of the cooling water based on a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of a temperature of the cooling water during a predetermined time and a subcooling degree that is based on the temperature of the cooling water (paragraphs 13-16, 20); and controlling a flow rate of the cooling water based a result of the determination of the boiling (paragraphs 13-16).
Regarding claim 8, Kinomura discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a control program for causing a processor to execute a process to control a cooling device that cools an internal combustion engine using cooling water (Abstract; paragraphs 13-16), the process comprising: determining boiling of the cooling water based on a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of a temperature of the cooling water during a predetermined time and a subcooling degree that is based on the temperature of the cooling water (paragraphs 13-16, 20); and controlling a flow rate of the cooling water based a result of the determination of the boiling (paragraphs 13-16).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR MORALES whose telephone number is (571)272-5923. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday.
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, Lindsay Low can be reached on (571)272-1196. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/O.M/Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LINDSAY M LOW/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747
