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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 04/25/2025 and 03/05/2026 are acknowledged by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the hole portion" in line 5. Claim 2, line 2 introduces “at least one hole portion”, and therefore it is unclear if the limitation in line 5 refers to one or more in the situation where there are more than one hole.
Claims 3-4 are included due to being dependent upon a rejected base claim.
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.
(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 and 6-7 are rejected, as well as claim 2 as far as it is definite, under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by Mueller, Jr. (US 4168721).
Meuller, Jr. discloses:
1. A pressure regulating valve (10) comprising:
a) a valve body (14);
b) a support portion (16) that slidably supports the valve body;
c) an inflow port (30) that allows a fluid to flow into the support portion along a sliding direction of the valve body;
d) an outflow port (20, 52) that allows the fluid to flow out from the support portion along a direction crossing the sliding direction of the valve body; and
e) a biasing member (44) that biases the valve body toward the inflow port;
f) wherein the valve body has a recess opening toward to the inflow port (14 in view of 60).
2. The pressure regulating valve according to claim 1, wherein the valve body includes at least one hole portion (portion having holes 70) that penetrates from the recess to an outer peripheral surface of the valve body, and the inflow port and the outflow port communicate with each other via the hole portion when the valve body slides due to a pressure of the fluid flowing in from the inflow port (figure 2).
4. The pressure regulating valve according to claim 3, wherein the hole portions include first hole portions (70) formed at a plurality of positions in a circumferential direction of the valve body (seen in figs. 1-2).
6. The pressure regulating valve according to claim 1, wherein the support portion includes a groove portion (the right-hand side of 16 which is in contact to 24b and which has a larger diameter compared to the left-hand side of 16 which is in contact to 24a) communicating with the outflow port and extending along the circumferential direction of the valve body.
7. The pressure regulating valve according to claim 1, wherein the valve body has a tapered portion at an end portion closer to the recess (the left-hand side of 14).
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 of this title, 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 3-5 are rejected, as far as they are definite, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mueller, Jr. (US 4168721) in view of Jorgensen (US 20030168622).
Meuller, Jr. discloses the inventio as essentially claimed, except for wherein the hole portions are formed at a plurality of positions in the sliding direction of the valve body; and a second hole portion that is more distant from the inflow port than the first hole portions; and wherein a total area of the second hole portion is smaller than a total area of the first hole portions.
Jorgensen discloses a related pressure regulating valve including hole portions (multiple hole portions 4, 5, 28, or 9), wherein the hole portions are formed at a plurality of positions in the sliding direction of the valve body (4 in relation to 5, or holes of 9 which are shown in varying positions in figs. 1, 6, and 8); wherein the hole portions include first hole portions (27) formed at a plurality of positions in a circumferential direction of the valve body (27, 28 are circumferentially arranged) and a second hole portion (4) that is more distant from the inflow port than the first hole portions, for the purpose of providing the possibility for fine adjustment of the regulating insert for many different pressure requirements [0004]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Meuller, Jr., such that the hole portions are formed at a plurality of positions in the sliding direction of the valve body; and a second hole portion that is more distant from the inflow port than the first hole portions, as taught by Jorgensen, for the purpose of providing the possibility for fine adjustment of the regulating insert for many different pressure requirements
Although Jorgensen does not explicitly teach wherein a total area of the second hole portion is smaller than a total area of the first hole portions, Jorgensen teaches the shapes and sizes of the openings are based on design choice of the desired precise pressure regulation [0005]-[0009]. Therefore, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to make the different total areas of the first and second hole portions of whatever relative sizes were desired, since such a modification would have involved a mere change in the proportions of components. A change in proportion is generally recognized as being within the level of ordinary skill in the art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20210388984 and US 4501219 each teaches a related valves having circumferentially and axially arranged holes in the valve member of different sizes.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARINA TIETJEN, whose telephone number is 571-270-5422. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday (10:30AM-7:00PM CST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisors can be reached by phone. Tom Barrett can be reached at 571-272-4746, Ken Rinehart can be reached at 571-272-4881, and Craig Schneider can be reached at 571-272-3607. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MARINA A TIETJEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
Prosecution Insights