DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the communication(s) filed on 5/29/2025.
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 § 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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto et al. (US 2024/0175546 A1), in view of Mumford et al. (US 2005/0274360 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Yamamoto discloses a hydrogen engine (100) comprising: a combustion chamber that combusts an air-fuel mixture of air and a hydrogen gas (from hydrogen tank 12); an injector (52) that directly injects the hydrogen gas into the combustion chamber (see at least fig. 1); and an insertion hole which communicates with the combustion chamber and into which the injector is inserted (see at least fig. 1).
Yamamoto is not relied upon to teach a film of a lubricant containing a composition having a molecular structure having no alkyl group in a side chain is provided on a surface of the injector in the insertion hole.
Mumford discloses a fuel injector for an internal combustion engine which uses a PerFluoroPoluEther (PFPE) which is a lubricant having a molecular structure having no alkyl group in a side chain (see at least paragraph 0106). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify the reference of Yamamoto to having the PerFluoroPoluEther (PFPE) lubricant as taught in Mumford in order to reduce wear and friction, allow for ease of installation of the fuel injector, and prevent vacuum and fuel leaks.
Regarding claim 2, Yamamoto as modified by Mumford further discloses wherein: the injector includes a seal member that seals a gap between an inner wall of the insertion hole and the injector; and a film of the lubricant is provided on a surface of the seal member (see at least paragraph 0106 of Mumford).
Regarding claim 3, Yamamoto as modified by Mumford further discloses wherein the composition is a polydimethylsiloxane where X is an integer of 2 or more (paragraph 0106 discloses that the hydraulic fluid is PerFluoroPolyEther, which means x is an integer of 2 or more).
Conclusion
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/XIAO EN MO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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