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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yahata et al. (U.S. 2007/0012034).
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Re claim 1:
Yaheta discloses a controller (70, ECU - Para 35) for an internal combustion engine (1, internal combustion engine - Para 26), the controller (70) comprising processing circuitry (Para 35 - “…ECU 70 includes a conventional microcomputer formed from a CPU…”), wherein
the processing circuitry is configured (see Fig. 7 and Para 43) to execute an accumulation amount calculation process (Fig. 7 (especially see S202 and S205)) and a burn-off rate calculation process (see Fig. 7 at S204 and Para 50 - “…ECU 70 calculates a front end portion PM burn rate…”),
the accumulation amount calculation process (Fig. 7) calculates an accumulation amount of particulate matter (Para 52 - “…front end PM accumulation amount…”) that has accumulated in a filter (40, particulate filter - Para 28)(see Fig. 7 and Paras 43-53 (especially see Paras 52-53)),
the filter (40) is provided in an exhaust passage (30, exhaust pipe - Para 28) of the internal combustion engine (1)(see Fig. 1),
the filter (40) traps the particulate matter in exhaust gas (Para 28 - “…particulate filter is installed on a way of the exhaust pipe 30 so as to collect particulate matters contained in an exhaust gas of the engine 1…”) in the exhaust passage (30)(see Fig. 1 and Para 28),
the accumulation amount is calculated based on a discharge rate (Para 43 - “…a PM inflow speed (g/sec), which is a PM amount that flows into the particulate filter 40 in a unit time…”)(see Fig. 7 at S201 and Para 43) of the particulate matter discharged from the internal combustion engine (1) to the exhaust passage (30) and a burn-off rate (Para 50 - “…front end portion PM burn rate…”) of the particulate matter burned in the filter (40)(see Figs. 1 and 7 and Paras 43-53),
the accumulation amount varies along an exhaust gas flow direction within the filter (40)(see Figs. 1-3, 8-9, Paras 40-41 and Para 48), and
the burn-off rate calculation process (S204) calculates the burn-off rate in accordance with a degree of variation in the accumulation amount along the exhaust gas flow direction (see Figs. 1, 7-9 and Paras 43-53 (especially see Paras 48-51)).
Re claim 2:
Yahata discloses the controller (70) for the internal combustion engine (1) according to claim 1 (as described above), wherein, in the burn-off rate calculation process (S204), the burn-off rate is calculated such that the burn-off rate in a case in which the degree of variation is small (see Modified Fig. 9 above - A (person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize element A as a type of burn-off rate in a case in which the degree of variation is small as element A represents a “FRONT END BURN RATE” along the line where “FRONT END PM ACCUM. AMT.” is “SMALL”)) is greater than the burn-off rate in a case in which the degree of variation is large (see Modified Fig. 9 above - B (person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize element B as a type of burn-off rate in a case in which the degree of variation is large as element B represents a “FRONT END BURN RATE” along the line where “FRONT END PM ACCUM. AMT.” is “LARGE”))(see Modified Fig. 9 above and Paras 48-51).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 3-4 would be allowed primarily because the prior art of record cannot anticipate Applicant’s claimed invention by a single reference nor render Applicant’s claimed invention obvious by the combination of more than one reference.
Additionally, the prior art of record does not teach “wherein the processing circuitry is configured to execute an index value calculation process that calculates an index value indicating the degree of variation, and in the index value calculation process, the index value is updated so as to indicate that the degree of variation in a case in which the particulate matter is being burned is greater than the degree of variation in a case in which the particulate matter is not being burned” as within the context of the claimed invention as disclosed and within the context of the other limitations present in claims 3-4.
Therefore, the prior art of record cannot anticipate Applicant’s claimed invention by a single reference nor render Applicant’s claimed invention obvious by one or more references.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Loren C Edwards whose telephone number is (571)272-7133. The examiner can normally be reached M-R 6AM-430PM.
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/LOREN C EDWARDS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746 7/17/26
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