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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed June 18, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1-8, 11-15 and 17-23 remain pending in the application. Claims 3, 4, 7, 8, 13 and 19 remain withdrawn from consideration. The previous objections to claims 6, and 10-12 are withdrawn in light of the Applicant's amendment to claims 6, 10 and 12.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the withdrawal of claims 14-18 were persuasive and these claims will be considered herein.
Claim Objections
Claims 20 and 22 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 20 line 18, “wring” would be clearer if written as --wiring--.
In claim 22 line 1, “claim 20” would be clearer if written as --claim 21-- to provide antecedent basis for “the first enclosure wall.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U. S. Patent Publication 2022/0065258 to Liu.
Referring to claim 20, Liu discloses a neck fan, configured to be worn around a neck of a user, the neck fan comprising:
a connection member (center portion of 24); and two fan bodies connected to two opposite ends of the connection member (center portion of 24) (Figures 1-34, Fig. 18 annotated below; paragraphs [0043]-[0082])
wherein, the connection member (center portion of 24) is configured to be disposed at a rear side of the neck, and the two fan bodies are configured to be disposed at a front side of the neck (Figures 1-34, Fig. 18 annotated below; paragraphs [0043]-[0082])
each fan body comprises a body portion and a fan assembly (18) arranged in the body portion; and a circuit board (30) electrically connected to the fan assembly; the body portion comprises a housing configured to accommodate the fan assembly (18) and a partition arranged in the housing to divide the housing into a first cavity (inside 16) configured to accommodate the fan assembly (18) and a second cavity (inside 24) configured to accommodate the circuit board (30) (Figures 1-34, Fig. 18 annotated below; paragraphs [0043]-[0082]); and
the body portion defines at least one air inlet and at least one air outlet, and the fan assembly (18) is configured to intake air from the at least one air inlet and to generate wind, and the wind is capable of flowing out of the neck fan through the at least one air outlet (Figures 1-34, Fig. 18 annotated below; paragraphs [0043]-[0082]),
wherein the housing defines a first wiring hole (340) communicated with the second cavity (inside 24), a second wiring hole (340) communicated with the first cavity (inside 16), and a wiring slot (space formed between wiring holes 340 in the housing comprising the hollow portion of 310) arranged between the first wiring hole (340) and the second wiring hole (340); the wiring slot (space formed between wiring holes 340 in the housing comprising the hollow portion of 310) is configured to receive a wire (“conductor wire”), the first wring hole (340) is configured to allow a first end of the wire (“conductor wire”) to pass therethrough to be electrically connected to the circuit board (30), the second wiring hole (340) is configured to allow a second end of the wire (“conductor wire”) to pass therethrough to be electrically connected to the fan assembly (18) (Fig. 2 shows the circuit board 30 in 24, such that the wire in Fig. 18 connects the circuit board at one end and the fan assembly at the other end as claimed); and a decorative cover (the cover is decorative because it at least hides the unsightly internals of the fan assembly, thereby making the neck fan more aesthetically pleasing/decorated) is detachably connected to the housing (Fig. 18 show the part of the cover on 16 removed and the part of the cover on 24 is shown to be removable in at least Figure 17) to cover or expose the first wiring hole (340), the second wiring hole (340), and the wiring slot (in 310 and in the space formed between 310 and 340) (Figures 1-34, Fig. 18 annotated below; paragraphs [0043]-[0082]).
[AltContent: textbox (Fan Body)][AltContent: textbox (Partition)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Cover)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Fan Body)][AltContent: textbox (Inlet)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Outlet)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Body Portion)][AltContent: textbox (Cover)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Connection Member)][AltContent: connector][AltContent: connector]
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Annotation of Liu’ ‘258 Figure 18.
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, 2, 5, 6, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U. S. Patent Publication 2022/0065258 to Liu in view of U. S. Patent Publication 2021/0355960 to Liu, U. S. Patent 10,202,981 to Lin and U. S. Patent 6,572,336 to Horng.
Referring to claim 1, Liu teaches a neck fan, configured to be worn around a neck of a user, the neck fan comprising:
a connection member (24) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]); and
two fan bodies (16) connected to two opposite ends of the connection member (24) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]),
wherein, the connection member (24) is configured to be disposed at a rear side of the neck, and the two fan bodies (16) are configured to be disposed at a front side of the neck (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]);
each fan body (16) comprises a body portion (40, 42) and a fan assembly (18) arranged in the body portion (40, 42); the body portion (40, 42) comprises a housing configured to accommodate the fan assembly (18) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]);
the body portion (40, 42) defines at least one air inlet (20) and at least one air outlet (22), and the fan assembly (18) is configured to intake air from the at least one air inlet (20) and to generate wind, and the wind is capable of flowing out of the neck fan through the at least one air outlet (22) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]);
Liu’ 258 is silent as to a motor, though it must have one. Liu ‘960 teaches the neck fan wherein:
a fan assembly comprises a base (portion of housings 200 and 210 which support and surround the motor), a motor (400) arranged on the base (portion of housings 200 and 210 which support the motor), and a fan blade assembly (21), and the motor (400) is configured to drive the fan blade assembly (21) to rotate to have air from at least one air inlet (401) to flow out of the neck fan through the at least one air outlet (240) (Figures 12-19; paragraphs [0083]-[0097]).
It would have been obvious before the invention was effectively filed, to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the neck fan taught by Liu ‘258 with the motor support taught by Liu ‘960 in order to secure the fan assembly inside the housing.
Liu ‘960 teaches a motor driving the impeller which is arranged on the base inside the housing, but Liu’ 258 is silent as to the details of the impeller and Liu ‘960 only teaches a single plurality of fan blades. Lin teaches a fan wherein:
a fan blade assembly comprises a fixing part connected to a drive, a first fan blade assembly (22) and a second fan blade assembly (12) each surrounding the fixing part; the first fan blade assembly (22) comprises a plurality of first fan blades spaced apart from each other; and the second fan blade assembly (12) comprises a plurality of second fan blade spaced apart from each other (Figures 1-4, Figures 1 and 4 annotated below; col. 2 line 34 - col. 3 line 27).
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Flow Guide Portion)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Fixing Part)][AltContent: textbox (Boss)]
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Annotation of Lin Figure 1.
[AltContent: textbox (Flow Guide Portion)][AltContent: textbox (Fixing Part)]
[AltContent: connector][AltContent: connector][AltContent: textbox (Boss)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow]
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Annotation of Lin Figure 4.
It would have been obvious before the invention was effectively filed, to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the neck fan taught by Liu ‘258 with the multiple impeller blades taught by Lin because it has been held that a simple substitution of one known element, the impeller blades of Lin, for another, the impeller blades of Liu, to obtain predictable results, providing an airflow, was an obvious extension of prior art teachings, KSR, 550 U.S. at 419, 82 USPQ2d at 1396, MPEP 2141 III B.
Liu ‘960, Liu’ 258 and Lin are silent as to the curvature of the blades. Horng teaches a fan wherein:
each first fan blade (12) is curved in a same direction with each second fan blade (23) and a curvature of each first fan blade (12) is greater than each second fan blade (23) (Figures 1-8, wherein the curvature of the blades is clearly shown in Fig. 5).
It would have been obvious before the invention was effectively filed, to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the neck fan taught by Liu ‘258 with the impeller blades curvature taught by Horng because it has been held that a simple substitution of one known element, the blade curvature of Horng, for another, the blade curvature of Liu, as modified, to obtain predictable results, providing an airflow, was an obvious extension of prior art teachings, KSR, 550 U.S. at 419, 82 USPQ2d at 1396, MPEP 2141 III B.
Referring to claim 2, Liu ‘258, Liu ‘960, Lin and Horng teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 1, as detailed above, and Liu ‘258 further teaches the neck fan wherein:
the at least one air inlet (20) is arranged on a single side of the body portion (40, 42) to form a single-sided air inlet structure (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]).
Referring to claim 5, Liu ‘258, Liu ‘960, Lin and Horng teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 1, as detailed above, and further discloses the neck fan wherein:
the two fan bodies (16) are symmetrical relative to a center of a perpendicular bisector of the connection member (24) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]).
Referring to claim 6, Liu ‘258, Liu ‘960, Lin and Horng teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 1, as detailed above, and Liu ‘258 further teaches the neck fan comprising:
at least one battery (28) and at least one circuit board (30), the at least one battery (28) and the fan assembly (18) are electrically connected to the at least one circuit board (30); the number of the circuit board (30) is one, the number of the battery (28) is one, both the battery (28) and the circuit board (30) are arranged in the connection member (24), the battery (28) and the fan assembly (18) are electrically connected to the circuit board (30); or the number of the circuit board (30) is one, the circuit board (30) is arranged in the connection member (24) or in one of the two fan bodies (18); the number of the battery (28) is two, two batteries (28) and the fan assembly (18) are electrically connected to the circuit board (30) (Figures 1-5; paragraphs [0043]-[0055]).
Referring to claim 11, Liu ‘258, Liu ‘960, Lin and Horng teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 10, as detailed above, including wherein Liu ‘960 teaches a motor driving the impeller which impeller is arranged on the base (portion of housings 200 and 210 which support and surround the motor) inside the housing (200, 210) (Figures 12-19; paragraphs [0083]-[0097]), but Liu’ 258 is silent as to the details of the impeller and Liu ‘960 only teaches a single plurality of fan blades. Lin further teaches a fan wherein:
wherein the fixing part comprises a boss, the first fan blade assembly (22) is arranged on a top of the boss; and a sum of a height of the first fan blade assembly (22) and a height of the boss in an axial direction of the fan blade assembly is identical with a height of the second fan blade assembly (12) in the axial direction of the fan blade assembly (Figures 1-4, Figures 1 and 4 annotated above, dotted lines in Fig. 4 added to show the common top and bottom extents and therefore identical heights of the second fan blade assembly and the sum of the boss and first fan blade assembly as claimed; col. 2 line 34 - col. 3 line 27).
As detailed above, the base of Liu ‘960 supports and surrounds the motor and impeller or Liu ‘258, and when Liu ‘258 is also modified with the impeller of Lin which comprises the second fan blade assembly, the combination results in the second fan blade assembly of the Lin impeller which comprises the boss, being arranged on the base which surrounds the impeller and the boss thereof as claimed.
Referring to claim 12, Liu’ 258, Liu ‘960, Lin and Horng teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 11, as detailed above, but Liu’ 258 is silent as to the details of the impeller and Liu ‘960 only teaches a single plurality of fan blades. Lin further teaches a fan wherein:
a flow guide portion is arranged at one end (top end) of the second fan blade assembly (12) facing away from the annular base plate, and a height of one side of a flow guide portion adjacent to the boss is less than a height of one side of the flow guide portion opposite to the boss (Figures 1-4, Figures 1 and 4 annotated above; col. 2 line 34 - col. 3 line 27).
Lin is silent as to a height of the boss in the axial direction of the fan blade assembly relative to a height of the second fan blade assembly in the axial direction of the fan blade assembly. Horng further teaches a fan wherein:
a height of a boss (15) in the axial direction (direction of X) of the fan blade assembly is less than a height of the second fan blade assembly (23) in the axial direction of the fan blade assembly (Figures 3-5; col. 2 lines 16-65).
It would have been obvious before the invention was effectively filed, to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the neck fan taught by Liu ‘258 with the height of the boss in the axial direction of the fan blade assembly relative to a height of the second fan blade assembly taught by Horng because it has been held that a simple substitution of one known element, the heights of Horng, for another, the heights of Liu, as modified, to obtain predictable results, providing an airflow, was an obvious extension of prior art teachings, KSR, 550 U.S. at 419, 82 USPQ2d at 1396, MPEP 2141 III B.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14, 15, 17 and 18 are allowable. Claims 21-23 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:
With respect to claims 14, 15, 17 and 18, the prior art does not teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 14, but more specifically wherein the housing defines a cavity, a L-shaped partition is arranged in the cavity to divide the cavity into a first cavity and a second cavity; the fan assembly is arranged in the first cavity, and a battery and a circuit board are arranged in the second cavity; both the fan assembly and the battery are electrically connected to the circuit board; the at least one air outlet is communicated with the first cavity; the partition comprises a first baffle and a second baffle connected to the first baffle, there is a distance between the first baffle and the fan assembly, the first baffle extends around part of a circumference of the fan assembly; the at least one air outlet is arranged at a sidewall of the housing facing the second baffle, the sidewall of the housing defining the at least one air outlet together with the second baffle forms an acute angle; and the fan assembly is configured to intake air through the at least one air inlet along an axial direction of the fan assembly to generate the wind, the wind is capable of flowing into the second cavity along the circumference of the fan assembly and the second baffle, and then flowing out from the at least one air outlet; the housing defines a clamp slot configured to accommodate a first end of the circuit board, the housing further comprises a first limiting element and a second limiting element, a first side of a second end of the circuit board opposite to the first end of the circuit board is configured to resist against the first limiting element, a second side of the second end of the circuit board opposite to the first side of the second end is provided with a charging port component, the second limiting element is configured to resist against the charging port component; the housing defines a mounting hole corresponding to the charging port component, and the mounting hole is configured to expose the charging 22 component.
With respect to claims 21 and 22, the prior art does not teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 20 and 21, but more specifically wherein the partition comprises a first enclosure wall configured to define the second cavity and a second enclosure wall configured to define a third cavity, the third cavity is configured to accommodate a battery electrically connected to the circuit board, the first enclosure wall defines a first wiring slot communicated with the second cavity and the second enclosure wall defines a second wiring slot communicated with the third cavity, the second wiring slot corresponds the first wiring slot to allow a wire to pass through the first wiring slot and the second wiring slot to electrically connect the battery and the circuit board.
With respect to claim 23, the prior art does not teach a neck fan comprising all the limitations of claim 20 and 23, but more specifically wherein the partition comprises an air guide plate, the air guide plate comprises a first separation section arranged between the circuit board and the fan blade assembly, a second separation section connected to the first separation section to form a L-shaped structure, the second separation section together with the sidewall of the housing where the at least one first air outlet is located defines a first air duct, an air guide portion connected to an end of the second separation section facing away from the first separation section and extending towards the air outlet one the housing, and the connection member defines at least one second air outlet, a separation plate is arranged inside the connection member and extends in a length direction of the connection member to divide an inner space of the connection member into a second air duct and a threading cavity, the second air duct is communicated to the second air outlet and the first air duct, and the air guide portion is configured to guide air flow in the first air duct to the second air duct.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments have been considered but, unless otherwise addressed below, are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The Applicant argues that portion 24 in Liu is part of the connection part and not the fan body. Remarks 7. The Applicant goes on to explain that as such the first cavity and the second cavity of Liu are not in the fan body as claimed, and that the opposite ends of the wire connect between components in the fan body and the connection member. However, as shown by the dotted lines in the annotation of Liu Fig. 18 above, the connection member is only a portion of 24, the portion between the portions of 24 which contain the fans. The portions of 24 which contain the fans are part of the fan body. As such the ends of the wire and wiring hole of Liu are in the fan body as claimed.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRYAN MATTHEW LETTMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7860. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-4pm.
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/BRYAN M LETTMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746
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