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 .
Status of Application
Claim 31 is pending and presented for examination.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figure 13 is too blurry to read the scale. 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 § 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.
1. Claim(s) 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang (CN 205884617, of which reference is made to the provided English translation).
Initially it is noted that "[A]pparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does." Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Bausch & Lomb Inc., 909 F.2d 1464, 1469, 15 USPQ2d 1525, 1528 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (emphasis in original). A claim containing a "recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus" if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim. Ex parte Masham, 2 USPQ2d 1647 (Bd. Pat. App. & Inter. 1987) (The preamble of claim 1 recited that the apparatus was "for mixing flowing developer material" and the body of the claim recited "means for mixing ..., said mixing means being stationary and completely submerged in the developer material." The claim was rejected over a reference which taught all the structural limitations of the claim for the intended use of mixing flowing developer. However, the mixer was only partially submerged in the developer material. The Board held that the amount of submersion is immaterial to the structure of the mixer and thus the claim was properly rejected.). In this case, the structural limitations of the claimed apparatus is a tank that can be used for dissolving sulfur and having two inlets and an outlet connected to a second tank that can be used for impregnating, the second tank having an inlet for connection to the first tank and another inlet, a release valve and a release conduit.
Regarding claim 31, Zhang teaches an apparatus as reproduced below (Figure 1 in Zhang).
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The apparatus comprises: a tank 40 including an inlet at the top and an inlet at the bottom connected to line 31; an outlet for withdrawing a solution from the tank that is fluidly connected to an impregnating tank 10 through line 53; the impregnating tank 10 having an inlet that connects with the outlets of tank 40 via line 53, as well as a cap 14 that serves as a second inlet for inserting articles to be impregnated, and a release valve 15 and release conduit line 16 (see Figure above as well as Embodiment section, pages 3-4). Zhang’s apparatus could perform the claimed intended use of sulfur impregnation wherein the first and second inlets on the tank 40 can be for flowing liquid ammonia and loading elemental sulfur, the outlet on tank 40 can perform the intended use of flowing a sulfur-ammonia solution to the impregnating tank, the inlet on the impregnating tank can serves as an opening for adding conductive carbon and the release valve and release conduit can perform the function of evaporating and discharging gaseous ammonia. Therefore, Zhang teaches all the structural limitations of the apparatus and the apparatus could perform the claimed intended use. Therefore, Zhang anticipates claim 31.
Conclusion
Claim 31 is pending.
Claim 31 is rejected.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT S WALTERS JR whose telephone number is (571)270-5351. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-5.
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/ROBERT S WALTERS JR/
July 28, 2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1717
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