Ex Parte Singh

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jun 1, 2017

13849759 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 1, 2017)

United States Patent and Trademark Office
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O.Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
13/849,759 03/25/2013 Brij N. Singh P21048-US 5084
78833 7590 06/05/2017
DTTKFW YFF
EXAMINER
YEE & ASSOCIATES P.C. QUIGLEY, THOMAS K
P.O. BOX 802333
DALLAS, TX 75380 ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2831
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
06/05/2017 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
ptonotifs @yeeiplaw.com
mgamez @ yeeiplaw. com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte BRIJ N. SINGH
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
Technology Center 2800
Before CATHERINE Q. TIMM, JENNIFER R. GUPTA, and LILAN REN,
Administrative Patent Judges.
REN, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appellant1 timely appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a rejection2
of claims 1—20. We have jurisdiction. 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.
1 The real party in interest is identified as Deere & Company of Moline,
Illinois. (Appeal Brief filed May 14, 2015 (“App. Br.”), 2.)
2 In this decision, we refer to the Final Office Action mailed February 17,
2015 (“Final Act.”), the Examiner’s Answer mailed October 7, 2015
(“Ans.”), and the Reply Brief filed November 20, 2015 (“Reply Br.”).
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER
The claims are directed to “a machine that is capable of generating
electrical energy from the motion of harvested material.” (Spec. I.)3
Claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter:
1 A machine for generating electrical energy, the machine
comprising:
a housing;
a shaft rotatable with respect to the housing;
an impeller with blades for rotation with the shaft in
response to receipt of material from a chute, wherein the chute
makes an angle with respect to a vertical axis;
a first generator assembly comprising first stator windings
associated with the housing and a first magnet affixed to the
shaft, such that if the impeller rotates an electromagnetic signal
energizes the first stator windings based on the flow of material
through the chute.
(Claims Appendix, App. Br. 15 (emphases added).)
REFERENCES
The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on
appeal is:
Zhou CN 2465822 Dec. 19,2001
Scribner US 3,771,531 Nov. 13, 1973
Shimizu US 2007/0029799 A1 Feb. 8, 2007
REJECTIONS
Claims 1—11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Zhou and Shimizu. Final Act. 2.
3 Application 13/849,759, Machine for Generating Electrical Energy, filed
March 25, 2013. We refer to the “’759 Specification,” which we cite as
“Spec.”
2
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
Claims 12—20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Zhou, Scribner, and Shimizu. Final Act. 5.
OPINION
Findings of fact throughout this opinion are supported by a
preponderance of the evidence of record.
Claim 74
The Examiner finds that Figure 1 of Zhou (reproduced below)
illustrates a shaft about which “impeller 6” rotates although the shaft is not
labeled in the figure. Final Act. 2.
4 Appellant argues claims 1—3 and 5—11 as a group. App. Br. 6. Claims 2, 3,
and 5—11 therefore stand or fall with claim 1.
3
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
Figure 1 is a diagram of Zhou’s power windmill
As illustrated in Figure 1 of Zhou, the “power windmill using fall
head of grain” includes “bracket (1),” “feeding funnel (2),” “fan (4),” “dust,
air outlet (9)” as well as “gravity turbine (6)” which has “driving wheel (7)”
and “belt (8).” Zhou claim 1 (machine translation).5 Zhou’s device operates
5 The Zhou reference which includes the original disclosure and
corresponding machine translation is not paginated.
4
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
“by gravity turbine driving shaft of the driving wheel drives the belt, thereby
rotating the air blowing fan.” Id. Disclosure.
The Examiner appears to interpret claim 1 as requiring that the shaft
and impeller be capable of rotating at different rates, or that the shaft be
capable of rotating without being driven by the impeller. Ans. 4. The claim,
however, does not require such separate rotation. Based on the claim
language requiring the recited machine to include both “a shaft rotatable
with respect to [a] housing” and “an impeller with blades for rotation with
the shaft” and in view of the disclosure of the ’759 Specification, we
conclude that claim 1 requires the recited shaft, impeller, and blades to be
rotatable together.
The Examiner’s understanding of the claim language notwithstanding,
the Examiner finds that Zhou discloses a shaft but does not explain why the
shaft in Zhou is one that is “rotatable with respect to [a] housing” as recited
in claim 1. Final Act. 2 (finding that the shaft in Zhou is “not labeled, but
impeller 6 rotates about a shaft); Ans. 4 (finding that “the shaft is not labeled
in the figures of Zhou, but the impeller rotates about a shaft”). On the record
before us, we cannot sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 and its
dependent claims because there has been an insufficient showing that a
machine having “a shaft rotatable with respect to [a] housing” as recited in
claim 1 is taught or suggested in the prior art.
Because independent claim 12 recites a “harvester” having “a shaft
rotatable with respect to the housing,” we cannot sustain the rejection of
claim 12 and its dependent claims for the same reason.
5
Appeal 2016-001675
Application 13/849,759
DECISION
The Examiner’s rejections of claims 1—20 are reversed.
REVERSED
6