Ex Parte Miglio

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Feb 28, 2017

13567167 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 28, 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.
13/567,167 08/06/2012 Ross A. Miglio 4577-011 7574
23547 7590
Mary M. Lee
MARY M LEE, P.C.
1300 E. NINTH STREET
SUITE 4
EDMOND, OK 73034-5760
EXAMINER
ZERPHEY, CHRISTOPHER R
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
3744
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
03/02/2017 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):
mail @ marymlee. com
mml@marymlee.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte ROSS A. MIGLIO
Appeal 2014-006328
Application 13/567,167
Technology Center 3700
Before GEORGE R. HOSKINS, BRANDON J. WARNER, and
LEE L. STEPINA, Administrative Patent Judges.
WARNER, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Ross A. Miglio (“Appellant”)1 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from
the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1—22, which are all the pending
claims. See Appeal Br. 6—9. We have jurisdiction over the appeal under
35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We REVERSE.
1 According to Appellant, the real parties in interest are the inventor,
Ross A. Miglio, and his assignee, ClimaCool Corporation. Appeal Br. 1.
Appeal 2014-006328
Application 13/567,167
CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER
Appellant’s disclosed invention “relates generally to heating and
cooling systems and more specifically to modular chiller systems that can
provide simultaneous heating and cooling.” Spec. 12. Claims 1, 4, 5, 11,
12, and 21 are independent. Claim 1, reproduced below with emphasis
added, is illustrative of the subject matter on appeal.
1. A heating and cooling module for use with a source to
supply heating and cooling loads in a building, the module
comprising:
a frame;
a first heat exchanger mounted on the frame;
a second heat exchanger mounted on the frame;
at least one compressor mounted on the frame;
a first pair of valved connecting pipes for conducting
fluid between the heating load and one of the first and second
heat exchangers',
a second pair of valved connecting pipes for conducting
fluid between the cooling load and one of the first and second
heat exchangers', and
a third pair of valved connecting pipes for conducting
fluid between the source and one of the first and second heat
exchangers.
The Examiner relied on the following evidence in rejecting the claims
on appeal:
EVIDENCE
Maxwell
Platt
US 2010/0108290 A1 May 6, 2010
US 2010/0132390 A1 June 3, 2010
2
Appeal 2014-006328
Application 13/567,167
REJECTION
The following rejection is before us for review: Claims 1—22 stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Platt and
Maxwell. Final Act. 2—8.
ANALYSIS
Independent subcombination claim 1 recites, in relevant part, a
heating and cooling module that includes first, second, and third pairs of
valved connecting pipes for conducting fluid between elements of the
module, where all of these pairs of valved connecting pipes are part of the
same module. See Appeal Br., Claims App. The first pair of valved
connecting pipes is for conducting fluid between a heating load and one of a
first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger, the second pair of valved
connecting pipes is for conducting fluid between a cooling load and one of
the first and second heat exchangers, and the third pair of valved connecting
pipes is for conducting fluid between a source and one of the first and
second heat exchangers. See id. These functional recitations require that
these pairs of valved connecting pipes are capable of performing as recited.
Independent combination claims 4, 5, 11, 12, and 21 each include the
structure of such a heating and cooling module by reference, either within a
plurality of such modules (claims 4, 5, 11, and 12) or in combination with a
second, similar module (claim 21). See id. Appellant argues that the
combination of Platt and Maxwell is deficient in teaching a module that
includes two pairs of valved connecting pipes for the load, one pair for the
heating load and one pair for the cooling load, as required by claim 1. See
Appeal Br. 6—9; Reply Br. 1—5. We agree.
3
Appeal 2014-006328
Application 13/567,167
In rejecting the claims, the Examiner relies on Platt for teaching a
heating and cooling module with many of the claimed elements, including
two pairs of valved connecting pipes, but acknowledges that Platt does not
include a third pair of valved connecting pipes. Final Act. 2—3. For the
additional pair of valved connecting pipes, the Examiner turns to Maxwell,
which teaches an air conditioning system with additional energy transfer
components (e.g., outdoor air energy transfer component 20 or solar thermal
panel component 10) in communication with a main heat exchanger via
valved connecting pipes. Id. at 3. In light of these teachings, the Examiner
determines that it would have been obvious to modify Platt’s system to
include a third pair of valved connecting pipes “in order to achieve a larger
change in temperature, or to maximize heat exchange capacity, in view of
the teachings by Maxwell.” Id.
As Appellant persuasively asserts, however, the teachings relied on
from Maxwell do not relate to any additional valved piping within a heating
and cooling module, as claimed, but rather to “expanding the field piping to
include other energy transfer components.” Appeal Br. 8; see id. at 7—9. In
other words, Maxwell’s teachings relate to connecting admittedly known
additional components to the overall air conditioning system with valved
piping, but there is no teaching in Maxwell of “including in the heat pump
module itself [] two sets of valved connecting pipes and headers for one heat
exchanger with one set dedicated to the cooling load and one set dedicated to
the heating load,” as recited in the claims. Appeal Br. 8 (emphasis added).
We agree with Appellant that, although the Examiner’s stated reasoning to
incorporate additional valved piping from Maxwell—namely, to achieve a
larger change in temperature, or to maximize heat exchange capacity (Final
4
Appeal 2014-006328
Application 13/567,167
Act. 3)—might support adding an energy transfer component within the
context of the entire air conditioning system, it does not rationally support
incorporating additional valved piping to one of the heat exchangers within
the heating and cooling module, as required by the claims. Reply Br. 4.
Accordingly, based on the record before us, the Examiner has not met
the burden of establishing a proper prima facie case of obviousness. On this
basis, we do not sustain the rejection of independent claim 1 as being
unpatentable over Platt and Maxwell. Because all of the other claims require
the same structure as that recited in claim 1, we likewise do not sustain the
rejection of claims 2—22.
DECISION
We REVERSE the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1—22.
REVERSED
5