Patent Application 15777038 - ELECTRONIC SMOKING DEVICE WITH

Title: ELECTRONIC SMOKING DEVICE WITH NON-SIMULTANEOUSLY OPERATED HEATING ELEMENTS
Application Information

Invention Title: ELECTRONIC SMOKING DEVICE WITH NON-SIMULTANEOUSLY OPERATED HEATING ELEMENTS
Application Number: 15777038
Submission Date: 2025-05-16T00:00:00.000Z
Effective Filing Date: 2018-05-17T00:00:00.000Z
Filing Date: 2018-05-17T00:00:00.000Z
National Class: 131
National Sub-Class: 328000
Examiner Employee Number: 82943
Art Unit: 1747
Tech Center: 1700
Rejection Summary

102 Rejections: 1
103 Rejections: 1
Cited Patents

No patents were cited in this rejection.
Office Action Text



    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 .
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(s) 1-4, 8, 10-11, 14-15 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Steingraber et al. (WO 2014066730).
Regarding claim 1, Steingraber discloses an electronic smoking device (page 5, line 31 to page 6, line 9 and figs. 2-3) comprising: a primary and a secondary liquid reservoir; a primary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the primary liquid reservoir; a secondary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the secondary liquid reservoir (cartomizer, 34); a battery (38); an activation switch (35); an operation unit (36), electrically connected to the battery and the primary and secondary heating element respectively; and wherein, the operation unit is configured to non-simultaneously supply at least one pulse of power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch (page 12, line 3 to page 13, line 23, figs. 2-3; tables 4-6), and wherein the operation unit is configured to operate with a time interval between a pulse of power supplied to the primary heating element and a pulse of power supplied to the secondary heating element has a length of T (pages 11-13 and table 6).  Steingraber discloses the user can control the percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge on the fly corresponding to the claimed the time interval can be configured to allow liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device (result in 0% mix; see table 6 and page 13, lines 15-18).
Regarding claim 2, Steingraber discloses the secondary liquid reservoir is configured to receive and store a base liquid and/or a flavored liquid and wherein the primary liquid reservoir is capable of configured to receive and store a concentrated nicotine-solution (page 5).  
Regarding claim 3, Steingraber discloses wherein the primary liquid reservoir is further configured to receive a solid carrier material (wick) with the concentrated nicotine-solution adhering thereto (page 30).  
Regarding claim 4, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to deliver a pulse of power to the primary heating element prior to delivering a pulse of power to the secondary heating element (table 5 and page 13).  
Regarding claim 8, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f1 to the primary heating element in response to an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30). 
Regarding claim 10, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30).  
Regarding claim 11, Steingraber discloses wherein f1 is equal to f2 and no pulse of power is supplied to the primary heating element when a pulse of power is supplied to the secondary heating element, and vice versa (pages 11 and 13).  
Regarding claim 14, Steingraber discloses a mouthpiece with at least one air inhalation port therein, wherein the primary and the secondary liquid reservoirs each comprise a connection element configured to separately guide atomized liquid from the respective liquid reservoirs to the air inhalation port (page 5, figs. 1-3).  
Regarding claim 15, Steingraber discloses the operation unit includes: a signal generation unit configured to provide operation signals to a control unit in response to an actuation of the activation switch, and a control unit configured to deliver power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to the received operation signals (page 30).
Regarding claim 21, in additions to features discussed above for claim 1, Steingraber discloses the operation unit is further configured to supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f1 to the primary heating element in response to an actuation of the activation switch and supply a plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch (pages 11, 13 and 30).  Steingraber further discloses the time interval can be configured to allow liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device (result in 0% mix; see table 6 and page 13, lines 15-18); Steingraber discloses the user can control the percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge on the fly corresponding to a timing between a last pulse of power and the second pulse of power allows liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the second liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device.
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 6-7 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steingraber et al. (WO 2014066730).
Regarding claim 6, Steingraber discloses that the microcontroller has an embedded Pulse width modulation wave generator (pages 11-13) and the device can get up to 390 degree F in 2 seconds (page 30) which also is the average puff duration (page 14) and pulses are driven out of phase as shown in table 6; therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made that the microcontroller capable of setting the time T is 200ms.  
Regarding claim 7. Steingraber discloses that the microcontroller has an embedded Pulse width modulation wave generator (page 11); therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made that the microcontroller capable of being configured to supply a pulse with a pulse width that is predefined and/or controllable by a user.  
Regarding claim 22, Steingraber discloses an electronic smoking device (page 5, line 31 to page 6, line 9 and figs. 2-3) comprising: a primary and a secondary liquid reservoir; a primary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the primary liquid reservoir; a secondary heating element configured to atomize liquid from the secondary liquid reservoir (cartomizer, 34); a battery (38); an activation switch (35); an operation unit (36), electrically connected to the battery and the primary and secondary heating element respectively; and wherein, the operation unit is configured to non-simultaneously supply at least one pulse of power from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch (page 12, line 3 to page 13, line 23, figs. 2-3; tables 4-6), and wherein the operation unit is configured and arranged to non-simultaneously supply power pulses from the battery to the primary and the secondary heating elements in response to an actuation of the activation switch, wherein a first plurality of power pulses with a predefined frequency of f1 are delivered to the primary heating element, and supply a second plurality of pulses of power with a predefined frequency of f2 to the secondary heating element upon an actuation of the activation switch; wherein f1 is equal to f2, and no pulse of power is supplied to the primary heating element when a pulse of power is supplied to the secondary heating element, and vice versa (see table 6).  Furthermore, Steingraber also discloses the user can specify a percentage from 0% to 100% for a mixture ratio of each cartridge and the software will adjust the PWM duty cycle on the fly (page 13 and table 6) wherein 0% mixture is corresponding to the claimed allowing liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the secondary liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device.  Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made wherein the user select a % for one cartridge and select another % for another cartridge (also see table 3, page 11) results in a pulse of power supplied to the primary heating element is equal to the distance that is less than the distance between two consecutive pulses of power supplied to the second heating element.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/04/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant essentially argues that the reference teaches  a user can specify a mixture ratio of the cartridges and the software can adjust the PWM Duty Cycle on the fly; so while one of the cartridges would not be provided power when the mixture ratio was set to 0%, Applicant respectfully submits that the reference teaches nothing about wherein the time interval is configured to allow liquid atomized from the primary liquid reservoir to exit the electronic smoking device, before the liquid atomized from the second liquid reservoir begins to exit the electronic smoking device.  This argument is not persuasive because a user can specify a mixture ratio of the cartridges and the software can adjust the PWM Duty Cycle on the fly; therefore the cartridges can be used non-simultaneously based on a user input.  For example, a user can set a mixture ratio to use the substance form a primary liquid reservoir exclusively then set another mixture ratio to use a substance from a secondary liquid reservoir exclusively.
Applicant essentially argues that the preferred embodiments where the duty cycle were set to be 40% and 30%/40% resulting in simultaneous increases in temperature of each cartridges; therefore if a user of the device taught in Steingraber wishes to change a vapor mix for example 0:100 vapor mix to a different vapor mix (e.g., 100:0); Applicant submits that in the transition from the first mix to the second mix, there would likely to be some overlap and mixing between the first and second mix, before vapor flowing out of the device had switched to 100% of the second mix.  This argument is not persuasive because in the scenario wherein a user is switching from a 0:100 vapor mix to a different vapor mix (e.g., 100:0), Steingraber discloses that the device Steingraber will control the mixture of the cartridges to allow the user to customize the mixture on the fly, the software will adjust the power cycle of both cartridges on the fly.  One of ordinary skill in the art would expect the first liquid atomized from the first mixture to exit the device before the liquid atomized from the second mixture begins to exit the device because there is time required upon start up to get to the starting temperature.
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.
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/PHU H NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 1747