Office Action 2: Notice of Allowance (2025-09-23)

CLAIMS:
Amendments to the Claims

Listing of Claims (replacing all prior versions):

1\. (Currently Amended) A clothes treatment apparatus comprising:
a main body that defines an outer appearance of the clothes treatment apparatus;
a drum rotatably disposed in the main body and configured to accommodate an object to be dried;
a heat pump configured to supply heated air to the drum, the heat pump comprising a compressor being configured to compress refrigerant and to enable the heated air to circulate through the drum via an evaporator and a condenser;
a blower fan disposed at a rear end of the evaporator and the condenser, the blower fan being configured to generate flow of the heated air;
a plurality of motors configured to provide driving force to the drum, the blower fan, and the compressor;
a cleaner configured to spray condensate water collected from the evaporator to a surface of the evaporator to thereby remove foreign substances on the surface of the evaporator; \[\[and \]\] a controller configured to control the cleaner and the blower fan, the controller being configured to decrease a rotational speed of the blower fan based on operating the cleaner; and
a valve comprising:a valve case,
a plurality of condensate water ports that protrude from the valve case and define flow paths of the condensate water therein,
a plate rotatably disposed in the valve case and configured to block at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports, and
a valve motor configured to rotate the plate.

2\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to decrease the rotational speed of the blower fan to a preset reference speed.

3\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to stop rotation of the blower fan.

4\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cleaner comprises:
a condensate water storage;
an injection flow path connected to the condensate water storage;
a pump configured to supply condensate water in the condensate water storage to an end of the injection flow path; and
a cleaning nozzle configured to, based on operation of the pump, spray the condensate water to a surface of a front part of the evaporator.

5\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to decrease the rotational speed of the blower fan based on operating the pump to spray the condensate water through the cleaning nozzle.

6\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 5, wherein the blower fan comprises a blower motor, and
wherein the controller is configured to, based on terminating operation of the pump,
control the blower motor to restore the rotational speed of the blower fan to a first speed that is set before the pump is operated.

7\. (Canceled)

8\. (Currently Amended) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1,wherein the controller is configured to operate the blower fan after a rotation of the plate being stopped.

9\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 8, wherein at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports is connected to an outside of the clothes treatment apparatus.

10\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 9, wherein the controller is configured to:
control the valve motor to switch the plate from (i) a first state in which one of the plurality of condensate water ports connected to the outside is open to (ii) a second state in which another one of the plurality of condensate water ports is open; and
control the blower fan to operate based on the plate being switched to the second state.

11\. (Currently Amended) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1,wherein the controller is configured to set a start time point for operating the blower fan based on a rotation angle of the plate.

12\. (Currently Amended) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to stop operation of the blower fan before operating \[\[the \]\]a pump of the cleaner to drain the condensate water to the outside.

13\. (Currently Amended) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1,wherein the valve case defines a plurality of holes corresponding to ends of the plurality of condensate water ports, respectively, and
wherein the plate is configured to open one of the plurality of holes based on rotating relative to the valve case.

14\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 13, wherein the plate comprises a circular plate having a cut portion, the cut portion being configured to open one of the plurality of holes based on rotating relative to the valve case.

15\. (Currently Amended) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1,wherein the plurality of condensate water ports comprise (i) a first port that extends in a first direction and (ii) a second port that extends in a second direction intersecting the first direction.

16\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 15, wherein the plate is configured to rotate about an axis extending in the second direction.

17\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of condensate water ports further comprise a third port that extends in the first direction and a fourth port that extends in the second direction, and
wherein the fourth port is disposed above the second port.

18\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 17, wherein the valve further comprises a port portion that defines a plurality of holes corresponding to ends of the plurality of condensate water ports, respectively, and
wherein at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports is curved in the second direction and connected to one of the plurality of holes of the port portion.

19\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to:
control the blower fan to rotate at a first revolutions per minute (rpm);
based on operating the blower fan at the first rpm, start a cleaning mode for operating the cleaner;
based on starting the cleaning mode, control the blower fan to rotate at a second rpm different from the first rpm;
terminate the cleaning mode; and
based on terminating the cleaning mode, control the blower fan to rotate at the first rpm.

20\. (Original) The clothes treatment apparatus of claim 19, wherein the controller is configured to decrease the rotational speed of the blower fan to zero based on starting the cleaning mode.

OFFICE ACTION:
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 .
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an Examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious the limitations of claim 1, claiming a clothes treatment apparatus comprising: a main body; a drum; a heat pump comprising a compressor; a blower fan; a plurality of motors configured to provide driving force to the drum, the blower fan, and the compressor; a cleaner configured to spray condensate water collected from the evaporator to a surface of the evaporator to thereby remove foreign substances on the surface of the evaporator; a controller configured to control the cleaner and the blower fan, the controller being configured to decrease a rotational speed of the blower fan based on operating the cleaner; a valve, comprising: a valve case, a plurality of condensate water ports that protrude from the valve case and define flow paths of the condensate water therein, a plate rotatably disposed in the valve case and configured to block at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports, and a valve motor configured to rotate the plate.
The closest prior art of record is that of EP 2341183 to Essaid et al. (Essaid).  Essaid discloses a clothes treatment apparatus comprising: a main body that defines an outer appearance of the clothes treatment apparatus; a drum rotatably disposed in the main body and configured to accommodate an object to be dried; a heat pump configured to supply heated air to the drum, the heat pump comprising a compressor being configured to compress refrigerant and to enable the heated air to circulate through the drum via an evaporator and a condenser; a blower fan disposed at a rear end of the evaporator and the condenser, the blower fan being configured to generate flow of the heated air; a plurality of motors configured to provide driving force to the drum, the blower fan, and the compressor; a cleaner configured to spray condensate water collected from the evaporator to a surface of the evaporator to thereby remove foreign substances on the surface of the evaporator; and a controller configured to control the cleaner and the blower fan, the controller being configured to decrease a rotational speed of the blower fan based on operating the cleaner.  Essaid does not disclose or make obvious the valve, motor, and plate along with configuration thereof.
The advantage of the current invention over that of the prior art to Essaid is that of the valve, motor, and plate along with configuration thereof of the current invention wherein this allows for a proper regulation of the amount of water being sprayed to the evaporator thereby more efficiently cleaning the evaporator of residue thereon.
Since claim 1 is allowed, claims 2-6 and 8-20 which depend thereon are also allowed.
Conclusion

APPLICANT REBUTTAL: REMARKS
In response to the Office Action of June 5, 2025, Applicant asks that the application be allowed in view of the amendments above and the following remarks. Claims 1-6 and 8-20 are pending, with claim 1 being independent. Claims 1, 8, 11-13, and 15 have been amended, and claim 7 has been canceled without prejudice or disclaimer of subject matter. No new matter has been introduced.
Allowable Sub
j
ect
Matter
Applicant thanks Examiner Osterhout for the indication that claims 7-18 recite allowable subj ect matter.
Claim Rejections
-
US.
Claims 1-6, 19, and 20 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102 over EP 2341183 ("Essaid"). Applicant requests reconsideration and withdrawal of these rejections because none of the cited references, whether taken alone or in proper combination, describes or otherwise renders obvious all of the features of amended independent claim 1.
For example, amended independent claim 1 recites, among other things, a valve including "a valve case, a plurality of condensate water ports that protrude from the valve case and define flow paths of the condensate water therein, a plate rotatably disposed in the valve case and configured to block at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports, and a valve motor configured to rotate the plate." The cited references fail to describe or otherwise render obvious at least these features. Moreover, these features were recited in previously pending claim 7, which was not otherwise rejected in the Office Action.
Specifically, the Office Action equates Essaid's clothes drying machine 1 to the claimed clothes treatment apparatus. See Office Action at p. 2. Essaid, however, fails to describe or otherwise render obvious the above-noted features added as a consequence of the amendments set forth above. In particular, Essaid's clothes drying machine 1 does not include a valve including "a valve case, a plurality of condensate water ports that protrude from the valve case
and define flow paths of the condensate water therein, a plate rotatably disposed in the valve case and configured to block at least one of the plurality of condensate water ports, and a valve motor configured to rotate the plate," as claimed. Rather, Essaid merely describes "an expansion valve or else an expansion capillary." Essaid at [0065]. Further, a person of ordinary skill in the art would not have been led, absent impermissible hindsight gleaned from the present application, to somehow modify Essaid to include the features of amended claim 1.
For at least these reasons, the cited references, either alone or in proper combination, fail to describe or otherwise render obvious all of the features of amended independent claim 1. Accordingly, Applicant submits that amended independent claim 1 and its dependent claims are in condition for allowance.
Conclusion


CITED REFERENCE SUMMARIES: Ref EP2341183: Claims:
said laundry machine (1) comprising at least one heat exchanger (11) positioned in said drying air circuit (4), said at least one heat exchanger (11) being provided with a storage tank (4); condensation water (12) and a cleaning device using water (13); said laundry dryer (1) comprising a first condensate drain pump (14) of said condensation water tank (12); characterized in that said method comprises at least the following steps: drying the laundry with accumulation of condensation water in said condensation water tank (12); cleaning said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of the condensation water, - where the condensation water of said condensation water tank (12) is: o circulating through a filter (16) of said condensation water tank (12) and by means of a second pump (15) for circulating condensation water to said cleaning device using the water (13), o sent from said cleaning device using water (13) to said at least one heat exchanger (11), then o returned to said condensed water tank (12) by being loaded with linen fibers; - evacuation of condensation water loaded with linen fibers, - where the condensation water of said condensation water tank (12) is: o circulating through said filter (16) of said condensation water tank (12), then o evacuated by means of said first pump (14) for draining condensation water from said condensed water tank (12) being put into operation; and where said second pump (15) for circulating condensation water to said cleaning device using water (13) is stopped.
characterized in that the sequencing of said laundry drying steps with accumulation of condensation water in said condensation water tank ( 12), cleaning said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of condensation water and discharging the condensed water loaded with linen fibers is repeated several times during the implementation of a drying cycle of the laundry by said dryer (1).
characterized in that the condensation water is circulated through said filter (16) of said condensation water tank (12) in the opposite direction in said step of discharging the condensation water loaded with linen fibers with respect to said step of cleaning said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of the condensation water.
characterized in that the condensation water of said condensation water tank (12) is discharged to a condensation water collection tank (18) or to a waste water network during said stage of evacuation of the condensation water loaded with linen fibers.
characterized in that the condensation water is fed to a drying air inlet section of said at least one heat exchanger (11) during said cleaning step of said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of the condensation water.
characterized in that said step of drying the laundry with accumulation of condensation water in said water tank condensation device (12) is used with said first condensation water drain pump (14) and second condensation water circulation pump (15) at a standstill.
said laundry machine (1) comprising at least one heat exchanger (11) positioned in said drying air circuit (4), said at least one heat exchanger (11) being provided with a storage tank (4); condensation water (12) and a cleaning device using water (13); said laundry dryer (1) comprising a first condensate drain pump (14) of said condensation water tank (12); characterized in that said laundry dryer (1) comprises a second pump (15) for circulating condensation water generating a first flow of condensation water (A), during the cleaning of said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of the condensation water, from said condensation water tank (12), wherein said first condensation water stream (A): - passes through a filter (16) of said condensation water tank (12), is circulated to said cleaning device using water (13), is sent by said cleaning device using water (13) to said at least one heat exchanger (11), and returns to said condensation water tank (12) loaded with linen fibers; and in that said first condensation water draining pump (14) of said condensation water tank (12) generating a second flow of condensation water (B), during the evacuation of the water of condensation condensation loaded with laundry fibers, from said condensation water tank (12), wherein said second condensation water stream (B): crosses said filter (16) of said condensation water tank (12), and - is evacuated outside said condensation water tank (12), while said second pump (15) for circulating condensation water is stopped.
characterized in that said first condensation water pump (14) and said second condensing water circulation pump (15) are located in the lower part of the said dryer (1) and inside said condensation water tank (12).
characterized in that said second flow of condensation water (B) during the discharge of the condensed water of the laundry fibers passes through said filter ( 16) of said condensation water tank (12) in opposite direction to said first condensation water stream (A) during cleaning of said at least one heat exchanger (11) by means of the condensation water.
characterized in that said dryer (1) is of the type wherein said at least one at least one heat exchanger (11) is a condenser, or heat pump wherein said at least one heat exchanger (11) is an evaporator (26) and / or a condenser (24).