DETAILED ACTION
Drawings
Replacement figure 4 was received on 3/26/26.
The new drawings are not accepted. The new figures 4 is/are objected to under 35 U.S.C. 132(a) for introducing new matter into the disclosure. 35 U.S.C. 132(a) states that no amendment shall introduce new matter into the disclosure of the invention. The added material which is not supported by the original disclosure is as follows: Applicant is attempting to assert that a singular circle line is the previously described vents; however, the office respectfully disagrees there is support for this change (see annotations).
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Applicant is required to cancel the new matter in the reply to this Office Action.
The drawings remain objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “collector including an annular vent placed at the back of the device and the vent encircles the cartridge” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered. Currently, applicant’s figures do not illustrate any collector nor how it attaches to the device or any vents on, in, or around this “collector”. The only removable component illustrated is the cartridge, the figures and disclosure do not explain how this collector and cartridge work together as applicant is attempting to claim.
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 § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1: this claim was amended to recites “the collector including an annular vent placed at the back of the device, wherein the vent fully encircles the cartridge”; at the outset, applicant fails to illustrate the collector in any figure except as a box in a flow chart. There is no support in applicant’s disclosure for the collector to include a vent that “fully encircles” the cartridge and the changes to the drawings also attempt to introduce new matter and do not help overcome this issue. This is a new matter rejection.
Applicant is required to cancel the new matter in response to this office action.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1: this claim was previously amended to require “the collector includes an annular vent…the vent encircles the cartridge” and this limitation previously caused a drawing objection for failing to illustrate the new subject matter now being claimed. This was an opportunity for applicant to amend the claims or figures to clearly illustrate this claimed feature; however, based on how vacuums work, it is unclear how vents at the rear of the device could be on the collector itself and the device still works. Typically vents are provided on the motor housing or the vacuum, providing a vent on the debris container at its rear would seem to cause any debris in the container to be shot out of the container meaning the “collector” would not collect the debris as claimed. No filter is disclosed or described, not any seals or conduits. The figures and description do not help explain how this arrangement would work. The new changes to the drawings and attempt to claim this arrangement resulted in the indefinite rejection because it is unclear what exactly applicant is trying to claim and where the combination of claimed features is illustrated in the pending application. Clarification or correction is requested.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pavis (US 20180042356) in view of Cho In Hee (KR 10-2077103), Carballada (US 20050109359), Lambridis (US 2020005434), and Cole (US D922009).
Claim 1: Pavis discloses a device for application of a hair formulation [0009], comprising: a body structure having a lengthwise dimension, wherein the body structure is intersected by a horizontal plane that defines a top side and a bottom side to the device, from back to front the body structure includes a cartridge (101) inserted in a cylindrical housing (510), followed by a cylindrical section (see Fig 27), followed by a tapered conical section (end of 201, see Fig 27) that tapers to an elliptical shape (513, Fig 27) and a handle (502) extending at, and into, a bottom side of the cylindrical section of the device at an obtuse angle with respect to the front end of the device and the horizontal plane (see Fig 27). Pavis indicates that the hair formulation can be a powdered hairstyling [0001 & 0009 & 0065] or treating product dispensed in a mist [0009] which requires some sort of nebulizer. Powder constitutes a “dry shampoo” because powder is a type of dry shampoo. Pavis discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for a plurality of tines extending in a lengthwise dimension from the elliptically shaped end of the device with each tine including a first opening and second opening and each tine having a chamfered flat area facing a bottom side of the device wherein the first and second openings are on the chamfered flat area at a front end of each tine, with the tines having rounded ends with the nebulizer connected to the first opening and a vacuum system connected to the second opening and including a collector with an annular vent at the back of the device with the vent fully encircling the cartridge as well as the composition being a dry shampoo with clay as the absorbent.
Cho In He, however, teaches a device for application of a dry shampoo formulation [0047] the device comprising: a body (110) with a brush head attachment (150) including a plurality of tines (153a & 153c), a pump (152) for dispensing dry shampoo (153a) [0047] through at least a first opening (153b) and a second opening (153d) attached to a vacuum system (170) [0037], the vacuum system including an inlet (end of 172) connected to the second opening, the vacuum system including a collector, in the form of a separate container [0054], for capturing used hair formulation [0037 & 0054] along with debris and oils from the hair; a handle (111) extending from the body (110) from the bottom side of the device and the cartridge (130) includes dry shampoo [0047]. The vacuum system “collector” has to include some kind of vent (173) which is illustrated as a cylindrical or annular tube at a back of the device and this tube extends above, or encircles, a top of the cartridge (see Fig 2). Cho In Hee teaches providing a device for application of a dry shampoo formulation with a plurality of dispensing tines including at least a first dispensing opening on at least one tine and a second suction opening on at least one tine with the second suction opening connected to a vacuum system [0047 & 0053] in order to make washing the hair with dry shampoo more convenient by suctioning the residue from the hair after application [0055]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing (or the time of invention if Pre-AIA ) to modify the device of Pavis by providing the device with a plurality of tines and a vacuum system connected to at least one second suction opening in one of the tines and the collector arrangement in view of Cho In Hee in order to make washing the hair with dry shampoo more convenient by suctioning the residue from the hair after application. The proposed modification is to provide the device of Pavis with an attachment including a plurality of tines extending therefrom with at least one tine including a first opening for dispensing the formulation and at least one tine including a second opening connected to a vacuum system including a collector as prescribed by Cho In Hee.
Modified Pavis discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for the plurality of tines extending in a lengthwise dimension from the elliptically shaped end of the device with each tine including one of the first opening and the second opening and each tine having a chamfered flat area facing a bottom side of the device wherein the first and second openings are on the chamfered flat area at a front end of each tine, with the tines having rounded ends and the dry shampoo composition having clay as the absorbent and the vent “fully” encircling the cartridge and collector.
Carballada, however, teaches a device (91) for application of a hair formulation including hairspray [0004] comprising: a body structure with a horizontal lengthwise dimension (see Fig 19A) intersected by a horizontal plane and a plurality of tines (16) extending lengthwise from a front end of the device, and each tine has a lengthwise centerline lying on the horizontal plane, wherein a tip of each tine includes a first set of openings (45, Fig 1C) and a second set of openings (48, Fig 1C); since Carballada teaches a pump [0099] as well as hairspray being one of the products that can be dispensed, this is interpreted to constitute a “nebulizer” connected to each first opening and Carballada teaches a motorized fan system [0099] connected to the second openings; and a handle (4) extending from the body structure at an obtuse angle with respect to the front end of the body (see Fig 19A). Carballada further teaches the tip of each tine including a chamfer (see Fig 1C) with a flat area on its bottom side (note this is dependent on how the device is oriented) and the front ends of the tines having rounded ends because the tine ends are rounded (see Figs+ 1A-1B). A top of the handle is connected to a bottom side of the body structure with a length of the handle extending downward from the bottom side (see Fig 19A) in a top to bottom plane (see Fig 19A) and the plurality of tines are formed in a side-to-side single plane (see Fig 19) and parallel to a length of the body structure (see Fig 19A). Carballada further teaches the body to be detachable from the handle (see Fig 2B) and a single pawl (see annotations) for attaching the body to the handle (see annotations) but multiple grooves/recesses that can mate with this singular pawl for allowing the removable attachment and detachment of the body with the handle (see annotations) such that Carballada by illustration discloses that the head of the device can be reversibly attached to the handle and reversible attachment would provide that the chamfered portion of each tine extends downwards towards the bottom of the handle in the top to bottom plane as claimed. In other words, Carballada teaches providing hair dryers that dispense products with a removable brush/comb attachment with the plurality of tines extending in the lengthwise direction and each having the prescribed chamfer and first and second openings for dispensing the product onto the hair in use, as well as air onto the hair in use, in order to allow for applying the product closer to the scalp and providing lift to the hair as a result [0005]. In other words, Carballada teaches providing the tines extending in the lengthwise direction with each tine having two openings and a chamfered portion with a rounded end; the first opening (45) on each tine is connected to a dispensing pump for dispensing the composition on the hair while the second opening (48) on each tine is connected to a fan or an air pump. This arrangement allows for applying the product closer to the scalp and providing lift to the hair as a result [0005]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing (or the time of invention if Pre-AIA ) to modify the device of modified Pavis by providing it with a tined attachment in view of and as prescribed by Carballada in order to allow a user to dispense the hair formulation closer to the scalp and “lift” the hair while applying the formulation for more even coverage of the product to the hair. The proposed modification would result in a plurality of tines extending in the lengthwise dimension and each tine comprising a first opening connected to the dispensing nebulizer and a second opening connected to the vacuum system, as well as each tine including a chamfered flat area at a front end of each tine and the front ends of the tines having rounded ends.
Modified Pavis discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for the first and second openings being on the chamfered portion and the dry shampoo composition including clay and the vent “fully” encircling the cartridge and collector. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify the device of modified Pavis to add first and second openings to be on the chamfered portion, since it has been held that mere duplication of essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art. See MPEP 2144.04(VI)(B). In the instant case, providing additional openings on the chamfered region would allow for additional dispensing and suction and logically a quicker application of the dry shampoo.
Modified Pavis discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for the dry shampoo composition including clay and the vent “fully” encircling the cartridge and collector. Lambridis, however, teaches that dry shampoo [0013] compositions are old and well known to comprise talc (see abstract & [0004]), which is clay. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to provide the dry shampoo with clay in it, since it has been held by the courts that selection of a prior art material on the basis of its suitability for its intended purpose is within the level of ordinary skill and since Lambridis teaches talc, or clay, to be a known absorbent used in dry shampoos and both Pavis and Cho In He teach the composition to be dry shampoo. See MPEP 2144.07.
Modified Pavis discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for the vent “fully” encircling the cartridge and collector. The office notes that applicant’s own disclosure has no support for this language and the figures fail to illustrate a collector at all in any meaningful sense and fail to illustrate any vents on this collector or how this collector fits or integrates with the claimed cartridge (see above drawing, new matter, and indefinite rejections). So the office asserts it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to modify the device of modified Pavis to have an annular vent fully encircling the cartridge rather than whatever shape applicant feels modified Pavis already teaches the vent to be, since the applicant has not disclosed that this particular type/shape of vent or the location of the vent solves any problem or is for a particular reason. It appears that the claimed invention would perform equally well as disclosed by modified Pavis. Alternatively, or additionally, Cole also teaches a portable handheld vacuum system, specifically with annular vents that are concentric with, or fully encircle, the collector (see Fig 1). In other words, Cole teaches that it is known to place annular vents on vacuum systems in order to enable airflow in the system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing (or the time of invention if Pre-AIA ) to modify the device of modified Pavis by providing the already disclosed vents to be annular vents that fully encircle the cartridge as taught by Cole to be known in the art of vacuum systems.
Claims 3-4: modified Pavis discloses the invention of claim 1 and Pavis further discloses a series of different momentary or selector switches (602, 606, 605) for controlling the various components of the device [0072 & 0085] with at least one of the switches located on an upper front side of the handle (602) and at least one of the switches located on a back side of the handle (606 & 605). So modified Pavis teaches a series of selector and momentary switches on the prescribed locations of the handle and discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for explicitly stating that the dispensing switch is on the front of the handle and a vacuum switch is on the back of the handle. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify the device of modified Pavis to include the prescribed switch locations since it has been held that rearranging parts of a prior art structure involves only routine skill in the art and Pavis already teaches switches for controlling different parts of the device in the claimed locations. See MPEP 2144.04(VI)(C).
Claim 8: modified Pavis discloses the invention of claim 1 and Carballada further discloses the tines having a conical shape that decreases in diameter along their length (see Figs 1A-1C). So modified Pavis discloses the tines being conical in shape because the proposed modification is to provide the device of Pavis with the comb attachment of Carballada which would include the tines as shaped by Carballada.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/26/26 have been fully considered but they are all drawn to the newly presented claim limitations, which have been addressed above with a modified ground of rejection.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jennifer Gill whose telephone number is (571)270-1797. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 9:00am-5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, please contact the examiner’s supervisor, Eric Rosen, can be reached on 571-270-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JENNIFER GILL/
Examiner, Art Unit 3772
/NICHOLAS D LUCCHESI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3772
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