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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/11/2025 has been entered.
Claims 1-16, 18 and 20 have been amended
Claims 1-16 and 18-20 are presented for examination
This action is Non-Final
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cassina (US 8,424,682) in view of Tom et al. (WO 2014/082026).
Claim 1: Cassina discloses a transport and storage container 1 for liquids for use in connection with a transport pallet (10) provided with an outer jacket (20), comprising: a foldable inner container (30) made of plastic for transporting and storing liquids (col. 4, ll. 24-25), the inner container (30) having an outlet socket (33) for connecting an outlet fitting (34) on a front side (fig. 1) and a top wall (linear surface @30; fig. 1) located opposite the bottom wall (parallel surface) and provided with a filling opening (32), wherein the outer jacket (20) provides for stackability of the transport and storage container, characterized in that the two side walls (col. 3,ll. 60-67), the foldable inner container adapted to be arranged in a stack of folded inner containers within the outer jacket of the transport pallet (fig. 1).
Cassina fails to explicitly teach the collapsible corrugated sidewalls of the inner container. Tom teaches an inner sleeve (10) a bottom wall (112) connecting two side walls (102, 104), a rear wall (106) and a front wall (108) of the inner container and serving to support the inner container on the pallet floor (406) of the transport pallet (402),
each have a horizontal corrugation (14), the horizontal corrugations being disposed in a shared central horizontal plane, the ([0101; fig. 4B). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the pallet supported inner container of Cassina to include the defined corrugated sidewalls of Tom to better support the inner container in the filled configuration.
Claim(s) 1-5, 10-16 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schutz (US 6,454,113) in view of Tom et al. (WO 2014/082026).
Claim 1: Schutz discloses a transport and storage container 1 for liquids for use in connection with a transport pallet (12) provided with an outer jacket (9), comprising: a foldable inner container (2) made of plastic blow-molded, having elastic characteristics for transporting and storing liquids (col. 3, ll. 21-35), the inner container (2) having an outlet socket (7) for connecting an outlet fitting on a front side (fig. 1) and a top wall (linear surface @3; fig. 1) located opposite the bottom wall (parallel surface) and provided with a filling opening (5), wherein the outer jacket provides for stackability of the transport and storage container (col. 2, ll. 26-40), the two side walls, the foldable inner container adapted to be arranged in a stack of folded inner containers within the outer jacket of the transport pallet (fig. 8).
Schutz fails to explicitly teach the collapsible corrugated sidewalls of the inner container. Tom teaches an inner sleeve (10) a bottom wall (112) connecting two side walls (102, 104), a rear wall (106) and a front wall (108) of the inner container and serving to support the inner container on the pallet floor (406) of the transport pallet (402),
each have a horizontal corrugation (14), the horizontal corrugations being disposed in a shared central horizontal plane, the ([0101; fig. 4B). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the pallet supported inner container of Schutz to include the defined corrugated sidewalls of Tom to better support the inner container in the filled configuration.
Claims 2-3: Schutz -Tom discloses he transport and storage container according to claim 1, wherein the front wall (102) has two diagonal corrugations (201, 206) below a horizontal wall axis (@205) of the front wall (102), the horizontal wall axis being disposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontal corrugations (202, 205), the diagonal corrugations (201, 206) extending between a lower container edge (55) and the wall axis (52) and approaching each other (Tom; [0008]; fig. 1).
Claim 4: Schutz -Tom discloses the transport container according to claim 3, wherein the front wall (102) and the rear wall (104) each have two diagonal corrugations (203, 204) above the wall axes of the front wall (102) and the rear wall (104), the wall axes being disposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontal corrugations (202, 205), the diagonal corrugations (203, 204) capable of extending from the upper container edge to the horizontal wall axis (52) and approaching each other (Tom; fig. 1, 3F).
Claim 5: Schutz -Tom discloses the transport container according to claim 2, wherein the diagonal corrugations on the front wall and the rear wall each run parallel to a surface diagonal (Tom; fig. 1).
Claim 18: Schutz -Tom discloses a method for folding an inner container of a transport and storage container according to claim 1, wherein a point load P is externally applied to the surface centers of the front wall and the rear wall and a linear load L is externally applied along the horizontal corrugations of the side walls in such a manner that the front wall and the rear wall are moved toward each other and the side walls are moved toward each other, a surface load F being simultaneously exerted on the bottom wall and the top wall in such a manner that the bottom wall and the top wall move toward each other (Tom; [0065]).
Claim(s) 6-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schutz (US 6,454,113) in view of Tom et al. (WO 2014/082026) in view of Grey (GB 2367054).
Claims 6-9: Schutz -Tom discloses the transport and storage container according to claim 2, where Tom teaches corrugations extending towards a longitudinal edge [0062] but fails to disclose a shared lateral and longitudinal edge. Grey teaches diagonal corrugations wherein each two diagonal corrugations (15, 16) coming from a shared lateral container edge (13, 14) form a pair of corrugations (17) and have longitudinal axes forming an isosceles triangle with the container edge (fig. 3). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the corrugation edges of Schutz -Tom to extend to the edge of the container as taught by Grey to improve the stability and reinforcement in the erected position.
Claims 10-11: Schutz -Tom discloses the transport and storage container according to claim 2, but fails to disclose the corrugations extending from the lateral container. Grey teaches the corrugations wherein distal corrugation ends of the diagonal corrugations extend into the lateral container edge (fig. 3). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the corrugation edges of Schutz -Tom to extend to the edge of the container as taught by Grey to improve the stability and reinforcement in the erected position.
Claims 12-13: Schutz -Tom discloses the transport and storage container according to claim 2, but fails to disclose the corrugations extending from the lateral container. Grey teaches wherein the diagonal corrugations have a corrugation bottom (18) continuously rising toward a wall surface (11) at their proximal corrugation ends (pg. 4, para. 2).
Claims 14-15: Schutz -Tom-Grey discloses the transport and storage container according to claim 13, wherein the horizontal corrugations have a concave corrugation bottom which has an enlarged profile radius for forming corrugation (18) widenings at the corrugation ends (Grey; fig. 8B).
Claim 16: Schutz -Tom-Grey discloses the transport and storage container according to claim 14, wherein at least a horizontal corrugation (205) is formed in the front wall (102) and the rear wall (104) capable of being adjacent to the corrugation widenings (Grey; fig.1).
Claim(s) 6-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schutz (US 6,454,113) in view of Tom et al. (WO 2014/082026) in view of Robbins (BR 9106794).
Claims 19-20: Cassina discloses a transport and storage container 1 for liquids for use in connection with a transport pallet (10) provided with an outer jacket (20), comprising: a foldable inner container (30) made of plastic for transporting and storing liquids (col. 4, Il. 24-25), the inner container (30) having an outlet socket (33) for connecting an outlet fitting (34) on a front side (fig. 1) and a top wall (linear surface @30; fig. 1) located opposite the bottom wall (parallel surface) and provided with a filling opening (32), wherein the outer jacket (20) provides for stackability of the transport and storage container, characterized in that the two side walls (col. 3,ll. 60-67), the foldable inner container adapted to be arranged in a stack of folded inner containers within the outer jacket of the transport pallet (fig. 1).
Schutz fails to explicitly teach the collapsible corrugated sidewalls of the inner container. Tom teaches an inner sleeve (10) a bottom wall (112) connecting two side walls (102, 104), a rear wall (106) and a front wall (108) of the inner container and serving to support the inner container on the pallet floor (406) of the transport pallet (402), each have a horizontal corrugation (14), the horizontal corrugations being disposed in a shared central horizontal plane, the ({0101; fig. 4B). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the pallet supported inner container of Schutz to include the defined corrugated sidewalls of Tom to better support the inner container in the filled configuration.
Schutz -Tom discloses a collapsible inner container stored inside an outer stackable container
but fails to disclose multiple collapsible inner containers stored in an outer container. Robbins
teaches a plurality of foldable plastic inner containers 333 capable of being received within an
outer jacket (fig. 5, 5A). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in
the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the stacking ability of
Schutz -Tom to include the multiple stacked inner containers of Robbins to provide the user with
multiple inner containers for extending the use of the assembly.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but in view of the amendment the search has been updated, new prior art has been identified and applied, and a new rejection has been made.
Regarding prior are Cassina, fig. 1 shows the inner container in the emptied condition. Although not explicitly taught, the inner container is adapted to be arranged in a stacked configuration with other emptied containers since more space is available. A modification of prior art Tom with the containers of both Cassina and Schultz to be easily folded, erected and remain in the folded configuration until refilled.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAVEN COLLINS whose telephone number is (571)270-1672. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am to 5:00pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ANTHONY STASHICK can be reached on 571-272-4561. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/RAVEN COLLINS/Examiner, Art Unit 3735
/Anthony D Stashick/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3735