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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/25/2026 has been entered.
The status of the 06/25/2026 claims, is as follows: Claims 1, 4-5, and 8-10 have been amended; Claims 6, 13, 15, 19, and 25 have been canceled; Claims 11-12, 14, 16-18, 20-24, and 26-27 have been withdrawn; and claims 1-5, 7-12, 14, 16-18, 20-24, and 26-29 are pending.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-5, 7-10, and 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grosse-Butenuth (US 20070160720, hereinafter Butenuth) in view of Henning (US 6658990), and Graham (US 20050087079)
Regarding Claim 1, Butenuth discloses an injection machine (injector 10; fig. 1), comprising:
a needle assembly (needles 20) including a plurality of injector needles (needles 20) arranged into a pattern to cover a horizontal injection area (para. 0019) (it is noted that the needles 20 are arranged in a straight line to cover a horizontal area of the belt 24), and
a conveyor (belt 24) positioned below the needle assembly (hollow needles 20) (fig. 1).
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Butenuth does not disclose:
wherein the plurality of injector needles have side exit ports respectively located proximate to a tip of a corresponding injector needle included in the plurality of injector needles;
wherein the conveyor includes perforations on a top surface of the conveyor, wherein the perforations at least match the pattern of the plurality of injector needles to allow the plurality of injector needles to be lowered to place the side exit ports of the plurality of injector needles at or just above the top surface of the conveyor, and wherein there is at least a one-to-one ratio for the perforations with respect to the plurality of injector needles over the horizontal injection area.
However, Henning discloses the plurality of injector needles (needles 30) have side exit ports (plurality of openings 35; figs. 3 and 6) respectively located proximate to a tip of a corresponding injector needle included in the plurality of injector needles (points 31) (col. 4, lines 40-54).
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace the injector needles of Butenuth with the injector needles of Henning such that the plurality of injector needles have side exit ports located proximally with respect to the tip of the needles, in order to ensure that fluid medium for food treatment is injected into food products through the side exit ports for uniform distribution of the fluid medium throughout the food products (col. 4, lines 40-54 of Henning).
The modification does not disclose:
the conveyor includes perforations on a top surface of the conveyor, wherein the perforations at least match the pattern of the plurality of injector needles to allow the plurality of injector needles to be lowered to place the side exit ports of the plurality of injector needles at or just above the top surface of the conveyor, and wherein there is at least a one-to-one ratio for the perforations with respect to the plurality of injector needles over the horizontal injection area.
However, Graham discloses the conveyor (platen conveyor 518) includes perforations (depressions formed in the plurality of depression-molded platens 510, annotated fig. 5b and also fig. 5a) on a top surface of the conveyor (“platen conveyor 518 comprises a plurality of depression-molded platens 510 that are flexibly linked to one another in series to form an endless conveyor.”, para. 0047) (it is noted according to published specification of the instant application, para. 0046, it is stated “the conveyor belt 304 can include perforations that are small depressions or dimples formed on the surface of the conveyor belt 304, without extending completely through the conveyor belt.”. It is examiner’s position that the depressions formed on the platens 510 constitute the perforations as claimed), wherein the perforations (annotated fig. 5b) at least match the pattern of the plurality of injector needles (spouts 522’s) to allow the plurality of injector needles (spouts 522’s) to be lowered to place the exit ports of the plurality of injector needles just above the top surface of the conveyor (platen conveyor 518) (para. 0049. It is noted the perforations on the platens 510 match the pattern of the spouts 522’s because the perforations form a straight line along the conveyor and the plurality of spouts 522 also forms a straight line along the conveyor. The spouts 522’s are capable of being lifted and lowered as seen in figs. 1-2 with respect to the top surface of the conveyor 518 to place the tips of the spouts 522’s above the top surface of the conveyor 518) and wherein there is at least a one-to-one ratio for the perforations (depressions, annotated fig. 5b) with respect to the plurality of injector needles (spouts 522’s) over the horizontal injection area (fig. 5b indicates one perforation for every five spouts 522’s. The limitation “at least a one-to-one ratio for the perforations with respect to the plurality of injector needles” is interpreted to include “one-to-five ratio” because of the phrase “at least”).
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the conveyor of Butenuth in view of Henning to include perforations (i.e. depressions in the depression-molded platens 510) on the top surface of the conveyor as taught by Graham, wherein the perforations at least match the pattern of the plurality of injector needles of Butenuth to allow the plurality of injector needles to be lowered to place the side exit ports of the injector needles just above the top surface of the conveyor. Doing so would allow the food products to be injected to be securely positioned within the perforations (i.e. depressions on the platens 510’s of Graham) such that the food products would not slip during the injection process.
Regarding Claim 2, the modification discloses substantially all of the claimed features as set forth above, except the conveyor is an endless loop belt conveyor.
However, Hansen discloses the injection machine (title), wherein conveyor is an endless loop belt conveyor (para. 0038).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the conveyor of Butenuth such that it is the endless loop belt conveyor, because it is conventionally known to use the endless loop belt to position food products relative to the injector needles.
Regarding Claim 3, the modification discloses the tips of the plurality of injector needles (tips of needles 20 of Butenuth) travel below the top surface of the conveyor (top surface of belt 24 of Butenuth) on a downstroke of the needle assembly (needles 20 of Butenuth) (it is noted the modification would result in the tips of the needles 20 being capable of traveling below the top surface of the belt 24 because of the depressions of Graham formed on the conveyor that allow the tips of the needles to travel further down below the top surface of the conveyor).
Regarding Claim 4, Butenuth discloses the machine further comprising a control system (control unit 42; fig. 1), including a processor (control unit 42), configured to control the forward advance speed of the conveyor and synchronize lifting and lowering of the needle assembly with advancement of the conveyor (“operating parameters of the injector 10, in particular the amount of brine determined by the dwell time of the needles in the product, is adjusted by the control unit 42”, para. 0025 and also para. 0019).
Regarding Claim 5, Henning discloses the corresponding injector needle (needles 30) included in the plurality of injector needles (needles 30) corresponds to a hollow tube ending in a sharp tip (point 31) (fig. 6), wherein the tip (point 31) is closed (as shown in fig. 6, there is no liquid flow through point 31, therefore point 31 is closed), and wherein the side exit ports of the corresponding injector needle (plurality of openings 35 of the needle 30) are disposed from above the end of the tip (point 31) (fig. 6) and further arranged circumferentially around the given injector needle (needle 30) (fig. 6 below).
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The modification does not disclose the plurality of side exit ports are positioned about 4 mm to about 5 mm proximally above the end of the tip.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the
time the invention was made to modify the plurality of side exit ports of Henning such that they are positioned about 4mm to about 5mm proximally above the end of the tip, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. The motivation is to ensure that the liquid medium is injected into the food products through the side exit ports at desired depth into the food products so that uniform distribution of the liquid medium throughout the food products is achieved.
Regarding Claim 7, Graham discloses the conveyor (platen conveyor 518) includes additional perforations (annotated fig. 5a) on the top surface in addition to the perforations (depressions formed on the platens 510) that match the pattern of the plurality of injector needles (spouts 522’s) (para. 0047; annotated fig. 5a).
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Regarding Claim 8, Graham discloses the perforations (two depressions that form a straight line, annotated fig. 5a) and the additional perforations (four depressions that form a straight line, annotated fig. 5a) match two or more different needle assembly patterns (pattern of the two spouts and the pattern of the four spouts, which are straight lines) (annotated fig. 5a), wherein the two or more different needle assembly patterns (pattern of the two spouts and the pattern of the four spouts, which are straight lines) include the pattern of the plurality of injector needles (pattern of the two spouts, which is a straight line).
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Regarding Claim 9, Graham discloses the perforations (depressions in the platens 510) in the conveyor extend partially into the conveyor a depth (fig. 5b), wherein the depth allows the tip of the needles to travel past the top of the conveyor, and wherein a horizontal dimension of the perforations (depressions in the platens 510) are greater than a diameter of the corresponding injector needle (fig. 5b).
The modification does not disclose the depth corresponds to distance between an end of the tip of the corresponding injector needle to an edge of one of the side exit ports.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art
time the invention was made to modify the depth of the perforations corresponds to a distance between the end of the tip of the given injector needle to an edge of one of the side exit ports, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. The modification to ensure the food products are effectively injected with fluid through the exit ports of the plurality of the needles.
Regarding Claim 10, Butenuth discloses the injection machine (injector 10; fig. 1), further comprising a control system (control unit 42) configured to control a timing of injecting fluid via the plurality of injector needles (needles 20) (“operating parameters of the injector 10, in particular the amount of brine determined by the dwell time of the needles in the product, is adjusted by the control unit”, para. 0025).
Regarding Claim 28, Graham discloses the perforations (depressions on the platens 510) correspond to depressions formed on the surface of the conveyer (platen conveyor 518) without extending completely through the conveyor (“platen conveyor 518 comprises a plurality of depression-molded platens 510 that are flexibly linked to one another in series to form an endless conveyor”, para. 0047; figs. 5a-5b).
Regarding Claim 29, Graham discloses each of the perforations (depressions on the platens 510) are shaped to receive an individual injector needle (spouts 522) included in the plurality of injector needles (spouts 522) (“spouts 522 protruding through the platens 510 on the platen conveyor 518”, para. 0049).
Response to Amendment
With respect to claim objections: since amendment made to the claim 1, therefore the claim objections are withdrawn.
With respect to 112f notification for “a control system” in claim 4: since amendment made to the claim 4, therefore the 112f notification is withdrawn.
Response to Argument
Applicant's arguments filed on 06/25/2026 have been fully considered but they are respectfully considered moot in view of new ground of rejections.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BONITA KHLOK whose telephone number is (571)270-7313. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9:00am-6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, IBRAHIME ABRAHAM can be reached on (571) 270-5569. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BONITA KHLOK/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/CHRIS Q LIU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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