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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of group I in the reply filed on 12/11/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no burden. This is not found persuasive the inventions have materially different design, modes of operation, and differing classification. Group I is a garment while groups II and III are disinfecting devices with different operation and control. Thus, they would require different search strategies and art.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 12-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 12/11/2025.
Priority
The claims are given priority to 9/12/2022.
The claims include subject matter not supported by the earlier documents in the priority chain. For example, at least “a lighting apparatus disposed on an outer surface of the garment in operative communication with the disinfecting device, the lighting apparatus comprising: a clean visual indicator, an unclean visual indicator, and a switch configured to: responsive to a predetermined amount of time passing and the disinfecting portion not being actuated, display the unclean visual indicator and stop display of the clean visual indicator, and responsive to the disinfecting portion being activated, display the clean visual indicator and stop display of the unclean visual indicator.” in claim 1 is new to this CIP and not supported in the prior filings. Thus the dependent claims as well are given the effective filing date of 9/12/2022 for the purpose of applying prior art.
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 1-4 and 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curry et al. (US 10,894,101 in view of Bolling (US 2007/0008149).
With regards to claim 1, Curry et al. teaches a garment (fig 3 and 4) comprising: a disinfecting device (300) comprising: a cavity (inner cavity 306), a sensor (reed switch 1002 and magnet 1008) operative to actuate upon one or more objects entering the cavity (object or hands; column 5, lines 17-23 and 32-41), and a disinfecting portion configured to disinfect the one or more objects within the cavity (UV LED arrays 302 and 304), the disinfecting portion being actuated upon receiving an indication from the sensor of the one or more objects entering the cavity (when the pocket is opened to insert an object they turn on (fig 3 and 4; column 5, lines 17-23 and 32-41; see whole document).
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Curry does not teach a lighting apparatus disposed on an outer surface of the garment in operative communication with the disinfecting device, the lighting apparatus comprising: a clean visual indicator, an unclean visual indicator, and a switch configured to: responsive to a predetermined amount of time passing and the disinfecting portion not being actuated, display the unclean visual indicator and stop display of the clean visual indicator, and responsive to the disinfecting portion being activated, display the clean visual indicator and stop display of the unclean visual indicator.
Bolling teaches adding indicators to a garment (via a badge) to indicate the disinfection status of hands. In doing so, Bolling teaches a lighting apparatus disposed on an outer surface of the garment in operative communication with the disinfecting device (para [0035], [0040]-[0044], identification badge worn by a doctor displays red and green lights based on the disinfection status of hands), the lighting apparatus (para [0035], [0040]-[0044]), comprising: a clean visual indicator (para [0016], [0035], [0039]), an unclean visual indicator (para [0016], [0035], [0037]), and a switch (para [0035], [0044], [0048]) configured to: responsive to a predetermined amount of time passing and the disinfecting portion not being actuated, display the unclean visual indicator and stop display of the clean visual indicator (para [0035], [0037], [0054], [0067]-[0069], identification badge displays red for unclean/non-disinfected hands and green for disinfected hands... length of time used to determine how effective the disinfection of hands is and switches to not disinfected after a set period of time), and responsive to the disinfecting portion being activated, display the clean visual indicator and stop display of the unclean visual indicator (para [0035], [0037], [0067]-[0069], identification badge displays red for unclean/non- disinfected hands and green for disinfected hands.. length of time used to determine how effective the disinfection of hands still is).
A person having ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have added the status indicator as taught by Bolling in order to ensure that hands or other objects are being disinfected according to the proper time protocol and to act as a reminder to re-disinfect as needed.
With regards to claim 2, the sensor is a reed switch (column 5, lines 28-41).
With regards to claim 3, the sensor is a motion sensor (detects the motion of a hand or object entering the pocket through deformation of the opening dislodging the reed switch; column 5, lines 28-41).
With regards to claim 4, the sensor is coupled to the switch (they are both parts of the same device and thus coupled at least physically to each other). Further, as the sensor detects use of the disinfecting device (turns the disinfecting device on when hands or object is inserted) it would be obvious to connect the indicator switch to the sensor motivated by an expectation of successfully determining that the disinfecting device was recently used to allow for proper indication of the devices use.
With regards to claim 7, the disinfecting portion comprises a light emitting diode (LED)(column 3, lines 43-48).
With regards to claim 8, wherein the LED is operative to emit light effective to disinfect when shone on a surface (UV light is used to disinfect hands or objects in the pocket; see above and whole document).
With regards to claim 9, Curry et al. teaches wherein the LED is arranged on a first portion of the cavity and a second LED is arranged on a second portion of the cavity that opposes the first portion of the inner cavity (fig 3 shows the first array 302 on a body side of the pocket internal cavity and the second array 304 on the opposite side of the internal pocket cavity; column 4, lines 38-50).
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curry et al. (US 10,894,101 in view of Bolling (US 2007/0008149) as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Matsui et al. (US 2023/0293741).
With regards to claims 5 and 6, Curry et al. does not teach a vibrational element as claimed. Matsui teaches a vibrator on a UV sterilizing blanket/sheet that vibrates when the UV light is on to notify the user that UV light is being outputted (para [0062]; abstract; fig 1).
A person having ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have added a vibrator to the pocket/garment of Curry in order to notify the user that the UV light is on.
The combination results in a vibrational element configured to vibrate at least a portion of the garment and wherein the vibrational element is configured to vibrate during actuation of the disinfecting portion.
Claims 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curry et al. (US 10,894,101 in view of Bolling (US 2007/0008149) as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Offutt et al. (US 2018/0154028).
With regards to claim 10, Curry et al. teaches wherein the cavity has an opening comprising a first flexible portion (inner side of the pocket) and a second flexible portion (outer side of the pocket) (the device is described as flexible throughout the specification and at least the description of fig 1).
Curry et al. does not specify that the two different portions of the pocket are releasably secured to each other. Offutt teaches a UV sterilizer that has a main cavity and side pockets that have at least two portions secured to each other releasably by a zipper (abstract; para [0002]; fig 1 and 3). A person having ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have added a zipper to the pocket of Curry et al. so that access to or from the pocket can be selectively controlled (opened/closed with zipper).
The combination results in the two portions being releasably secured to each other.
With regards to claim 11, the sensor is connected to the first flexible portion and the second flexible portion (both as part of the device as a whole and specifically with the reed switch on one and the magnet on the other; column 5, lines 17-23 and 32-41).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DONALD R SPAMER whose telephone number is (571)272-3197. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday from 9-5.
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/DONALD R SPAMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1799