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 .
Response to Arguments
35 USC 102 and 103
Applicant’s arguments, see pp. 4-6, filed 9 July 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-11 under 35 USC 102 and 103 over the primary reference Cai not teaching the claimed “and a mode of sleep aid and wake-up is automatically selected according to monitored results and a setting of the user” have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US 20200405072 A1 to Yu.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 209825975 U to Cai in view of US 20200405072 A1 to Yu.
Re Claim 1, Cai teaches:
A smart mattress (description, paragraphs [0022]-[0033], and figures 1-3), comprising a mattress body (1) (at least Fig. 1), wherein the smart mattress further comprises an airbag assembly (2) (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 2 of the translation] “airbag layer 12”) disposed on a supporting surface of the mattress body (1) (at least Fig. 1 and [p. 2 of the translation] teach the airbag layer 12 on top of the sponge layer 14) and a sensor (6) placed on the mattress body (1), and fits the human body surface in a supporting manner (at least Figs. 2-3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “human body movement monitoring device”), wherein the airbag assembly (2) comprises a plurality of airbags respectively used to support a plurality of parts of the human body (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 2 of the translation] “121, leg airbag group; 122, lumbar vertebral hip balloon group; 123, lumbar vertebral airbag group; 124, lumbar vertebra Upper airbag group; 125, back airbag group; 126, neck airbag group”), wherein a height of each of the plurality of airbags is adjustable (at least Fig. 3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “The airbag group 121 is inflated and deflated sequentially, that is, after the leg airbag group 121 moves or is in the middle of the movement, the lumbar vertebrae pull the airbag group 122 to follow the movement to the neck airbag group 126, and then repeat the above movement or from the neck The airbag group 126 starts to move up to the leg airbag group 121, so that the mattress forms a wave-like dynamic movement”), wherein the sensor (6) monitors parameters of the heart rate, respiration and body motion of the human body, wherein an air volume of each of the plurality of airbags in the airbag assembly (2) is adjusted based on data measured by the sensor (6) (at least Fig. 3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “human body movement monitoring device is communicatively connected to the background server. The human body movement monitoring device can monitor the human heartbeat and breathing, etc., and transmits the monitored data to the background server through wireless communication. The background server can automatically start based on the received information. Or stop the movement of the mattress”).
Cai does not explicitly teach:
and a mode of sleep aid and wake-up is automatically selected according to monitored results and a setting of the user.
However, Yu teaches:
and a mode of sleep aid and wake-up is automatically selected according to monitored results and a setting of the user (at least Figs. 6, 13A, and 18-22 and [0014] “the set value including an initial pressure value, an alarm time, etc. or the user information including a body condition of the user from the user terminal 30; an initial pressure adjusting step S200 of individually adjusting pressure of an air pocket 110 of the air mattress 10 and pressure of an air cell 72 of the air pillow 70 based on the set value or the user information; a pressure measuring step S300 of respectively measuring, by a pressure sensor unit 14 and a pillow pressure sensor unit 75, in real time the pressure of the air pocket 110 and the pressure of the air cell 72 that change depending on a movement of the user; a pressure change amount calculating step S400 of calculating, by a pressure change amount calculating unit 19 […] a pressure adjusting step S600 of individually adjusting the pressure of the air pocket 110 and the pressure of the air cell 72 based on the pressure adjustment amounts calculated by the pressure adjustment amount calculating unit 20; and an alarm step S1000 of waking the user from sleeping”).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the mattress taught by Cai with the automatic wake up capability taught by Yu with a reasonable expectation of success and predictable results. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “wherein the user is allowed to transition from a deep sleep (NREM sleep) state to a light sleep (REM sleep) state before a set alarm time” (Yu [0014]).
Re Claim 2, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
Cai further teaches:
further comprising an air source assembly (3) to control an air volume of each of the plurality of airbags in the airbag assembly (2) (at least Fig. 3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “connected to the air pump through the air pipe”).
Re Claim 3, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
Cai further teaches:
further comprising an operation module (4) for a user to control the airbag assembly (2) (at least Fig. 1 and [p. 3 of the translation] “The voice controller 2 can receive and recognize the user's voice instruction, and transmit the instruction signal to the background server […] the background server can control the movement of the airbag layer 12 according to the voice instructions received by the voice controller 2”).
Re Claim 4, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 3 (detailed with respect to claim 3).
Cai further teaches:
wherein the airbag assembly (2) further comprises an air pump (41), a solenoid valve group (42) and a signal processing module (43), wherein the air pump (41) is communicated with the plurality of airbags of the airbag assembly (2) via a plurality of solenoid valves of the solenoid valve group (42), and the operation module (4) is in communication connection with the signal processing module (43), and controls opening and closing states of the plurality of solenoid valves in the solenoid valve group (42) through the signal processing module (43) (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “Group 125 and neck airbag group 126, one end of each airbag group is connected with a solenoid valve, which can be fixed on the felt layer 16, the solenoid valves are connected to the air pump through the air pipe, and the solenoid valve and the air pump communicate with the background server Connected, the background server can control the movement of the airbag layer 12 according to the voice instructions received by the voice controller 2”).
Re Claim 5, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
Cai further teaches:
further comprising a heating assembly (5) disposed on part of the plurality of airbags of the airbag assembly (2), wherein the heating assembly (5) is used to change the body temperature of a user (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “the heating layer 11 is a graphene layer. As shown in FIG. 2, the key heating parts 111 of the graphene layer are thickened and distributed according to the positions shown in the figure, so that the parts of the human body that need to be heated are better heated”).
Re Claim 6, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 5 (detailed with respect to claim 5).
Cai further teaches:
wherein the heating assembly (5) is set to be an electrical heating element which is controlled by an operation module (4) (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 3 of the translation] “The voice controller 2 can receive and recognize the user's voice instruction, and transmit the instruction signal to the background server. The server controls parameters such as the temperature heated by the heating layer 11 and the time for the airbag layer 12 to move”).
Re Claim 8, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
Cai further teaches:
wherein at least one of the plurality of airbags in the airbag assembly (2) is a back airbag (21), or a waist airbag (22), or a leg airbag (23) or a foot airbag (24) (at least Figs. 1-3 and [p. 2 of the translation] “121, leg airbag group; 122, lumbar vertebral hip balloon group; 123, lumbar vertebral airbag group; 124, lumbar vertebra Upper airbag group; 125, back airbag group; 126, neck airbag group”).
Re Claim 10, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
Cai further teaches:
wherein the mattress body (1) is a sponge mattress (at least Fig. 1 and [p. 2 of the translation] “sponge layer 14”).
Claim(s) 9 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai and Yu and further in view of US 20100299842 A1 to Wang.
Re Claim 9, the combination of Cai and Yu teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 1 (detailed with respect to claim 1).
The combination of Cai and Yu does not explicitly teach:
wherein the mattress body (1) has a foldable structure, and upon unfolding, the mattress body (1) is a flat mattress structure.
However, Wang teaches:
wherein the mattress body (1) has a foldable structure (at least Figs. 3-6 and [0019] “the mattress body being folded”), and upon unfolding, the mattress body (1) is a flat mattress structure (at least Figs. 1-2).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the mattress taught by the combination of Cai and Yu with the folding capability taught by Wang with a reasonable expectation of success and predictable results to arrive at a foldable mattress. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “for convenient storage” (Wang [0005]).
Re Claim 11, the combination of Cai, Yu, and Wang teaches:
The smart mattress of claim 9 (detailed with respect to claim 9).
Cai further teaches:
wherein the mattress body (1) is a sponge mattress (at least Fig. 1 and [p. 2 of the translation] “sponge layer 14”).
Conclusion
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GEORGE SUN whose telephone number is (571)270-7221. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00am-4:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Justin Mikowski can be reached at (571) 272-8525. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GEORGE SUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3673
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