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 .
This Office Action is in response to the applicant’s RCE filing on 03/05/2026.
Applicant’s cancelation of claims 8-9 and 13 is acknowledged and require no further examining. Claims 1-7, 10-12, and 14-20 are pending and examined below.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/05/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claims 1-7, 10-12, 14, and 19-20 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.
Regarding claim 1, the phrase “the separating assembly comprises: a first lifting apparatus coupled to the hopper and comprising at least two carrying partitions” renders claim 1 vague and indefinite because it is unclear which feature comprises which feature. It is unclear if the separating assembly or the first lifting apparatus comprises the two carrying partitions. For examining purposes, the phrase is interpreted as “the separating assembly comprises: a first lifting apparatus coupled to the hopper, wherein the first lifting apparatus comprises at least two carrying partitions”.
Claims 2-7, 10-12, 14, and 19-20 are dependent of claim 1 and include all the same limitations.
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, 11-12, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over reference Boucherie (6,315,103)(referred as Boucherie '103) in view of references Pistorino (2016/0136816), Mogan (8,048,318), and Boucherie (2001/0013461)(referred as Boucherie '461).
Regarding claim 1, Boucherie ‘103 discloses a device (1) for separately-loading object into packages, the device comprises:
a separating assembly (10, 16) adapted to separate the objects (3) fetched from a hopper (13);
wherein the separating assembly (10, 16) includes a first lifting apparatus (16) coupled to the hopper (13)
wherein the first lifting apparatus (16) comprises at least two carrying partitions (17) spaced apart at a predetermined distance to lift the objects from the hopper (13) in batches;
a first conveyor (8) adapted to receive and transport the objects (3) separated by the separating assembly (10, 16);
a second conveyor (23) arranged downstream of the first conveyor (8);
a return conveyor (29) arranged downstream of the first conveyor (8);
a detecting assembly (18) adapted to obtain detected data about the objects transported on the first conveyor (8);
a controller (7); and
a loading assembly (5) comprising at least one manipulator (20) arranged to a pickup region of the first conveyor (8),
wherein the at least one manipulator (20) adapted to pick up the target objects (3) from the pickup region of the first conveyor (8) and release the target objects (3) to respective dropping locations of the second conveyor (23),
wherein objects (3) not picked up are transported by the first conveyor (8) pass the pickup region to the return conveyor (29), and
wherein the return conveyor (29) is adapted to transport the objects back to the hopper (13).
(Figure 1, 2, 4 and Column 3 lines 43-54, Column 4 lines 18-25, 36-41, Column 5 lines 14-17, 23-25)
However, Boucherie ‘103 do not disclose the controller is adapted to determine tangling information, and do not disclose a centrifugal apparatus and a separating conveyor.
Pistorino discloses a device comprising a controller (901) configured to determine tangling information indicating whether objects (206) are tangled together. (Figure 1-2 and Page 2 paragraph 37, Page 4 paragraph 61, Page 6 paragraph 88)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the process of determining tangling information as taught by Pistorino, since page 9 paragraph 143 of Pistorino states such a modification would allow the controller to know when additional action is required to separate the objects.
Mogan disclose device comprising: a hopper (101); a lifting apparatus (102) coupled to the hopper (100); and a centrifugal apparatus (200) adapted to centrifugal separate the objects lifted by the lifting apparatus (102). (Figure 2A and Column 4 lines 35-40, 49-52)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the centrifugal apparatus as taught by Mogan, since column 4 lines 49-52 of Mogan states such a modification would help orient and feed the objects into a single-file order.
Boucherie ‘461 disclose a separating conveyor (14, 16) arranged between a chute (12) and a first conveyor (18),
wherein the separating conveyor comprises at least two sections (14, 16) along a running direction,
wherein the at least two sections (14, 16) are adapted to run at different speeds to further separate a set of objects,
wherein a downstream section (16) of the two adjacent sections is faster than an upstream section (14) of the two adjacent section to increase a distance between the objects, and
wherein a speed of the first conveyor (18) is greater than or equal to a speed of the separating conveyor downstream section (16).
(Figure 1 and Page 2 paragraph 15)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the separating conveyor as taught by Boucherie ‘461, since page 1 paragraph 7 of Boucherie ‘461 states such a modification would reliable separate conveyed objects.
When modifying Boucherie ‘103 in view of Mogan and Boucherie ‘461, the separating conveyor is interpreted to be situated between the centrifugal apparatus and the first conveyor.
Regarding claim 11, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the first conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 8) comprises an information acquisition region adapted for the detecting assembly (Boucherie ‘103 – 18) to obtain the detected data, wherein the pickup region is arranged downstream of the information acquisition region and adapted for the loading assembly (Boucherie – 5) to pick up the objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3). (Boucherie ‘103 – Column 4 lines 36-41)
Regarding claim 12, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the detecting assembly comprises a camera (Boucherie ‘103 – 18) arranged over the information acquisition region and adapted to obtain images of the objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) transported on the first conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 8) regularly. (Boucherie ‘103 – Figure 2 and Column 4 lines 36-41)
Regarding claim 14, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose a second lifting apparatus (Boucherie ‘103 – 32) arranged downstream of the return conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 29) and adapted to lift the objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) transported by the return conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 29) to the hopper (Boucherie ‘103 – 13). (Figure ‘103 1 and Column 5 lines 23-30)
Claims 2-7 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over reference Boucherie (6,315,103)(referred as Boucherie '103) in view of references Pistorino (2016/0136816), Mogan (8,048,318), and Boucherie (2001/0013461)(referred as Boucherie '461) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of reference Wagner et al. (10,538,394).
Regarding claim 2, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the claimed invention as stated above but do not disclose determining position information based on the detected data and speed of the first conveyor.
Wagner et al. a device comprising: a first conveyor assembly (20, 36); a loading assembly (70); a detecting assembly (32, 34); and a controller (78), wherein the controller (78) is configured to:
determine the objects (14);
determine position information of each of the objects (14) based on the detected data and a speed of the first conveyor (20, 36); and
control the loading assembly (70) to load the objection (14) to a respective package based on position information.
(Figure 1 and Column 5 lines 54-65, Column 9 lines 35-46)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the controller of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the determination of position information as taught by Wagner et al., since column 9 lines 43-46 of Wagner et al. states such a modification would allow the controller to know where the object is as the object moves along the conveyor.
Regarding claim 3, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the claimed invention as stated above but do not disclose a plurality of discharging ports downstream of the second conveyor.
Wagner et al. a device comprising a second conveyor (74) arranged downstream of a first conveyor (20, 36); and a plurality of discharging ports (82) arranged downstream of the second conveyor, wherein the second conveyor (74) comprises plurality of work ways (80) and dropping locations (84). (Figure 8, 10 and Column 10 lines 36-39)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the plurality of work ways, dropping locations, and discharging ports as taught by Wagner et al., since column 10 lines 15-24 of Wagner et al. states such a modification would allow objects be delivered to a plurality of packages.
Regarding claim 4, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose the second conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 23) comprises: a plurality of work ways (Wagner et al. – 80) associated with respective discharging ports (Wagner et al. – 82); and a plurality of dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84) arranged along each of the plurality of work ways and the adjacent drop locations (Wagner et al. – 84) spaced apart. (Wagner et al. – Figure 10 and Column 9 lines 43-47, Column 10 lines 15-19)
Regarding claim 5, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose at least one manipulator (Boucherie ‘103 – 20) adapted to pick up the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) from the first conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 8) and to release the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) to the respective dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84). (Wagner et al. – Column 7 lines 10-18, Column 9 lines 43-46)
Regarding claim 6, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose the controller (Boucherie ‘103 – 7) is configured to determine the dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84) for releasing the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to a position of the at least one manipulator (Boucherie ‘103 – 20) with respect to the second conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 23). (Wagner et al. – Column 9 lines 39-46)
Regarding claim 7, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose the controller (Boucherie ‘103 – 7) is configured to determine the types of the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to detecting data; and determine the dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84) for releasing the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to the types. (Wagner et al. – Column 7 lines 63-67, Column 9 lines 39-46)
Regarding claim 19, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose a plurality of discharging ports (Wagner et al. – 82) arranged downstream of the second conveyor second conveyor (Boucherie ‘103 – 23) and coupled to the respective packages (Wagner et al. – 90, 92). (Wagner et al. – Figure 8, 10 and Column 10 lines 36-39)
Regarding claim 20, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose determining types of the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to detecting data; and determining dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84) for releasing the target objects (Wagner et al. – 14) according to the types. (Wagner et al. – Column 7 lines 63-67, Column 9 lines 39-46)
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over reference Boucherie (6,315,103)(referred as Boucherie '103) in view of references Pistorino (2016/0136816), Mogan (8,048,318), and Boucherie (2001/0013461)(referred as Boucherie '461) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of reference Anderson et al. (5,178,225).
Regarding claim 10, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Mogan, and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the claimed invention as stated above but do not disclose a bidirectional vibration apparatus.
Anderson et al. disclose a conveyor system (20) comprising a bidirectional vibration apparatus configured to conduct motions in horizontal and vertical directions. (Figure 4 and Column 3 lines 64-67, Column 4 lines 3-5, Column 6 lines 64-68)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the bidirectional vibration apparatus as taught by Anderson et al., since column 6 lines 48-53 of Anderson et al. states such a modification would help orient the objects parallel to each other and aligned lengthwise.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over reference Boucherie (6,315,103)(referred as Boucherie '103) in view of references Pistorino (2016/0136816) and Boucherie (2001/0013461)(referred as Boucherie '461).
Regarding claim 15, Boucherie ‘103 discloses a method for separately-loading object into packages, the method comprises the steps of:
obtaining detected data about the objects (3) transported on a first conveyor (8); and
controlling at least one manipulator (20) to pick up the object (3) from a pickup region of the first conveyor and release the object (3) to respective dropping locations of a second conveyor (23) arranged downstream of the first conveyor (8),
wherein objects (3) not picked up are transported by the first conveyor (8) pass the pickup region to a return conveyor (29), and
wherein the return conveyor (29) is adapted to transport the objects back to a hopper (13).
(Figure 1, 2, 4 and Column 3 lines 43-54, Column 4 lines 18-25, 36-41, Column 5 lines 14-17, 23-25)
However, Boucherie ‘103 do not disclose the step of determining tangling information, and do not disclose a separating conveyor.
Pistorino discloses a device comprising a controller (901) configured to determine tangling information indicating whether objects (206) are tangled together. (Figure 1-2 and Page 2 paragraph 37, Page 4 paragraph 61, Page 6 paragraph 88)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the method of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the process of determining tangling information as taught by Pistorino, since page 9 paragraph 143 of Pistorino states such a modification would allow the controller to know when additional action is required to separate the objects.
Boucherie ‘461 disclose a separating conveyor (14, 16) arranged between a chute (12) and a first conveyor (18),
wherein the separating conveyor comprises at least two sections (14, 16) along a running direction,
wherein the at least two sections (14, 16) are adapted to run at different speeds to further separate a set of objects,
wherein a downstream section (16) of the two adjacent sections is faster than an upstream section (14) of the two adjacent section to increase a distance between the objects, and
wherein a speed of the first conveyor (18) is greater than or equal to a speed of the separating conveyor downstream section (16).
(Figure 1 and Page 2 paragraph 15)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the device of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the separating conveyor as taught by Boucherie ‘461, since page 1 paragraph 7 of Boucherie ‘461 states such a modification would reliable separate conveyed objects.
Claims 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over reference Boucherie (6,315,103)(referred as Boucherie '103) in view of references Pistorino (2016/0136816) and Boucherie (2001/0013461)(referred as Boucherie '461) as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of reference Wagner et al. (10,538,394).
Regarding claim 16, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the claimed invention as stated above but do not disclose determining position information based on the detected data and speed of the first conveyor.
Wagner et al. a device comprising: a first conveyor assembly (20, 36); a loading assembly (70); a detecting assembly (32, 34); and a controller (78), wherein the controller (78) is configured to:
determine the objects (14);
determine position information of each of the objects (14) based on the detected data and a speed of the first conveyor (20, 36); and
control the loading assembly (70) to load the objection (14) to a respective package based on position information.
(Figure 1 and Column 5 lines 54-65, Column 9 lines 35-46)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the method of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the step of determining of position information as taught by Wagner et al., since column 9 lines 43-46 of Wagner et al. states such a modification would allow the controller to know where the object is as the object moves along the conveyor.
Regarding claim 17, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino and Boucherie ‘461 disclose the claimed invention as stated above but do not disclose a plurality of dropping locations.
Wagner et al. a device comprising a second conveyor (74) arranged downstream of a first conveyor (20, 36); and a plurality of discharging ports (82) arranged downstream of the second conveyor, wherein the second conveyor (74) comprises plurality of work ways (80) and dropping locations (84). (Figure 8, 10 and Column 10 lines 36-39)
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention, to have modified the method of Boucherie ‘103 by incorporating the plurality of work ways, dropping locations, and discharging ports as taught by Wagner et al., since column 10 lines 15-24 of Wagner et al. states such a modification would allow objects be delivered to a plurality of packages.
Regarding claim 18, Boucherie ‘103 modified by Pistorino, Boucherie ‘461, and Wagner et al. disclose determining types of the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to detecting data; and determining dropping locations (Wagner et al. – 84) for releasing the target objects (Boucherie ‘103 – 3) according to the types. (Wagner et al. – Column 7 lines 63-67, Column 9 lines 39-46)
Response to Arguments
The Amendments filed on 03/05/2026 have been entered. Applicant’s cancelation of claims 8-9 and 13 is acknowledged and require no further examining. Claims 1-7, 10-12, and 14-20 are pending in the application.
In response to the arguments of the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), in view of the amendments to the claims, Examiner withdraws the 112(b) rejections.
In response to the arguments of the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 with reference Boucherie (6,315,103) modified by references Pistorino (2016/0136816), Mogan (8,048,318), and Fallas et al. (6,540,063), in view of the amendments to the claims, Examiner withdraws the 103 rejections. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of reference Boucherie (6,315,103) modified by references Pistorino (2016/0136816), Mogan (8,048,318), and Boucherie (2001/0013461).
Conclusion
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/PATRICK B FRY/Examiner, Art Unit 3731 May 14, 2026
/SHELLEY M SELF/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3731
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