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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/21/2025 has been entered.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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, 3-5 and 14-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rivera (US Pat No 8,702,018 B1) in view of Ishihara et al. (US Pub No 2024/0398085 A1) and further in view of Delapenha et al. (US Pub No 2024/0049869 A1). All citations to Rivera unless specified otherwise.
Re claim 1, Rivera shows a system for dispensing hair care (Figs. 1-5), the system comprising:
a dispensing device (10);
at least one cartridge (16L) containing a hair care material (abstract – “shampoo”) configured to fit inside (Fig. 1) the dispensing device;
a dispensing container (20) removably attached to the dispensing device (10) wherein the dispensing container is configured to accept a specified amount of the hair care material from the at least one cartridge (through 19’, see Figs. 2A & 3A); and
a showerhead (13/14) communicatively coupled to the dispensing device (10) and configured to connect to the dispensing container (20, see Fig. 3A).
Rivera does not teach wherein the dispensing device and the showerhead are communicatively coupled to a communication device, and wherein the communication device includes an AI-enabled application configured to:
analyze a user’s hair based on at least a photo of the user’s hair, including the overall hair condition, damage, color, copper content, lice presence, moisture, texture, and/or dandruff;
assess inputs and concerns from the user, through the communication device, about the user’s hair, including current hair color, past hair treatments, hair length, and hair texture;
provide a hair care material recommendation; and
direct the dispensing device to dispense the hair care material into the dispensing container.
However, Ishihara et al. teach a dispensing device (40) including a communication device (74), and wherein the communication device includes an application configured to:
analyze a user’s hair based on at least a photo of the user’s hair (paragraphs 0079), including the overall hair condition (paragraph 0208; Figs. 9A & 9B), damage (paragraph 0208; Figs. 9A & 9B), color (paragraph 0208; Figs. 9A & 9B), moisture (paragraph 0208; Figs. 9A & 9B), and/or texture (paragraph 0208; Figs. 9A & 9B);
assess inputs and concerns from the user (paragraph 0085), through the communication device (74), about the user’s hair, including hair color, past hair treatments, hair length, and hair texture (paragraph 0214);
provide a hair care material recommendation (paragraph 0095; Figs. 19-21); and
direct the dispensing device to dispense the hair care material into the dispensing container (paragraph 0095).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the system of Rivera include a communication device with the application as taught by Ishihara et al. to easily provide a finish of hair desired by a user (paragraph 0006).
Further, Delapenha et al. disclose a communication device including an AI-enabled application (paragraph 0106) configured to:
analyze a user’s hair based on at least a photo of the user’s hair (paragraph 0025), including the overall hair condition, damage, color, moisture, texture, and/or dandruff (paragraph 0044 – table 1/table 2);
assess inputs and concerns from the user (paragraph 0050), through the communication device, about the user’s hair, including current hair color (Fig. 3A, 311B), past hair treatments (311B), hair length (311A), and hair texture (311E);
provide a hair care material recommendation (paragraph 0046).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the communication device of Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. include an AI-enabled application as taught by Delapenha et al. in order to generate, train, maintain, and update machine learning models for a custom hair treatment provider (Delapenha – paragraph 0106).
Re claim 3, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the dispensing container (20) is configured to connect to the showerhead (13/14) between a spout (12W) of the shower and the showerhead (13/14).
Re claim 4, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the dispensing container (20) is configured to connect to the base (14) of the showerhead (13/14).
Re claim 5, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the dispensing container (20) is inserted inside (21) the showerhead (13/14).
Re claim 14, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the showerhead is further configured to deposit a single dose of the hair care material (Figs. 2A & 3B, col. 11, lines 1-20).
Re claim 15, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the dispensing container (20) is single-use.
Re claim 16, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show a plurality of nozzles (Figs. 3A-3D, multiple arrows denoting multiple nozzles emitting fluid).
Re claim 17, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the dispensing container further comprises an attachment (21/13).
Re claim 18, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. disclose the attachment is selected from a magnet, a threaded opening (col. 12, lines 10-16), or a snap.
Re claim 19, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show the showerhead further comprises a controller (Ishihara – 80) communicatively coupled to the dispensing container and configured to direct the dispensing container to dispense the hair care material.
Re claim 20, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. disclose the dispensing container further comprises a cover (Figs. 2A-2C, 18), and wherein the controller is further configured to direct the cover to open (Ishihara – paragraphs 0074 and 0075).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the controller direct the cover to open, since it has been held that broadly providing a mechanical or automatic means to replace manual activity which has accomplished the same result involves only routine skill in the art. In re Venner, 120 USPQ 192.
Re claim 21, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. show a user input (Ishihara – paragraph 0085) that the user can actuate and is communicatively coupled to the controller (Ishihara - Fig. 5), wherein the controller (Ishihara – 80) is further configured to receive input from the user input (Ishihara – 71) to begin directing the dispensing container to dispense the hair care material (Ishihara – Fig. 5).
Claims 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rivera (US Pat No 8,702,018 B1) in view of Ishihara et al. (US Pub No 2024/0398085 A1) in view of Delapenha et al. (US Pub No 2024/0049869 A1) and further in view of Samain (FR 3061498 A1).
Re claim 6, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. disclose all aspects of the claimed invention but does not teach the showerhead is further configured to detect a number of doses of hair care material present in the dispensing chamber.
However, Samain discloses a system including one or more sensors informing an adjustment device about the quantity of each of the products delivered to the dispensing device (p. 22, lines 17-19).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the motivation to have the showerhead of Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. to include the sensors as taught by Samain to allow a user to more easily determine the treatment adapted to the hair of the person whose hair is treated (Samain – p. 5, lines 4-6).
Re claim 7, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Samain disclose the showerhead detects the number of doses of hair care material present in the dispensing chamber by communicating with the dispensing device regarding a number of doses of the hair care material last dispensed (Samain – p. 22, lines 17-19).
Re claim 8, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Samain disclose the showerhead detects the number of doses of hair care material present in the dispensing chamber by communicating with the communication device regarding a number of doses of the hair care material last dispensed (Samain – p. 22, lines 17-19).
Claims 9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rivera (US Pat No 8,702,018 B1) in view of Ishihara et al. (US Pub No 2024/0398085 A1) in view of Delapenha et al. (US Pub No 2024/0049869 A1) and further in view of Clarke et al. (US Pub No 2022/0316191 A1).
Re claim 9, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. and Delapenha et al. disclose all aspects of the claimed invention but does not teach the showerhead is further configured to detect the type of hair care material inside the dispensing chamber.
However, Clarke et al. disclose a cartridge-based water conditioner which includes an identifier that includes stored or encoded data describing characteristics of the cartridge such as the contents or additive within the cartridge (paragraph 0073) along with a cartridge reader providing the received information to a processor for use by the showerhead (Fig. 2, 112, paragraphs 0074 & 0092).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the motivation to have the showerhead of Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al. to include the additive identifier and reader as taught by Clarke et al. to verify compatibility, verify usability, verify contents or additive, verify that it has not expired or exceeded its usable life or other uses (Clarke – paragraph 0074).
Re claim 10, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Clarke disclose the showerhead detects the type of hair care material inside the dispensing chamber by reading an RFID tag on the dispensing container associated with the type of hair care material inside of the dispensing container (Clarke – paragraphs 0073 & 0074).
Re claim 11, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Clarke disclose the showerhead detects the type of hair care material inside the dispensing chamber by reading a QR code on the dispensing container associated with the type of hair care material inside of the dispensing container (Clarke – paragraphs 0073 & 0074).
Re claim 12, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Clarke disclose the showerhead detects the type of hair care material present in the dispensing chamber by communicating with the dispensing device regarding the type of hair care material last dispensed (Clarke – paragraph 0092).
Re claim 13, Rivera as modified by Ishihara et al., Delapenha et al. and Clarke disclose the showerhead detects the type of hair care material present in the dispensing chamber by communicating with the communication device regarding the type of hair care material last dispensed (Clarke – paragraphs 0073, 0074 & 0092).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 3-21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN MICHAEL CERNOCH whose telephone number is (571)270-3540. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 8am-5pm.
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STEVEN MICHAEL CERNOCH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3752
/STEVEN M CERNOCH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3752