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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: in line 5 “\of” appears to be a typographical error. Appropriate correction is required. Claims 2-18 are objected to by virtue of their dependencies.
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.
Claim 20 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 20 recites the limitation "The underground mine hoist" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of this action, the Examiner assumes that claim 20 depends on claim 19.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) human activity guided by set rules/conditions. This judicial exception is not sufficiently integrated into a practical application and the claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because of the following:
According to the MPEP Subject Matter Eligibility Test For Products And Processes,
with regard to claims 1-15 and 18:
Step 1: The claims are directed to a process.
Revised Step 2A Prong One: The claimed limitations encompass human activity, there being no automation recited, all of the recited steps could be performed by a human.
Revised Step 2A Prong Two: As recited, the claimed human activity is loosely associated with mining. However, this association is not limiting, in that the association with mining does not add any distinguishing features to the process steps.
Step 2B: The claim does not recite limitations that amount to significantly more than the ineligible human activity.
With regard to claims 16 and 17, the analysis is the same as above, except that the claims recite sensors and controllers that do not amount to significantly more, since they are insignificant extra-solution components.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 19 is allowed.
With regard to claim 19, the closest prior art CN 102009887 (see attached copy of machine translation, portions of which are cited herein) discloses an underground mine hoist, comprising: an underground shaft extending from a surface of the earth to a mining area under the surface ([0024], Fig. 1 “main shaft hoisting system”); a drive mechanism (10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20) extending within the underground shaft; a hoist container (“bucket” ) connected to the drive mechanism; a motor driving the drive mechanism to raise and lower the hoist container within the underground shaft between the mining area and the surface of the earth ([0026], “controlling motor operating state”), a sensor (31) monitoring an underground input and/or an aboveground output of mined material ([0026] “31 is the… coal level change value sensor”), the sensor providing a sensor signal.
The prior art fails to anticipate or render obvious alone or in combination, a controller varying a rate of the mined material filled, raised and emptied with the hoist container in response to the sensor signal, which sensor signal is indicative of the underground input rate and/or the aboveground output rate, in the combination required by the claim.
Claim 20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELLE M IACOLETTI whose telephone number is (571)270-5789. The examiner can normally be reached 8 am -5 pm.
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/MICHELLE M IACOLETTI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2877