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 Amendment
Examiner notes the claims (specifically claim 1) filed 6/20/2025 do not include markings to indicate all of the changes that have been made relative to the claims filed 3/4/2025. All claims being currently amended must be presented with markings to indicate the changes that have been made relative to the immediate prior version. See MPEP § 714, II, C.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-5 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.
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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 20220001696 (machine translation provided 9/27/2024) in view of Chou (US 5603129).
Regarding claim 1, KR 20220001696 discloses a non-pneumatic pool with inclined supports, comprising a pool (100) wherein the pool includes a first inner wall (inner wall of 200, 300, 400, 500; ¶ 0055-0057) and a first outer wall (outer wall of 200, 300, 400, 500; ¶ 0055-0057), the first inner wall and the first outer wall seamlessly installed on a first bottom portion (600) of the pool (see Fig. 2);
an outer side (outer side of 1000) of the pool is provided with an inclined support (700), which includes a second outer wall (820; ¶ 0055-0057), a second inner wall (810; ¶ 0055-0057) and a second sandwich (720; ¶ 0055-0057), and the second outer wall and the second inner wall are fixedly wrapped on an outer side (710, 730) of the second sandwich (see Fig. 3);
the first outer wall is fixedly connected to a top portion (flat portion near 810; ¶ 0055-0057) of the inclined support through a first inclined support connection (connection between 810 and the flat portion near 810), and the top portion is fixedly connected to the inclined support (see Fig. 3);
an outer side (outer side of 600) of the first bottom portion of the pool is fixedly connected to a second bottom portion (flat portion near 820; ¶ 0055-0057) of the inclined support through a second inclined support connection (connection between the flat portion near 820 and the outer side of 600), and the second bottom portion is fixedly connected to the inclined support (see Fig. 3);
wherein the inclined support, the second bottom portion of the inclined support and the second inclined support connection are configured as attachable to the first outer wall after storage for saving storage space (700, the flat portion near 820, and the connection between the flat portion near 820 and the outer side of 600 are capable of being attached to the outer wall of 200, 300, 400, 500; see Fig. 1-2).
However, KR 20220001696 does not disclose a first sandwich; the first inner wall and the first outer wall are fixedly wrapped on an outer side the first sandwich as claimed.
Chou discloses a panel wall pool including a first sandwich (30; col. 3, ll. 3-30), the first inner wall (18) and the first outer wall (20) are fixedly wrapped on an outer side of the first sandwich (see Fig. 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the pool of KR 20220001696, to include a first sandwich as claimed, as taught by Chou, in order to provide a sufficiently rigid sidewall to further resist the dynamic conditions of pool filling (col. 3, l. 60 - col. 4, l. 11).
Regarding claim 2, the combination above and specifically KR 20220001696 further discloses there are multiple inclined supports (700; see Fig. 2), and the multiple inclined supports are rectangularly distributed (700 are rectangularly distributed with the axis of 1000 as the center; see Fig. 2; ¶ 0031) with a central axis of the pool as a center.
Regarding claim 3, the combination above and specifically KR 20220001696 further discloses the inclined support and the pool form a triangular structure (see Fig. 2-3), and both ends (ends of 710, 730) of the inclined support are fitted with the corresponding first outer wall (see Fig. 3) and ground of the installation site (ground of the installation site shown in Fig. 2-3) through the top portion and the second bottom portion of the inclined support, respectively (see Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 4-5, the combination above discloses substantially all of the elements of the present invention as stated above in the rejection of claim 3.
However, KR 20220001696 does not explicitly disclose wherein the first inner wall, the first outer wall, the second inner wall, the second outer wall, the second bottom portion and the top portion are all PVC materials;
wherein the first sandwich of the pool and the second sandwich of the inclined support are PVC materials as claimed.
Chou discloses a panel wall pool including PVC materials (col. 2, ll. 22-31; col. 2, ll. 51-57; col. 4, ll. 39-48). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the walls, portions, and sandwiches of KR 20220001696, to be PVC materials as claimed, as taught by Chou, since it was known in the art that polyvinyl chloride is a preferable thermoplastic plastic material used in pools that may be used for sheets or for inelastic reinforcement (col. 2, ll. 22-31; col. 2, ll. 51-57; col. 4, ll. 39-48).
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 WILLIAM R KLOTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-0274. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 11AM-5PM.
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WILLIAM R. KLOTZ
Examiner
Art Unit 3754
/DAVID P ANGWIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3754