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 .
Priority
This application repeats a substantial portion of prior Application No. 16668358, filed, and adds disclosure not presented in the prior application. Because this application names the inventor or at least one joint inventor named in the prior application, it properly constitutes a continuation-in-part of the prior application. Applicant’s claim to the benefit of the filing date of the prior application under 35 U.S.C. 120, 37 CFR 1.78, and MPEP § 211 et seq. is acknowledged.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 5/17/23. These drawings are objected to.
Sheets 1-13 of the figures are objected to because the drawing sheets are numbered improperly. See 37 C.F.R. 1.84(t), which requires the sheets of drawings be numbered in consecutive Arabic numerals, starting with 1, within the sight as defined in paragraph (g) of this section. The drawing sheet numbering must be larger than the numbers used as reference characters to avoid confusion.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 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.
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 Pravana (Pravana. October 2018. “Technique Headsheets”. https://www.pravana.com/learn/head-sheets/. accessed 1/5/26) in view of McMeekin (McMeekin, Samantha. January 2019 (note the entire section relied upon is referencing the book “Great Hair Days” by Luke Hersheson published 9/6/18). “Everyone is obsessing over this ‘naked blow-dry’ technique for super smooth hair in record time”. https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/gallery/naked-blow-dry-technique. accessed 1/5/26)
Claims 1 and 4: Pravana discloses a hair coloring method (see Figs and asterisk instructions of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern) comprising the following steps: a hairdresser makes a coloring scheme (see Figs on left of page and center of page of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern); and then separates hair on a head of a person into sections by partings (see Figs on left of page of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern) and the sections are based on anatomical points of the head because the sections correspond to anatomical points on the head (see Figs on left of page of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern); the hair in the sections is isolated (this is what is meant with the diagram on the left of the page of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern) and the sections include hair of at least slightly different lengths because the sections include all the hair on the head and because the models are illustrated with layered angled haircuts which requires this. For each subsection of hair (see central Figs of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern), the layers can be fixed (see “Prism” Steps 1-3) out of the way using a clip/clamp (see “Prism” steps 1-3). The hair strands in each section are grabbed to apply coloring thereto (this is what is well known to be illustrated by the sectioning in the figures on the left of the page of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring pattern). Coloring the layer of hair by applying the coloring to the strands or “layers” and wrapping the colored layers with a series of foils (see instruction 3 of “Bombshell technique” which indicates that sections after coloring is applied are separated by foils and this is done for the common sense reason that it keeps the sections from being accidentally exposed to an undesired color from the other sections). The color is left on the hair for a time period (see step 6 of “Bombshell technique”) to allow the color formula(s) to reach the desired color and is then shampooed (see step 7 of “Bombshell technique”) which requires rinsing of the color formula and removing the foils because the shampoo is also rinsed from the hair along with the color formula and the shampoo constitutes a post-coloring recipe (see step 6 & 7 of “Bombshell technique” that states “shampoo and tone as necessary” meaning a tint is applied to neutralize unwanted colors). Pravana further discloses that coloring of the hair has to be performed on “clean dry hair” (see center bottom of “Semi-precious Jewels”).
Pravana discloses the invention essentially as claimed except for the hairdresser holding the hair strands in one hand and blow drying the hair strands with a hair dryer in the other hand directing air through the strand and pulling the strands away in a direction of the cut line of the hair, thereby gradually blowing out layers of the hair to be colored.
McMeekin, however, teaches that in Luke Hersheson’s book “Great Hair Days” a method of “naked blow drying” hair is disclosed (see Page 1, paragraph 2-3) and this method of drying the hair involves “maneuvering the hair around using only a user’s or hairdresser’s hands” (Page 3, paragraph 3) with one hand and using the fingers like a comb to grab and pull the hair taut (Page 3, paragraph 5), which would include pulling it away in a direction of the cut line since the cut line is where the hair ends and since one hand is combing and grabbing the strands, the other hand must be holding the hair dryer and blowing air from the hair dryer through the strands (Page 3, paragraphs 3 & 5) thereby gradually (see low heat Page 3, paragraph 2) blowing out layers of the hair both below and at the grip level since the hair is combed and pulled outward and the entire strand is at least 95% dry (see Page 4, paragraph 1) by the process, thereby resulting in the hair being blown out. This method of drying hair is described to cause less damage to the hair (Page 3, last paragraph) and less frizz (Page 4, last two paragraphs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one possessing ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify the method of coloring hair disclosed by Pravana, by drying the hair with the “naked” blow-dry using the fingers prior to coloring in view of McMeekin (and the Hersheson book by proxy) in order to reduce damage to the hair prior to coloring and to ensure the coloring is being applied to clean dry hair as required by Pravana.
Claim 2: Modified Pravana teaches the invention of claim 1 and Pravana further discloses at least two different colors applied to the layers of hair (see central figures of “Semi-precious jewels” coloring scheme).
Claim 3: Modified Pravana teaches the invention of claim 1 and Pravana further discloses applying the color formula to the subsections in the form of a horizontal rainbow (see figures in “Rainbow Shout” coloring scheme).
Claim 5: Modified Pravana teaches the invention of claim 1 and Pravana further discloses the coloring being performed in accordance with a graphic coloring scheme being presented as a coloring diagram (see Figs on left and center of “Semi-precious jewel” technique & Figs on left of “Rainbow Shout” technique) that shows the layers of long and short hair as triangles (5, 4, 6 of A, B, C, D, E of “Semi-precious jewel” technique), with a base of each triangle representing a root hairline and an apex representing an end of the subsection of hair with a second triangle smaller than the first (1, 3, 1, 6, 4 of A, B, C, D, E of “Semi-precious jewel” technique) with the color being applied along both triangles (see figures of “semi-precious jewel”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jennifer Gill whose telephone number is (571)270-1797. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 10:00am-5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, please contact the examiner’s supervisor, Eric Rosen, can be reached on 571-270-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JENNIFER GILL/
Examiner, Art Unit 3772
/NICHOLAS D LUCCHESI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3772