DETAILED ACTION
The communication dated 6/1/2023 has been entered and fully considered.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
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 .
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tuttle et al. U.S. Publication 2004/0098811 (henceforth referred to as Tuttle).
As for claim 1, Tuttle teaches an array of laundry washing machines (Fig. 1), said array comprising: a plurality of laundry washing machines (Fig. 1: part 100), each said laundry washing machine having an operator side from which each said laundry machine is operated (Fig. 4a); and a plurality of pump systems (Fig. 1: parts 10-11), wherein each said pump system is in fluid communication with two or more said laundry washing machines (Fig. 1); wherein for 80% to 100% of said laundry washing machines in said array, adjacent laundry washing machines having said operator sides out of alignment from one another by less than 90 degrees are not connected to the same said pump system (Fig. 1, as none of the adjacent laundry washing machines have operator sides out of alignment from one another, none are required to be not connected to the same said pump system).
As for claim 2, Tuttle further teaches that for 80% to 100% of said laundry washing machines in said array no two adjacent laundry washing machines in which at least parts of said operator sides face one another are connected to the same said pump system (Fig. 1, as none of the adjacent laundry washing machines have operator sides facing one another, none are required to be not connected to the same said pump system).
As for claim 18, Tuttle further teaches that each said pump system comprises: a collection manifold (Fig. 1: parts 12a-12b), wherein said collection manifold is in fluid communication with a plurality of individually contained laundry treatment compositions that differ from one another (Fig. 1); a pump (Fig. 1: parts 10-11) downstream of said collection manifold; and a distribution manifold (Fig. 1: parts 12a-12b) downstream of said pump.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-17 and 19-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Tuttle et al. U.S. Publication 2004/0098811, the closest prior art, differs from the instant claims in failing to teach the particular claimed relationships between the washing machine operator side orientations and the pump system connections and methods of operation. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the array of laundry washing machines taught by Tuttle as claimed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEVON J SHAHINIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1384. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30am-6:00pm.
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/LEVON J SHAHINIAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711
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