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 .
Claim Status
Examiner would like to note that as currently stands, claims 18 and 19 are currently non-compliant claim amendments. Currently Claim 17 appears to have been amended with the content of prior claim 18 (as filed on 7/29/2025)). Therefore, Claim 18 should be considered cancelled. Current Claim 18 appears to be an amendment of prior Claim 19, though does not include the previous subject matter of claim 19. Therefore, current claim 18 does not reflect proper amendments to the claims. This should be rectified on the subsequent submission keeping the condition of the claims consistent from 7/29/2025.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed December 19, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 6-8, 11, and 13 under 35 USC 102(a)(1) and 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Tomsic US Patent 2,857,643. Examiner notes that the persuasive argument is limited to the new amendment of “linearly extend” which is not taught by the prior art previously presented.
Applicant's arguments filed December 19, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 15, 17, and 18 under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The Applicant argues that claims 15 and 17 were amended to include the limitations of Claim 9, so were allowable over the art for the arguments set forth against claim 1. However, these claims were amended to include the limitations of claims 16 and 18 respectively. As noted above, the amendments to claim 17-19 are problematic, but the rebuttal is addressing the claims as they currently are written. Applicant fails to provide an arguments against the rejection of claims 15-18 under Farrugia in view of Nekhala (note that Rudd is not relied upon at all in these rejections). Applicant states that “both Farrugia and Nekhala fail to show the presently claimed ‘four anchor straps, each anchor strap having a first end and a second end opposite the first end, each anchor strap configured to couple to a first anchor breakaway of the bed covering couple at said first end, linearly extend underneath a separate corner of the bed, and to couple to a second anchor breakaway at said second end, respectively’”. However, this limitation is not in amended claims 15 and 17, therefore, the previous rejection is maintained below.
Claim Interpretation
Examiner notes that the amendment to claim 1 now recite specific structure to define “means to anchor”. Therefore, “means to anchor” is no longer invoking a 112(f) interpretation given the structure of “four anchor straps” and the following functional language now claimed.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required: the term “linearly extend” is not present in the disclosure though does appear to be shown on the Figures.
Claim Objections
Claims 8 and 11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 8, lines 1 and 4-5 recite “wherein the the midspan anchoring strap configured” which contains small typographical errors. There are two “the”s in the claim, and the claim is missing a transitional phrase before configured, such as --is--.
Claim 11, line 4 recites “a plurality of elastic tensioners having a first end and a second end” which Examiner believes this should read as --a plurality of elastic tensioners each having a first end and a second end-- to maintain clarity in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 6-8, 11 and 13 are 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 1, lines 6-7 recite “a plurality of anchor breakaways affixed to at least one bed covering” which renders the claim indefinite. It is unclear of all of the anchor breakaways are affixed to the same at least one, possibly multiple ones, or if there is some complementary relationship attempting to be claimed. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as each bed covering interface comprises one of the plurality of anchor breakaways attached to it (claiming complimentary pairs).
Claim 1, lines 14-16 recite “each anchor strap configured to couple to a first anchor breakaway…respectively” which renders the scope of the claim indefinite. This clause mixes pluralities and singular recitations making the scope indefinite. The claim appears to claim that multiple elements connect to the same one other element instead of possibly a complementary pair. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as a first anchor strap connects to a first and second anchor breakaway, then a second anchor strap to a third and fourth ancho breakaway, and so on.
Claim 1, line 15 recites “a separate corner” which renders the claim indefinite. The claim has not previously recited “a corner”, therefore it is unclear what this corner now claims is separate from. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as requiring that the four anchor straps will run under distinct corners of the mattress from each other.
Claim 6, lines 3-4 recite “a first anchor breakaway” and “a second anchor breakaway” which renders the scope of the claim indefinite as these elements have already been claimed in claim 1. It is unclear if the midspan anchor connects to the same anchors of claim 1, or possibly a ninth and tenth anchor breakaway (though claim 1 is unclear as to how many anchor breakaways are claimed as noted above). For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as requiring distinct anchor breakaways from those of independent claim 1 (so, a ninth and tenth anchor breakaway).
Claim 6, lines 6-7 recite “a first anchor breakaway” and “a second anchor breakaway” which renders the scope of the claim indefinite as these elements have already been claimed in claim 1 as well as earlier in claim 6. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as referring back to the previously claimed anchor breakaways within claim 6 (so, the ninth breakaway and the tenth anchor breakaway).
Claim 8 recites “a left plurality of the couple connectors”, “a first plurality of anchor breakaways”, “a right plurality of the couple connectors”, and “a second plurality of anchor breakaways” which renders the scope of the claim indefinite. Couple connectors, though not designated by “right” or “left”, and a plurality of anchor breakaways have been previously recited in claim 1, therefore it is unclear if these are unique anchor breakaways or a subset of the previously recited elements. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting the claim as all of these elements as distinct structures.
With further regards to claim 8, it is unclear how a single midspan anchoring strap couples multiple connectors on the left with multiple connectors on the right. This is not described in the specification nor shown on the drawings. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner will interpret this as requiring multiple anchor straps the each connect one couple on the left to one couple on the right.
Claim 8, line 6 recites “the connecting member” which lacks antecedent basis in the claim. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner is interpreting this limitation as --the midspan anchoring strap--.
Claim 11, lines 6-7 recite “at least one of the plurality of couple connectors is fixed to said first end, and at least one of the plurality of couple connectors is fixed to said second;” which renders the claim indefinite. It does appear that “end” is also missing from the end of the pulled limitation above. Additionally, it is unclear if the “at least one” is the same at least one or a distinct at least one. Examiner suggest wording such as --at least a second one of the plurality…-- to maintain clarity. Furthermore, the claim recites plurals attached to single elements, thus confusing, as mentioned above, what structures are connected to which other structures.
Claim 13, lines 4-5 recite “at least one of the plurality of couple connectors” and “at least one of the plurality of couple connectors” which renders the claim indefinite. It is unclear if the “at least one” is the same at least one or a distinct at least one, not only from each other, but also as previously cited in claim 11 from which this claim depends.
Claim 13, line 6 recites “the middle anchor strap is configured to couple each…” which renders the claim indefinite. It is unclear how a single middle anchor strap couples multiple couple connectors (the claim requires “each” implying plurality).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tomsic US Patent 2,857,643 hereinafter referred to as Tomsic.
Regarding claim 1, Tomsic discloses system (as cited herein) for coupling a bed covering (12) to a bed (10), the bed including a mattress (10) having a substantially quadrilateral shape as viewed from above (as shown on Figure 1), the system comprising: a bed covering anchor (24, 50) including a plurality of couple connectors (50 - two shown per corner, see Figure 1) and a means (see citations further in the claim below) to anchor said couple connectors to the bed; and, a bed covering couple (54, 55, 56) including a plurality of bed covering interfaces (55, 56 - two per corner as shown on Figure 1) and a plurality of anchor breakaways (54 - two per corner as shown on Figure 1) affixed to at least one bed covering interface, each bed covering interface configured to attached to the bed covering, each anchor breakaway configured to removably couple with a respective couple connector of the bed covering anchor, and to manually decouple from said respective couple connector (Column 3, line 50 to Column 4, line 9), wherein the means to anchor the couple connectors to the bed includes four anchor straps (anchor straps (24) and four are shown on Figure 1), each anchor strap having a first end and a second end opposite the first end (as shown on Figures 1 and 2), each anchor strap configured to couple to a first anchor breakaway of the bed covering couple at said first end, linearly extend underneath a separate corner of the mattress, and to couple to a second anchor breakaway at said second end, respectively (as shown, and see also Column 1, lines 31-37, Column 2, lines 56-60, and Column 3, line 50 to Column 4, line 9).
Regarding claim 11, Tomsic further discloses wherein the means to anchor the couple connectors to the bed includes an edge closure (56) configured to draw at least a portion of a periphery of the bed covering underneath the mattress bed (Column 3, lines 57-62), said edge closure including a plurality of elastic tensioners (Column 3, lines 57-62) having a first end and a second end opposite the first end (as shown); wherein at least one of the plurality of couple connectors is fixed to said first end, and at least one of the plurality of couple connectors is fixed to said second (as shown on Figure 5); and wherein each one of the plurality of elastic tensioners is positioned on the bed covering anchor opposite another one of the plurality of elastic tensioners (as shown on Figure 1).
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.
Claims 6-8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomsic as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of Farrugia US Patent 6,185,766 hereinafter referred to as Farrugia.
Regarding claims 6-8 and 13, Tomsic discloses the claimed anchor straps, couple connectors, and anchor breakaways for the corners of the mattress, but fails to disclose these structures for a strap along the midpoint of the mattress spanning left to right. Farrugia teaches an analogous bed covering anchoring system wherein the corners are secured with anchor straps (2) and lateral anchor strap (3). Farrugia teaches that the lateral anchor strap can provide extra support to hold the bed covering and grasp other areas of the bed covering (Column 2, lines 5-9). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the anchoring system of Tomsic to include an additional lateral anchoring strap with the reasonable expectation of success of supporting the corner anchors and attaching to more areas of the bed covering as taught by Farrugia. With this modification, the structures and system of Tomsic would merely be duplicated in the midspan anchor system based on the teachings of Farrugia.
Claims 15, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farrugia (US Patent 6185766) in view of Nekhala (US Patent Application Publication 20210120964).
Examiner notes that Annotated Figure 1 of Farrugia is included below and indicates all the structure found in Farrugia, please refer to the annotated drawing for the mapping of claims 15 and 17 with respect to the Farrugia reference. Examiner notes that Annotated Figure 1b of Farrugia is also included below to assist with the mapping of Claims 17 and 18 with respect to Farrugia, since different terminology is used for similar structure in those claims. Please consult Annotated Figure 1b of Farrugia for the location of structure for claims 17 and 18.
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Regarding claim 15, Farrugia teaches a bed covering attachment system for a bed, the bed covering attachment system comprising: a first bed covering interface on a bed covering at a first location proximate a periphery of the bed covering, a first anchor breakaway affixed to the first bed covering interface; a second bed covering interface at a second location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a second anchor breakaway affixed to the second bed covering interface; and a bed covering anchor having a first end and a second end opposite the first end, the bed covering anchor configured to couple to the first anchor breakaway at said first end, extend underneath a portion of the bed, and to couple to the second anchor breakaway at said second end (Annotated Figure 1, as shown). Farrugia does not teach the first and second bed covering interface configured to attach to a bed covering. Nekhala teaches the first and second bed covering interface configured to attach to a bed covering (Paragraph 26 discuss that the clips 20, which are analogous to the anchor breakaways, may be connected via snap connector to the under bed strap 30, which would make the snap connector half on the side of the clip the bed covering interface, and the snap connector side on the side of the strap the couple connector, thus allowing the bed covering interface to be configured to attach to a bed covering (via the clip)). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed to have combined Farrugia (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system) and Nekhala (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors) and arrived at a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination so that “the sheet ends are beneath the mattress and tightened thereto by the cord” (Nekhala Abstract). Farrugia teaches the first bed covering interface is attached to the bed covering at said first location, the second bed covering interface is attached to the bed covering at said second location, said portion of the bed is a top-left corner of the bed, the bed covering attachment system further comprising: a third bed covering interface at a third location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a third anchor breakaway affixed to the third bed covering interface; a fourth bed covering interface at a fourth location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a fourth anchor breakaway affixed to the fourth bed covering interface; a top-right bed covering anchor having a third end and a fourth end opposite the third end, the top-right bed covering anchor configured to couple to the third anchor breakaway at said third end, extend underneath a top- right corner of the bed, and to couple to the fourth anchor breakaway at said fourth end; a fifth bed covering interface at a fifth location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a fifth anchor breakaway affixed to the fifth bed covering interface; a sixth bed covering interface at a sixth location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a sixth anchor breakaway affixed to the sixth bed covering interface; a bottom-left bed covering anchor having a fifth end and a sixth end opposite the fifth end, the bottom-left bed covering anchor configured to couple to the fifth anchor breakaway at said fifth end, extend underneath a bottom-left corner of the bed, and to couple to the sixth anchor breakaway at said sixth end; a seventh bed covering interface at a seventh location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; a seventh anchor breakaway affixed to the seventh bed covering interface; an eighth bed covering interface at an eighth location proximate the periphery of the bed covering; an eighth anchor breakaway affixed to the eighth bed covering interface; and a bottom-right bed covering anchor having a seventh end and an eighth end opposite the seventh end, the bottom-right bed covering anchor configured to couple to the seventh anchor breakaway at said seventh end, extend underneath a bottom-right corner of the bed, and to couple to the eighth anchor breakaway at said eighth end. Farrugia does not teach the third through eighth bed covering interfaces configured to attach to a bed covering. Nekhala teaches the third through eighth bed covering interfaces configured to attach to a bed covering (Paragraph 26 discuss that the clips 20, which are analogous to the anchor breakaways, may be connected via snap connector to the under bed strap 30, which would make the snap connector half on the side of the clip the bed covering interface, and the snap connector side on the side of the strap the couple connector, thus allowing the bed covering interface to be configured to attach to a bed covering (via the clip)). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed to have combined Farrugia (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system) and Nekhala (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors) and arrived at a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination so that “the sheet ends are beneath the mattress and tightened thereto by the cord” (Nekhala Abstract).
Regarding claim 17, Farrugia teaches a bed covering for a bed, the bed covering comprising: a fabric panel (Figure 1; 9) configured to rest against the mattress; a plurality of anchor breakaways affixed to the fabric panel proximate a periphery of said fabric panel (Figure 1; 8, bottom half of clip); and a first anchor strap (Annotated Figure 1b) having a first end and a second end opposite the first end, the first anchor strap configured to attach at said first end to a first anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways, extend underneath a portion of the bed, and to attach at said second end to a second anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways. Farrugia does not teach the anchor straps coupling/decoupling repeatedly at the ends to the anchor breakaways. Nekhala teaches the anchor straps coupling/decoupling repeatedly at the ends to the anchor breakaways (Paragraph 26 discuss that the clips 20, which are analogous to the anchor breakaways, may be connected via snap connector to the under bed strap 30, which would make the snap connector half on the side of the clip the bed covering interface, and the snap connector side on the side of the strap the couple connector, thus allowing the bed covering interface to be configured to attach to a bed covering (via the clip), and allow the anchor breakaways to couple and decouple from the anchor straps via the snap connections). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed to have combined Farrugia (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system) and Nekhala (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors) and arrived at a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination so that “the sheet ends are beneath the mattress and tightened thereto by the cord” (Nekhala Abstract). Farrugia teaches the bed includes a mattress (Figure 1; at 11), the fabric panel is a fitted sheet (Figure 1; at 9), said portion of the bed includes a top-left corner of the mattress, and the first anchor strap includes a top-left elastic strip (Abstract), the bed covering further comprising: a top-right bed anchor strap includes top-right elastic strip having a third end and a fourth end opposite the third end, the top-right bed covering anchor configured to attach at said third end to a third anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways, extend underneath a top-right corner of the mattress, and to attach at said fourth end to a fourth anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways; a bottom-left bed anchor strap includes bottom-left elastic strip having a fifth end and a sixth end opposite the fifth end, the bottom-left bed covering anchor configured to attach at said fifth end to a fifth anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways, extend underneath a bottom-left corner of the mattress, and to attach at said sixth end to a sixth anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways; and a bottom-right bed anchor strap includes bottom-right elastic strip having a seventh end and an eighth end opposite the seventh end, the bottom- right bed covering anchor configured to attach at said seventh end to a seventh anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways, extend underneath a bottom-right corner of the mattress, and to attach at said eighth end to an eighth anchor breakaway of the plurality of anchor breakaways. Farrugia does not teach the anchor straps coupling/decoupling repeatedly at the ends to the anchor breakaways. Nekhala teaches the anchor straps coupling/decoupling repeatedly at the ends to the anchor breakaways (Paragraph 26 discuss that the clips 20, which are analogous to the anchor breakaways, may be connected via snap connector to the under bed strap 30, which would make the snap connector half on the side of the clip the bed covering interface, and the snap connector side on the side of the strap the couple connector, thus allowing the bed covering interface to be configured to attach to a bed covering (via the clip), and allow the anchor breakaways to couple and decouple from the anchor straps via the snap connections). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed to have combined Farrugia (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system) and Nekhala (directed to a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors) and arrived at a sheet tensioner strap system with two piece connectors. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination so that “the sheet ends are beneath the mattress and tightened thereto by the cord” (Nekhala Abstract).
Regarding claim 18, Farrugia as currently modified by Nekhala fails to teach wherein the fabric panel is a fitted sheet, though does teach it is a bed sheet. Nakhala, which teaches an analogous anchoring system, teaches that the sheet being anchored could be fitted or unfitted [0028]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art the time the invention was filed to simply substitute the bed sheet of Farrugia with the fitted sheet of Nakhala to yield the predictable result of anchoring a bed covering to a mattress as taught by both Farrugia and Nakhala.
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.
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/TARA SCHIMPF/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3676