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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/31/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4, 7-10, and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhu (CN 108433318 A, see machine translated ver.).
Re. Claim 1, Zhu discloses a hair styling appliance (Fig. 1-3; Abstract) comprising:
an airflow unit for generating an airflow (Par. 9-10 discloses the airflow unit which consist of the fan blade and electric motor);
a heating unit for heating the airflow (Par. 9-10 discloses the heating unit which consist of the electric heating element); and
a control unit (2) for controlling the airflow unit and the heating unit (Par. 22), wherein:
the control unit receives user data via a user input (Par. 22, 25, 28-29, 35 and 41), wherein the user data relates to user feedback from a previous styling by the appliance when using a sequence of modes having a first set of parameters (Par. 22, 25, and 29 wherein the first set of parameters can be before the pictures have been taken. Par. 30-32 discloses that the controller can analyze and alter the parameters based on the pics taken by the camera every time. Because of this, the previous style can be before the pictures were taken where the controller can adjust to provide the ideal styling based on user feedback. Par. 41 and 54 can be provided by both the user and by the camera to adjust the previous hairstyle which is before use. Par. 57 discloses that the user feedback can also include user personal information such as gender and age. Par 58 discloses that the user feedback can also include previous styling in the means of using a particular hair dryer accessory to process the hair),
the control unit uses the user data to define a second set of parameters (Par. 30-32 discloses there can be different modes based on varying parameter set settings),
the control unit uses the user data to define a sequence of modes having the second set of parameters (Par. 30-32 discloses there can be different modes based on varying parameter set settings. It is disclosed that the controller can analyze and alter the parameters based on the pics taken by the camera every time. Because of this, the second set of parameters will be the altered parameters made by the controller after analyzing the image), and
the control unit controls the airflow unit and the heating unit in the sequence of modes having the second set of parameters to style the hair of a user, the airflow unit having a different flow rate and/or the heating unit having a different heat setting in different modes (Par. 22, and 28-32 discloses altering of the flow rate and heat setting).
Re. Claim 2, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second set of parameters comprise any of: a number of modes, an order of modes, durations of modes, heat settings within modes, and flow rates within modes (Par. 40-42).
Re. Claim 4, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user data further relate to a hair type and comprise any of: hair thickness, hair length, natural hair style, hair condition, presence of hair product, and presence of hair dye (Abstract; Par. 44).
Re. Claim 7, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the appliance comprises a wireless interface for receiving the user data wirelessly from a remote device (Par. 25).
Re. Claim 8, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit receives user settings data, and the control unit uses the user settings data to define the sequence of modes (Par. 39, 44 and 57; Claim 4).
Re. Claim 9, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, where n the appliance comprises one or more sensors for sensing a characteristic of the hair and the control unit uses the sensed characteristic to further define the sequence of modes (Par. 38).
Re. Claim 10, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 9, wherein the characteristic comprises a temperature or a moisture content of the hair (Par. 38).
Re. Claim 18, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hair styling appliance comprises a predefined default sequence of modes and the control unit controls the airflow unit and the heating unit in the predefined default sequence of modes in the event that there are no user data (Par. 9 and 41 discloses that default modes can be set by the manufacturer. The default methods can be used without user input data as it is premade during the manufacturing of the hair styling appliance).
Re. Claim 19, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the appliance comprises a main body within which the airflow unit and the heating unit are housed, and an attachment releasably attachable to the main body, wherein the control unit further defines the sequence of modes according to the attachment (Par. 39 and 40; It should be noted that the limitation regarding the control unit is functionally claimed and the control unit is fully capable of doing such).
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) 5-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (CN 108433318 A, see machine translated ver.) in view of Matt (GB 2607168 A).
Re. Claims 5-6, Zhu discloses the styling appliance as claimed in claim 1/5, but are silent to the user data relating to the previous styling by the appliance comprise any of: a user satisfaction rating, and a quality of styled hair; and wherein the quality of styled hair comprises a measure of any of: condition of the styled hair, retention of the styled hair, and shape of the styled hair.
Matt discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses the appliance providing feedback to the user to help achieved the desired curls (Abstract). These curls are based on sensor data that is pre-stored from a first user where the feedback allows the user to reproduce the shape of the curls previously styled (Pg. 6, lines 27-36).
As such, Matt provides the teaching of user data to include previous styling by the appliance comprising the measuring of the shape quality of the styled hair. In this case, the styled hair is the curls where curl shape is the desired quality goal which the user is attempting to reproduce.
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the system of Zhu to include means to generate feedback to the user of the styling of the hair to match the previous styling by the appliance as taught by Matt to provide accurate instructions to reproduce such shapes. The teaching of Matt as such provides the overall teaching of the measure of quality of styled hair which in this case is the previous resultant styled hair achieved by the previous styling settings of the user. Thus, the combination would provide teaching of the user data relating to a previous styling by the appliance based on a quality of styled hair; and wherein the quality of styled hair comprises the shape of the styled hair.
Claim(s) 11-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (CN 108433318 A, see machine translated ver.) in view of Marc (FR 2707851 A1, see machine translated ver.).
Re. Claim 11, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, but is silent to the control unit determines when to transition between modes based on at least one of a time spent in a mode, a presence or absence of the hair, and a characteristic of the hair.
Marc discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses a control unit (10) for receiving user data (Par. 13, 15 and 22) which includes transitions between modes based on hair characteristics (Par. 18, 22 and 26 discloses transitioning between modes based on the characteristic of the hair such as it being short and oily).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the control unit of Zhu to determine when to transition between modes based on a characteristic of the hair as taught by Marc to provide ideal treatment to the user’s hair.
Re. Claim 12, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, but is silent to the control unit automatically transitions between modes.
Marc discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses a control unit (10) for receiving user data (Par. 13, 15 and 22) which includes transitions between modes based on hair characteristics (Par. 18, 22 and 26 discloses transitioning between modes based on the characteristic of the hair such as it being short and oily) automatically (Par. 22 and 26 where the phases are the different modes).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the control unit of Zhu to automatically transitions between modes as taught by Marc to make styling of the hair more efficient.
Re. Claim 14, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, but is silent to the sequence of modes comprises a first mode, a second mode and a third mode, and the heat setting in the third mode is lower than the heat settings in the first and second modes.
Marc discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses a sequence of modes comprises a first mode, a second mode and a third mode, and the heat setting in the third mode is lower than the heat settings in the first and second modes (Fig. 4-6; Par. 17-18 where the heat settings is dependent on the parameters set by the user and the example presented in Par. 18 and Fig. 4-6 discloses the third mode has a lower heat setting than the other two modes).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the sequence of modes of Zhu to comprise a first mode, a second mode and a third mode, and the heat setting in the third mode is lower than the heat settings in the first and second modes as taught by Marc to allow user to apply the appropriate heat level to achieve the desired style.
Re. Claim 15, Zhu and Marc discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 14, wherein Marc further discloses the flow rate in the third mode is lower than the flow rates in the first and second modes (Fig. 4-6; Par. 17-18 where the heat settings is dependent on the parameters set by the user and the example presented in Par. 18 and Fig. 4-6 discloses the flow rate in the third mode to be lower than the other modes).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the sequence of modes of Zhu and Marc to have the flow rate in the third mode is lower than the flow rates in the first and second modes as taught by Marc to allow user to apply appropriate air to achieved the desired style.
Re. Claim 16, Zhu and Marc discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 14, wherein Marc further discloses the flow rate or the heat setting in the second mode is lower than that in the first mode (Fig. 4-6; Par. 17-18 where the heat settings is dependent on the parameters set by the user and the example presented in Par. 18 and Fig. 4-6 discloses the flow rate and heat settings in the second mode is lower than the first mode).
Re. Claim 17, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, but is silent to the sequence of modes comprises a mode in which the airflow unit and/or the heating unit are powered off.
Marc discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses a sequence of modes comprising a mode in which the airflow unit and/ or the heating unit are powered off (Par. 17 discloses that in the third phase it can have a finite duration which would result in the airflow unit and heating unit being turned off once the duration is complete).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the sequence of modes of Zhu to comprise a mode in which the airflow unit and/ or the heating unit are powered off as taught by Marc to indicate the user when styling is complete.
Re. Claim 20, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, but is silent to the control unit initiates the sequence of modes in response to a user input.
Marc discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses a control unit (10) that can initiate the sequence of modes in response to a user input (Fig. 2; Par. 25).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the control unit of Zhu to initiate the sequence of modes in response to a user input as taught by Marc to provide alternate means to start the hair styling process.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (CN 108433318 A, see machine translated ver.) in view of Lam (US 20130306099 A1).
Re. Claim 13, Zhu discloses the hair styling appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit transition between modes in response to a user input (Par. 31). However, Zhu is silent to the control unit generates a user alert to notify a user when to transition between modes.
Lam discloses a hair styling appliance in the same field of endeavor and further discloses having an alarm to indicate an elapsed time of a mode (Par. 13).
It would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art before the effective filing date to have the appliance of Zhu to have an alarm as taught by Lam to indicate an end of a mode. The combination as such would provide teaching of the control unit generating a user alert-in this case an alarm- to notify a user when to transition between modes. This is because Lam provides the overall teaching of an alert indicative of the end of a mode whereas Zhu provides teaching of applying different modes. The indicator of one mode ending as such would be indicative to the user as to when to transition to the next mode of choice by the user. Thus, the combination would provide teaching of claim 13.
Response to Arguments
Argument #1: Applicant argues that Zhu does not disclose the now amended claim as applicant argues that Zhu does not disclose the control unit receives user data via a user input and the user data relates to user feedback from a pervious styling by the appliance.
Response #1: Applicant’s argument is found to not be persuasive. It is found that Zhu does disclose the user taking a sequence of pictures in which the controller can analyze them and alter the parameters based on such pictures (Par. 30-32). It is also noted that the user separately can provide their own inputs to aid in determining the ideal parameters (Par. 41 and 54). It can be interpreted under broadest reasonable interpretation that the previous style can be the style parameters set before the pictures are taken and analyzed by the processor as well as provided by the user themselves. It should be noted that the controller can adjust the parameters as desired by the user to the desired mode based on personal preference such as how the user would like to style their hair based on the previous style (Par. 31).
Conclusion
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/HOLLY T. TO/Examiner, Art Unit 3772
/EDELMIRA BOSQUES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3772
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