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 .
This action is in regards to the filing on 8/18/2023. Since the initial filing, no claims have been added, amended or cancelled. Thus, claims 1-11 are pending in the application.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang (KR 20200100561) in view of Yuan (CN 108524222).
In regards to claim 1, Kang discloses a massage device comprising: a leg connection frame (Fig 9); a first leg massage part (first leg massage unit 310) connected to the leg connection frame (Fig 9) in a rotatable manner and accommodating one leg of a user; a second leg massage part (and second leg massage unit 320) connected to the leg connection frame (Fig 9) to be spaced apart from the first leg massage part, provided to be rotated independently from the first leg massage part, and accommodating the other leg of the user (paragraph 66-67 and Fig 3-4).
Kang does not disclose a center support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the inner side of the first leg massage part and the inner side of the second leg massage part; and a side support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the outer side of the first leg massage part and the outer side of the second leg massage part.
However, Yuan teaches a massage chair having a rotatable leg section (Fig 1) having a center support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the inner side of the first leg massage part and the inner side of the second leg massage part; and a side support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the outer side of the first leg massage part and the outer side of the second leg massage part (Fig 4 and Annotated Fig 5).
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Annotated Fig 5
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kang to have a center support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the inner side of the first leg massage part and the inner side of the second leg massage part; and a side support bracket provided on the leg connection frame, rotatably supporting the outer side of the first leg massage part and the outer side of the second leg massage part as taught by Yuan as this would allow individual support for each of the leg section.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 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.
Conclusion
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/ARIELLE WOLFF/ Examiner, Art Unit 3785
/KENDRA D CARTER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3785
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