DETAILED ACTION
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 Scott (US 9,051,075 B2) in view of Kupersmit (US 4,358,049). The examiner uses the broadest reasonable interpretation of ‘configured to be held by a product conveyance robot’ and ‘configured such that a corresponding one of lock pins provided in the product conveyance robot engages with the each of the engageable recessed portions’ to include any structure that is capable of receiving a horizontal lock pin. Scott teaches a storage box in which a product is stored, the storage box being configured to be held by a product conveyance robot, the storage box comprising: a bottom wall 20 (Fig. 4); a peripheral wall 20 + 21 + 23 + 24 provided in a standing manner from the bottom wall; a cover 41 configured to cover a takeout opening from above (Fig. 1), the takeout opening being an upper end opening of the peripheral wall; ear portions 48, 49 hanging downward from both ends of the cover in the width direction; and engageable recessed portions 65 formed at least in the ear portions. Scott teaches each of the recessed portions would be accessible from the outside of the container for a horizontally entering pin (col 8 lines 12-17), so Scott teaches each of the engageable recessed portions being configured such that a corresponding one of lock pins provided in the product conveyance robot engages with the each of the engageable recessed portions. Scott teaches an assembled posture being a posture in which the peripheral wall stands at a right angle from the bottom wall. Scott does not teach the storage box is changeable between an assembled posture and a folded posture. Kupersmit teaches an analogous container with lid and teaches an arrangement of fold lines: a folded posture (Fig. 4) the folded posture being a posture in which at least part of the peripheral wall and the cover are parallel to the bottom wall; a plane size of the storage box in the folded posture is the same as a plane size of the storage box in the assembled posture (the plane size being the area of the lid); and at least part of the peripheral wall is sandwiched between the cover and the ear portions in the folded posture. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the structure of Scott with the foldable posture of Kupersmit with the motivation of that allows the box to collapse and be stored within the lid to reduce the space required for the empty box and maintain integrity of the box and lid during storage and transport as taught by Kupersmit (col 2 line 64-col 3 line 2).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scott (US 9,051,075 B2) and Kupersmit (US 4,358,049) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of King (US 2005/0275591 A1). Scott as modified does not teach a transmitter configured to output a position tracking signal detectable by an external device. King teaches it is often desired to track and identify items (0003) and teaches providing a transmitter configured to output a position tracking signal detectable by an external device (0060). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the structure of Scott with a transmitter as taught by King for the purpose of tracking and identifying items.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5 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
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT T MCNURLEN whose telephone number is (313)446-4898. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/SCOTT T MCNURLEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3734
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