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 Objections
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In line 2, the “the” after “product to” should be deleted.
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 1-25 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.
Relative to claims 1, 19 and 25, the overall order and flow of the goods to the sink is not clear. For instance, “requesting an order from a goods sink” is unclear. It appears ordered goods are discharged from the goods sink 7.
Examiner has interpreted the claim to mean that that goods are ordered or requested and the requested goods are discharged from a goods sink. Moreover, requesting products from the first endless conveyor, requesting the product from the storage unit upstream of the first endless conveyor, are also unclear. It appears that Applicant means that the products are delivered to the goods sink by the first endless conveyor, or the goods sink receives products from the first endless conveyor. It also appears that first endless conveyor receives products from the storage unit. Similar clarification regarding the terminology the products being “requested” or “requesting” should be addressed in all the claims (see claims 6-9, 12).
Relative to claim 7, “the criteria are variable for different conveying stages” is unclear.
Relative to claim 8, “requesting the at least one product includes requesting from a second endless conveyor downstream of the consolidation storage unit.”, is unclear.
Relative to claim 10, “the product is a collection of ordered goods of an order in a conveying stage.”, is unclear.
Relative to claim 11, “the at least one product is a collection of ordered goods of an order in the consolidation storage unit.”, is unclear.
Claims 2-6 and 13 are rejected because of their dependency from claim 1.
Claims 20-24 are rejected because of their dependency from claim 19.
Appropriate clarification is required.
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) 1-11, 13-16, and 19-25 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sergio Sigrist (CH 714004 A1). Relative to claims 1-11, and 13-16, Sigrist discloses:
A conveying method for goods, the method comprising:
requesting an order from a goods sink (40)(See English translation of Specification: Page 8, Para. 12, corresponding orders A are placed, the goods requested in the orders are outsourced and entered into the order-picking system 10; goods travel to dispatch points 40, Page 11, Para. 6),
wherein the order comprises at least one product, which is an ordered product (see “goods belonging to a plurality of orders, Page 11, Para. 9, beginning with “
In such as order-picking system”);
requesting the at least one product from a first endless conveyor (product is delivered to dispatch points 40 via line 32 and distributing ring VR8; “the distribution ring VR8 carrying the goods sorted according to the order to the individual dispatch points 40”, Page 11, Para. 6), to which the goods sink is directly coupled (Fig. 7);
requesting the at least one product from a consolidation storage unit (12.2, 12.1)(Fig. 7) upstream of the first endless conveyor (first endless conveyor includes lines 32 along arrows, and VR8; Page 11, Para. 6 of the English translation of the specification, “the distribution ring VR8 carrying the goods sorted according to the order to the individual dispatch points 40 brings”)(Fig. 7),
the storage unit (12.1, 12.2) including a circulating conveyor line (see circulating lines of intermediate storage areas, 12.1, 12.2, along arrows);
automatically transferring the at least one product to the first endless conveyor (Page 11, Para. 6, goods are transferred to Ref. 40 via the conveyor); and conveying the at least one ordered product to the goods sink (Page 8, Para. 6 & Para. 9, of the English translation of the specification)(Fig. 7);
claim 2) the conveying includes conveying the at least one product in a conveyor container (Page 11, Para. 6, goods are transported in transport bags);
claim 3) the conveying includes conveying the at least one product individually in the conveyor container (Page 8, Para. 13 of the English translation of specification, “(e.g. transport bag 55 in Fig. 12) are assigned and supplied.”);
claim 4) conveying the at least one product includes at least one of unloading the at least one product from the conveyor container (55) and discharging of conveyor containers (55) from the first endless conveyor (Page 11, Para. 6, goods are inherently emptied from transport bags at dispatch areas 40; “the distribution ring VR9 collects the empty transport means for a return via the empty return lines 38 and 39 to the corresponding feed stations 11a and 11b. An empty store 37 is inserted into the empty return line 39 for the empty transport bags, in which the empty transport bags can be collected and temporarily stored”;
claim 5) the unloading is an automatic un- loading (Page 11, Para. 6);
claim 6) requesting the at least one product includes requesting based on at least one of a criteria of order quantity, customer of the order, and order priority (goods retrieved are for customer orders which are batched according to a customer order; Page 8, Para. 12-13);
claim 7) the criteria are variable for different conveying stages (Page 11, Para. 4, goods can be rearranged; Page 12, Para. 1, goods arriving to dispatch areas in a predetermined sequence is not necessary);
claim 8) the requesting the at least one product includes requesting from a second endless conveyor downstream of the consolidation storage unit (goods are delivered to the dispatch station from the sorter stages 13, via conveyor section 31, VR6, VR7)(Fig. 7);
claim 9) the requesting the at least one product includes requesting from the second endless conveyor prior to requesting from the consolidation storage unit (Page 11, Para. 6);
claim 10) the at least one product is a collection of ordered goods of an order in a conveying stage (Page 8, Para. 12; Page 9, Para. 4 of the English translation of the Specification);
claim 11) the at least one product is a collection of ordered goods of an order in the consolidation storage unit (Page 9, Para. 6 of the English translation of the Specification);
claim13) conveying the at least one product includes conveying the at least one product into the first endless conveyor (products are conveyed to the distribution ring, VR8 of the dispatch station 14; Page 11, Para. 6)(Fig. 7);
claim 14) conveying the at least one product includes only conveying the at least one product to a next conveying stage if all ordered goods of this order are arranged in the previous conveying stage (goods are sorted in the matrix sorter 13 before moving to dispatch station 14, Page 11, Para. 6; goods may also be presorted in the storage area, 18-19 of buffer storage 12, before leaving storage 18-19; Page 10, Para. 4, beginning with “In order to make”)(Fig. 7);
claim 15) conveying the at least one product includes only conveying the at least one product to the conveying stage if all ordered goods of this order are arranged in the consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2)(See Page 10, Para. 10, goods presorted and belonging to an order are allowed to leave storage 19, “By suitably actuating the exit switch 57 of the return path 28, those of the stored goods which are required according to the order in the dispatch station 14 are let through to the exit switch 57 at the exit switch 57. The other goods that are not required are fed back via the return path 28 into the dynamic store 18 and conveyed”; see also Page 10, Para. 6);
claim 16) comprising filling the consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2) with goods from at least one loading station (goods are entered into system 10 at feed station 11; Page 8, Para. 12, the goods requested in the orders are outsourced and entered into the order-picking system 10 via a feed station 11)(Fig. 1).
Relative to claims 19-24, the disclosure of Sigrist includes:
Claim 19) A conveying apparatus for goods, the apparatus comprising:
a consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2)(Fig. 7) having a circulating conveyor line (see lines 30, 31 near storage area, 12; Page 11, Para. 6 of the English translation of specification);
a first endless conveyor (see discharge line 32 and VR8)(Fig. 7) arranged downstream of the consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2)(Fig. 7);
at least one goods sink (40) directly coupled to the first endless conveyor (Fig. 7); and
a control unit (56) configured to execute conveyance of goods (Page 8, Para. 12, “The recorded data are transmitted to a central controller 56, into which the information about the orders A is fed and which controls the operation of the picking system 10 and carries out the picking”);
claim 20) a second endless conveyor arranged between the consolidation storage unit and the first endless conveyor;
claim 21) the conveying apparatus is an overhead conveying apparatus;
claim 22) the conveying apparatus includes a conveyor rail and entrainers that are conveyable thereon, each of which is couplable to a conveyor container (goods hang on rails, Page 9, Para. 5, goods are enclosed in transport bags 55, and travel along rails 56, entrainers may include carriages 50 and member traveling through rail, suspended to or connected to rail; Fig. 12);
claim 23) the first endless conveyor (32, VR8) and the consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2) are configured such that an intake capacity thereof decreases as the conveying stage increases (Page 11, Para. 1 & 6);
claim 24) the second endless conveyor (see conveyor sections near sorter station 13) is configured such that an intake capacity thereof decreases as the conveying stage increases (goods arrive in sorter matrix 13, which are then sorted according to an order, Page 11, Para. 1 & 6)(Fig. 7).
Relative to claim 25, the disclosure of Sigrist includes:
A conveying method for goods, the method comprising:
requesting an order from a goods sink (40), the order comprises at least one product, which is an ordered product (See English translation of Specification: Page 8, Para. 12; Page 11, Para. 6);
requesting the at least one product from a consolidation storage unit (12.1, 12.2) upstream of an endless conveyor (32, VR8), the storage unit (12.1, 12.2) including a circulating conveyor line (see conveyors 30, 31 of storage unit 12.1, 12.2 along arrows)(Fig. 7)(Page 11, Para. 6);
automatically transferring the at least one product to the first endless conveyor (Page 8, Para. 6 & Para. 9, of the English translation of the specification, goods are transferred to lines 32 and VR8)(Fig. 7); and
conveying the at least one ordered product to the goods sink (40)(Page 11, Para. 6, goods are automatically delivered to dispatch points 40).
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) 12, and 17-18 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sigrist (Ch 714004 A1) in view of Sigrist et al (US PG. Pub. 2020/0216262A1). Relative to claims 12 and 17-18, Sigrist ‘004 discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, but does not expressly disclose:
Claim 12) changing an order sequence when requesting goods;
Claim 17) providing random access to all goods in at least one of the first endless conveyor, the second endless conveyor, and the consolidation storage unit;
Claim 18) providing random access to all goods in each conveying stage.
Sigrist ‘004 teaches:
Claim 12) changing an order sequence when requesting goods (Para. 0115);
Claim 17) providing random access to all goods in at least one of the first endless conveyor, the second endless conveyor, and the consolidation storage unit (Sigrist, ‘262, Para. 0110; 0113; 0124, transport units may be inserted back into the flow of goods); and
Claim 18) providing random access to all goods in each conveying stage (Sigrist, ‘262, Para. 0110; 0113), for the purpose of providing a buffer storage device for an overhead conveyor system that allows units to be withdrawn in a selective manner from the flow of goods on the buffer section, that can efficiently adapt to the flow of goods when changed circumstances occur, is less complicated, reduces costs, and minimizes errors (Para 0031; 0005;0009; 0025).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sigrist ‘004 with the; changing the order sequence, and providing random access to all goods as taught in Sigrist ‘262 for the purpose of providing a buffer storage device for an overhead conveyor system that allows units to be withdrawn in a selective manner from the flow of goods on the buffer section, that can efficiently adapt to the flow of goods when changed circumstances occur, is less complicated, reduces costs, and minimizes errors.
Related Art:
Other relevant art includes:
Wend US 2014/0303770 A1: discloses a method for conveying goods (Para. 0016), with a goods sink (22, 20)(Fig. 1, Para. 0040), with conveyor lines, first endless conveyor (see second conveyor device 18, near delivery lines 20), request product from storage (5) upstream of first conveyor (18), carries goods to good sink (20)(Para. 0034; 0038).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOLANDA RENEE CUMBESS whose telephone number is (571)270-5527. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/YOLANDA R CUMBESS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655