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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Groups I & II in the reply filed on 12/01/2025 is acknowledged. However, in light of Applicant’s Amendment, the election requirement is withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 of this title, 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103(a) as being unpatentable over US 20190137168 (“Kumar et al.”) in view of US 8608262 B (“Daros”).
Regarding Claim 1, Kumar et al. discloses a refrigeration system (10) comprising:
an internal cavity (18);
a plurality of shelves (16) and a plurality of drawers (16, middle drawers) disposed within the internal cavity; and a container assembly (16, lower drawer) disposed within the internal cavity (18)
Kumar et al. does not disclose the container the container assembly having a plurality of sections adjustable in width.
Daros teaches an expandable drawer or container comprising the: a plurality of bins (30, 40 ; at each side of the center section 21) each including a first section (30 a, b) and a second section (40 a, b); wherein the second section (40 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins is translatable relative the first section of each of the plurality of bins in a longitudinal direction, such that translation of the second section (40 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins relative the first section (30 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins causes a bin width of each of the plurality of bins to be adjusted.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the lower drawer with a drawer having expandable sections, similar the drawer taught by Daros, to provide a width adjustable drawer that can fit in various sized drawer openings in different sized refrigerators.
Regarding Claim 2-5, the combination discloses (Daros ) Claim 2-wherein the plurality of bins each include a slider (36c) disposed on the first section (30 a, b) and a rail (36b) disposed on the second section (40 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins; Claim 3- wherein a container assembly width is equal to a combined width of each of the plurality of bins, the container assembly width being fixed; Claim 4- wherein the plurality of bins (30, 40) includes a first bin and a second bin; Claim 5- wherein the first bin (30, 40) includes a first bin width and the second bin (30, 40) includes a second bin width.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-20 are allowed.
Claims 6- 9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Daros discloses an expandable drawer comprising: a plurality of bins (30, 40 ; at each side of the center section 21) each including a first section (30 a, b) and a second section (40 a, b); wherein the second section (40 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins is translatable relative the first section of each of the plurality of bins in a longitudinal direction, such that translation of the second section (40 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins relative the first section (30 a, b) of each of the plurality of bins causes a bin width of each of the plurality of bins to be adjusted.
As to claims 6-7and 20, Daros, alone or in combination, does not teach wherein translating the first bin in a first direction causes the first bin width to increase and the second bin width to decrease an amount equal to the increase of the first bin width, and vice versa.
As to claims 8-19, Daros alone or in combination does not teach wherein a partition includes a partition attachment mechanism for releasably coupling to the second section of the first bin and the second section of the second bin; wherein the partition attachment mechanism allows the first bin and the second bin to translate in tandem in the longitudinal direction and move independently in a lateral direction.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLEY S WRIGHT whose telephone number is (571)270-3328. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 12:30-6:30.
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/KIMBERLEY S WRIGHT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3637