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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2 February 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Claim 1 remains pending in the application. Applicant's amendments to the Specification and the Claims have overcome each and every objection and rejection previously set forth in the Final Office Action dated 5 November 2025; however, upon further consideration new rejections are set forth as explained below.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miller et al. (US 2010/0072300) in view of Svendsen et al. (US 2011/0240763).
Regarding claim 1, Miller discloses a portable joint-compound texture sprayer (10) that delivers a joint-compound to a primed drywall to produce an orange peel textured appearance, the portable joint compound texture sprayer comprises:
a handle section (34), that has a top side (annotated figure), a bottom side (annotated figure), a front side (annotated figure), and a rear side (annotated figure), the bottom side defines a rechargeable battery receiver (figs. 1, 2), that receives a rechargeable battery (26), the front side defines an aperture (annotated figure), an inner grip aperture is positioned above the rechargeable battery receiver and is located adjacent to the rear side and the top side of the handle section (annotated figure);
a variable speed switch (38/42, see par. 17) attaches to handle section at a position that borders the inner grip aperture (fig. 3);
a reciprocal cycle linear actuator motor (18) attaches to a top inner section of the handle section (fig. 3), the rechargeable battery (26), the variable speed switch, and the reciprocal cycle linear actuator motor are operatively wired together (par. 17);
a piston tube section (30/98) attaches to the front side of the handle section (fig. 5), a rod of a piston (102) is housed within the piston tube section (in 142, see fig. 5), the rod of the piston connects to a reciprocal rod (54) of the reciprocal cycle linear actuator motor (par. 30, fig. 5);
a canister connector section (70/126) attaches to the piston tube section (fig. 5), the canister connector section is hollow and has a front side (annotated figure), a rear side (annotated figure), and a bottom side (annotated figure), the bottom side receives a canister (74), the rear side of the canister connector section attaches to the piston tube section (fig. 3, 5), and the front side of the canister connection sections attaches to a spray nozzle section (146/178/182), the spray nozzle section that has a spray nozzle (178), an insert (182) positioned within the spray nozzle (fig. 5), the insert being disposed inside the spray nozzle between an inlet and an outlet of the spray nozzle (fig. 5); and a tube system (146) attaches to the spray nozzle (fig. 5).
Regarding the phrase “that delivers a joint-compound to a primed drywall to produce an orange peel textured appearance” in the preamble, it is noted that since the body of the claim fully and intrinsically sets forth all of the limitations of the claimed invention, and the preamble merely states, for example, the purpose or intended use of the invention, rather than any distinct definition of any of the claimed invention’s limitations, then the preamble is not considered a limitation and is of no significance to claim construction. Shoes by Firebug LLC v. Stride Rite Children’s Grp., LLC, 962 F.3d 1362, 2020 USPQ2d 10701 (Fed. Cir. 2020).
Miller does not disclose that the canister holds a joint-compound that is sprayed from the spray nozzle.
Svendsen teaches a portable joint-compound sprayer that delivers paint, texture material, and the like (par. 2) comprising a spray nozzle (106) and a canister (102) holding a joint-compound that is sprayed from the spray nozzle (par. 2).
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 portable sprayer of Miller such that the canister holds a joint-compound, as taught by Svendsen, since Svendsen teaches that it was known to use a portable handheld paint sprayer to spray a joint compound (par. 2, 15).
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CODY J LIEUWEN whose telephone number is (571)272-4477. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 8-5, Friday varies.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arthur Hall can be reached at (571) 270-1814. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CODY J LIEUWEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3752