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 non-final and is in response to the claims filed December 21, 2023 via preliminary amendment. Claims 1, 2, 4-8, 10-17, 28, 29, 31, 33, and 34 are currently pending. Claims 1, 2, 4-8, 10-17, 28, 29, 31, 33, and 34 are currently amended. Claims 3, 9, 18-27, 30, 32, and 35 are canceled.
Objections to Abstract
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The current abstract just recite the claim language.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: On p. 79-80, after par. 465, there are multiple paragraphs listed without any paragraph numbers. This will most certainly cause issues during printing if the application goes to issue.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: In line 8, the phrase “wherein the” has been spelled twice. Appropriate correction 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for
patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the
case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the
claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4-8, 10-16, 31 and 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Alitta et al. (WO 2018154438 A1.) This reference was retrieved from the IDS filed December 21,2023.
As per claim 1, Alitta et al. teach
A footwear manufacturing system (Fig. A, page 7, lines 4-20, manufacturing system 100) comprising:
a footwear assembly (page 7, lines 5-6, shoe lasts 4 and or said shoe parts);
a footwear identification representation associated with said footwear assembly (page 7, line5, trackable ID tags);
a plurality of footwear manufacturing locations (Fig. A and page 7, lines15-19 plurality of work cells teaches locations; plurality of machines M in Fig. A can also be said as different locations),
a footwear manufacturing line for conveying said footwear assembly between said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations (Fig. A, page 6, lines 21-25) under control by a system controller and/or a robot controller (page 7, lines 10-14, “central processing unit management and control” controlling the operation of work cells, buffer and intercorrelation between said work cells); and
wherein the system controller is configured to monitor said footwear assembly when the footwear assembly is transported from a first location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations to a second location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation. (Fig. A, page 7, lines 4-20; central processing unit management and control unit supervising operation of buffer work cell and intercorrelation between work cells and tracking through trackable ID; the fact that there are trackable IDs associated with the footwear, that is being interpreted as them being monitored).
As per claim 2, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 1, the system controller and/or the robot controller being configured to control transporting of said footwear assembly from a first location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations to a second location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation (page 4, lines 5-21, selectively grip said shoe last 4 at the side shoe lasts 4 using said gripping manipulator 1. The manufacturing operations in first work cell 101 consisting the semiautomatic machine M1, M2, Mi comprising a first robot R, page 4, Fig. At page 7 lines 4-20; central processing unit management and control unit supervising operation of buffer work cell and intercorrelation between work cells and tracking through trackable ID, page 5, line 5-line 25: page 6 line 1-line 22, a process of managing and controlling plurality of robots to operate plurality of machines).
As per claim 4, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear assembly is monitored by reading an ID marking attached to the footwear assembly and/or reading an ID marking attached to footwear part(s) to be gathering with and attached to the footwear assembly (page 7, line 5-6, a trackable tag associated with the said shoe last 4 and /or said shoe parts) and wherein the footwear assembly is monitored at least one time during transport from the first location to the second location based on the basis of an associated marking or transport information communicated to the system controller (page 5, lines 5 – line 25: page 6, line 1 -line5 ,Fig. A Plurality of robot teaches plurality of carriers, the robots carry shoes among different machines M with various machines M and various robots R, page 7, line 5-15, a trackable ID to track while transporting from machine M1 to M2 and the central processing unit 100 manage control and supervise the operation).
As per claim 5, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein said footwear manufacturing line including a plurality of footwear assembly carriers configured for transporting footwear assemblies between at least a subset of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations under control by said system controller (page 5, lines 5 – line 25: page 6, line 1 -line5 ,Fig. A Plurality of robot teaches plurality of carriers, the robots carry shoes among different machines M with various machines M and various robots R) .
As per claim 6, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear identification representation is applied for automatic reconfiguration of a footwear manufacturing robot based on said footwear identification representation when the respective footwear assembly is in proximity of a location of said footwear manufacturing robot (page 13, lines 5-13, describes the steps of configuration process by identifying the shoe components as shoe last 4 and carrying out the sequence of process to various machines according to the stored data, page 7, line 5, trackable ID tags, preferably RFID tags, associated with said shoe lasts 4) .
As per claim 7, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear identification representation is applied for automatic initialization of a reconfiguration of a footwear manufacturing robot based on said footwear identification representation before the respective footwear assembly is in position for processing by means of said footwear manufacturing robot at the footwear manufacturing location (page 13, lines 5-13, describes the steps of configuration process by identifying the shoe components as shoe last and carrying out the sequence of process to various machines according to the stored data, page 8, lines 8-11, various configuration of adaptive gripping manipulator 1, Figs, 1-10. Fig. 8 shows this manipulator is being adapted to grip a shoe last 4, Figs. 9 and 10 show of conventional type of another part of shoe sole 13, the gripping manipulators are configured and initialized before performing the sequential process according to the stored data).
As per claim 8, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear identification representation of a footwear assembly is correlated to at least one footwear assembly attribute (page 7, lines 5-8, trackable ID or RFID associated with shoe last 4 and other associated shoe parts in order to configure trackable ID associated with manipulator).
As per claim 10, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear identification representation of a footwear assembly is correlated to at least one further footwear assembly attribute, said further footwear assembly attribute including footwear assembly size (page 13, lines 5-13 and 19-25, different types of shoe parts such as shoe last 4, page 14, lines 11-5, describes shapes of shoe that gripping manipulator can adjust).
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As per claim 11, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear manufacturing line is configured for automatically routing a plurality of footwear assemblies between a plurality of footwear manufacturing robots at corresponding different footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation (page 5, line 5-line 25: page 6 line 1-line 22, a process of managing and controlling plurality of robots to operate plurality of machines, page 7, lines 5-8, trackable ID or RFID associated with shoe last 4 and other associated shoe parts in order to configure trackable ID associated with manipulator).
As per claim 12, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear manufacturing line is configured for automatically routing a plurality of footwear assemblies between a plurality of footwear manufacturing robots at corresponding different footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation (page 7, lines 5-8, trackable ID or RFID associated with shoe last 4 and other associated shoe parts in order to configure trackable ID associated with manipulator),
wherein the footwear manufacturing system further comprises the plurality of footwear manufacturing robots configured for performing a first process step (page 5, lines 5- 25: page 6, lines 5-20. The process at work cell 101 of robot R), and
wherein the footwear manufacturing system comprises a plurality of footwear manufacturing robots configured for performing a second process step and wherein the first process step is functionally different than the second process step (page 7, lines 14-19, teaches multiple work cells 101, 102 connected though respective buffers can perform different processing operations in parallel, page 5, lines 5- 25: page 6, lines 5-20. The process at work cell 101 of robot R and the process in work cell 102 for robot R’).
As per claim 13, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the footwear manufacturing line is configured for automatically routing a plurality of footwear assemblies between a plurality of footwear manufacturing robots at corresponding different footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation, and wherein the footwear assemblies are transported by footwear assembly carriers between the footwear manufacturing locations controlled by the system controller and optionally also the robot controller(s) (page 7,lines 10-14,“central processing unit management and control” controlling the operation of work cells, buffer and intercorrelation between said work cells).
As per claim 14,
Claim 14 has the same limitations as claim 5. Please refer to the analysis above.
As per claim 15,
Claim 15 has the same limitations as claim 5. Please refer to the analysis above.
As per claim 16, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of the footwear assembly carriers are configured as a multiple of transportation paths between said footwear manufacturing locations and wherein said transportation paths are branched so as to switch footwear assembly carriers between different alternative footwear manufacturing locations for a same process step/task (page 7, lines 15-19, work cells 101 and 102 are connected together with a buffer B these work cells may carry out same or different operations in parallel. Fig A, buffer connects work cell 101 and 102).
As per claim 31, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim l, wherein the system controller and/or the robot controller is configured to control transporting of said footwear assembly from a first location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations to a second location of said plurality of footwear manufacturing locations based on said footwear identification representation, the second footwear manufacturing location being one of a least two different alternative possible footwear manufacturing locations (Fig. A page 7 lines 4-20; central processing unit management and control unit supervising operation of buffer work cell and intercorrelation between work cells and tracking through trackable ID, page 5, line 5-line 25: page 6 line 1-line 22, a process of managing and controlling plurality of robots to operate plurality of machines; the work cells are interpreted as being different manufacturing locations).
As per claim 33, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 31, wherein the footwear manufacturing system executes a method for manufacturing footwear whereby [[the]] transportation of individual footwear assemblies [[(FA)]] are monitored during [ [the]] transport through the footwear manufacturing line, and whereby [[the]] individual footwear assemblies are routed through a branched transportation path by the system controller, (Fig. A page 7, lines 4-20; central processing unit management and control unit supervising operation of buffer work cell and intercorrelation between work cells and tracking through trackable ID, page 5, line 5-line 25: page 6 line 1-line 22, a process of managing and controlling plurality of robots to operate plurality of machines; the fact that there are trackable IDs associated with the footwear, that is being interpreted as them being monitored).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or no obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the
claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly
owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the
contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and
effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date
of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C.
102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 17, 28, 29 and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alitta et al. (WO 2018154438 A1.), and in view of Iwashita et al. (US 20210315324 A1.).
As per Claim 17, Alitta et al teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 1, including a footwear manufacturing robot system comprising:
an automated footwear manufacturing robot (robot R, page 4, line 12, Robot R’, page 6, line 5)
a robot controller configured to control said automated footwear manufacturing robot (page 7, lines 9-13, shoe manufacturing system 100 comprises a central processing unit management and control for managing and supervising said work cells, operation of said buffer B and /or intercorrelation between said work cells); and
a system controller communicatively coupled to said robot instructions database and said robot controller (page 7, lines 9-14, “central processing unit management and control” controlling the operation of work cells, buffer and intercorrelation between said work cells);
wherein said automated footwear manufacturing robot is configured to manufacture different footwear assemblies at least partially, each of said different footwear assemblies associated with footwear assembly identification information (page 7, line 5-6, a trackable tag associated with the said shoe last 4. And /or said shoe parts),
wherein said system controller and/or said robot controller is configured to select an elected manufacturing instruction of said plurality of robot manufacturing instructions based on said footwear assembly identification information (page 8, Lines 8-11, various configuration of adaptive gripping manipulator 1, Figs, 1-10. Fig. 8 shows this manipulator is being adapted to grip a shoe last 4, Figs. 9 and 10 show of conventional type of another part of shoe sole 13, Fig. A page 7 lines 4-20; central processing unit management and control unit supervising operation of buffer work cell and intercorrelation between work cells and tracking through trackable ID, page 5, line 5-line 25: page 6 line 1-line 22, a process of managing and controlling plurality of robots to operate plurality of machines), and
wherein said robot controller is configured to automatically execute said elected manufacturing instruction to operate said automated footwear manufacturing robot (page 14, line14-18, “gripping 15 manipulators to adapt to the particular shape of the shoe last to be picked up” and “automatically handle the shoe lasts and automatically handle the shoe parts”).
However, Alitta et al. do not teach
a robot instructions database comprising a plurality of robot manufacturing instructions;
In the same field of endeavor Iwashita et al. teach
a robot instructions database comprising a plurality of robot manufacturing instructions;
Iwashita et al. teach a shoe manufacturing system 100 comprising a robot arm 40, a control device 60, a programming logic controller 50 and other associated devices, para 25. Fig. 1. The moving mechanism of the robot arm 40 is being controlled by the control device 60, the robot arm 40 is designed based on the three-dimensional camera 20b and the control application 30 and also based on a three-dimensional CAD data, para 97. Based on the CAD data of the product upper 11 and sole 12 bounded together, control device 60 identifies the boundary of the surface and store in the boundary database 6106, para 92.
It would have been obvious to a person ordinary skilled in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to modify the teaching of Alitta et al. and including the teaching of Iwashita et al.
into the shoe manufacturing system. This would have been obvious because both Alitta et al. and Iwashita et al. implement a shoe manufacturing system automated by computerized system or robot. By implementing a database, the system can store the three-dimensional CAD data from a camera into the database and the control device can manipulate the information to control the robot (para 97).
As per claim 28, Alitta et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 17, wherein said plurality of robot manufacturing instructions is associated with at least two different robot tools (page 6, line 23-page 7, line 3, first work cell 101 and second work cell 102 are interconnected through buffer B for exchanging shoe last 4 by the gripping manipulator 1 of said first robot R and by the gripping manipulator 1 of the said second robot R’. Robot R and R’ teach different robot tools as using gripping manipulator 1).
As per claim 29, Iwashita et al. teach
The footwear manufacturing system according to claim 17, wherein a series of footwear manufacturing instructions are updated after completion of executing said elected manufacturing instruction to operate said automated footwear manufacturing robot (control device 60 controls robot 40 based on three-dimensional shape data, (para 32, Iwashita et al.); conveyor belt transporting shoes P1 to P3 successively (para 49, Iwashita et al.); "When control device 60 is to identify the boundary of upper 11 of a different shoe width, control device 60 performs a multiplication by a correction coefficient for the width direction, or an addition of a predetermined correction value, the information about the boundary and the information about the movement path of the same shoe types with different shoe sizes and different shoe widths may be stored in boundary database 6106” (para 54, Iwashita et al.). So, the shoes are successively completed by the system of Fig.1. After finishing one, when next shoe is different width, the data is corrected and stored/updated. New data is a new instruction for the robot for the new shoe).
As per claim 34,
Claim 34 has the same limitations as claim 17. Please see the analysis above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Please refer to the form PTO-892 Notice of References Cited.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Rokeya Alam whose telephone number is (571)-272-0083. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:30am - 4:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mr. Scott Baderman can be reached at telephone number (571-272-3644). The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/ROKEYA SHAWALI ALAM/Examiner, Art Unit 2118
/SCOTT T BADERMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2118