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 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 7 and 8 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.
Claim 7 recites the limitation "time of determining" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 8, second to last line, recites the same language with the same antecedent basis issue.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fukuda et al (US 2019/0172292 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Fukuda discloses
a money handling apparatus, i.e., banknote handling apparatus (1), as illustrated in figures 1 and 2, for example, comprising:
a first storage unit, i.e., any one of large storage units (31, 311, 312, 313 or small storage units (32, 321, 322, 323), as illustrated in figure 2, for example, that stores money and discharges the stored money, noting the mention of deposits as mentioned at paragraphs 187 and 191 and as illustrated in figures 6 and 7 and noting the mention of dispensing at paragraph 196 and as illustrated in figure 9, for example;
a transport unit, i.e., transport path (411), upper path (4111), lower path (4112), and connection/branch paths (412-417), that transports money, as mentioned at paragraphs 159-164 and as illustrated in figure 6;
a recognition unit (24), as mentioned at paragraphs 143, 148, 149, 188 and as illustrated in figure 6, for example, that recognizes money, i.e., banknotes; and
a control unit, i.e., controller (15) as illustrated in figure 5 and as mentioned at paragraph 180, that performs reconciliation for confirming
a storage amount of money in the first storage unit, i.e., any of storages (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323) by the recognition unit's (24) recognizing money that is discharged from the first storage unit (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323) and transported by the transport unit (411, 4111, 4112, 412-417), as mentioned at paragraphs 263-265 and as illustrated in figure 20, for example,
wherein the control unit (15) performs the reconciliation when a deemed
storage amount that is an amount of money deemed to be stored
in the first storage unit satisfies a predetermined condition, i.e., when the money handling apparatus accepts an inventory of banknotes, such as during a replenishment process, or during discovery of an anomaly or error, as mentioned at paragraphs 3, 111-115, 120, 141, and
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of the money allowed
to be concurrently positioned in a place other than the first
storage unit in the money handling apparatus, as mentioned at paragraphs 129, 131 and 330, which state as follows.
[0129] The money handling apparatus includes a temporary storage which temporarily stores the money, and feeds the stored money. If the reconciliation process is performed on the storage whose maximum storage capacity is less than a predetermined level, the controller may transport the money fed from the storage to the temporary storage to be stored therein, and transport the money fed from the temporary storage to the storage to be stored therein.
[0131] If the reconciliation process is performed on the storage whose storage capacity is less than a predetermined level, the controller may transport the money fed from the storage to the temporary storage to be stored therein, and transport the money fed from the temporary storage to the storage to be stored therein.
[0330] FIG. 27 shows an example of how the banknotes travel in a reconciliation process using the temporary storage 34. This reconciliation process is suitable for a case in which the number of banknotes as the target of the reconciliation is small. FIG. 27 shows an example of a reconciliation process performed on the small storage 32 having a relatively small capacity. Specifically, if the reconciliation process is performed on the storage whose maximum storage capacity is less than a predetermined level (the small storage 32 in this example), the temporary storage 34 is used. If the reconciliation process is performed on the storage whose maximum storage capacity is more than or equal to the predetermined level (the large storage 31 and the multi-purpose storage 33 in this example), the external storage 35 or the multi-purpose storage 33 may be used as described above instead of the temporary storage 34.
Emphasis provided.
Regarding Claim 2, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the transport unit (4, 411, 4111, 4112, 412-417) comprises:
a transport path that transports the money, as mentioned in paragraph 160, for example; and
a feeding unit, i.e., temporary storage (34) as mentioned at paragraphs 167-168, 181 and 217, that temporarily holds a plurality of
pieces of money and feeds out the held pieces of money one by one.
Regarding Claim 4, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the control unit (15) controls the transport unit (4, 411, 4111, 4112, 412-417) such that the money recognized by the recognition unit (24) is returned to the
first storage unit (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323) during performing the reconciliation, as mentioned at paragraphs 267 and 276, for example.
Regarding Claim 5, Fukuda discloses
further comprising
a second storage unit, i.e., any of multi-purpose storage (33) or external storage (35), as mentioned at paragraph 178 and as illustrated in figure 14, for example, that stores the money recognized by
the recognition unit (24), wherein
the control unit (15) controls the transport unit (4, 411, 4111, 4112, 412-417), such that the money is transported to the second storage unit (33, 35), when the money recognized by the recognition unit (24) is target money to be stored
in the second storage unit (33, 35) during performing the reconciliation, as mentioned at paragraphs 261, 265, 302-304, 330, 331, 336 and 399, for example.
Regarding Claim 6, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the second storage unit (33, 35) comprises a plurality of
denomination-specific storage units that stores the money by
denomination, as mentioned in paragraph 253, and
the control unit (15) controls the transport unit (4, 411, 4111, 4112, 412-417) such that the money recognized by the recognition unit (24) is transported to the
denomination-specific storage unit (33, 35), noting that paragraph 253 mentions that these two storage units can be assigned particular denominations as needed, corresponding to the denomination of the money. See paragraph 253, which states as follows.
[0253] Further, based on the result of the recognition by the recognition unit 24, the transporter 4 may transport banknotes of a particular denomination to one of the external storage 35 or the multi-purpose storage 33, and transport banknotes of other denominations to the other one of the external storage 35 or the multi-purpose storage 33. In the collection process, the banknotes may be sorted by denomination and separately stored in two storages, namely, the external storage 35 and the multi-purpose storage 33.
[0254] Further, based on the result of the recognition by the recognition unit 24, the transporter 4 may transport unfit banknotes to the external storage 35, and fit banknotes to the multi-purpose storage 33. In the collection process, the banknotes may be sorted by fitness and separately collected in two storages, namely, the external storage 35 and the multi-purpose storage 33. Alternatively, the banknotes may be sorted by currency and collected in two storages, namely, the external storage 35 and the multi-purpose storage 33.
Emphasis provided.
Regarding Claim 7, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of money allowed to
be stored in the second storage unit (33, 35) at (a) time of determining
whether the deemed storage amount satisfies the predetermined
condition, as mentioned at paragraphs 129, 131 and 330.
Regarding Claim 9, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the control unit (15) controls the transport unit (4, 411, 4111, 4112, 412-417) such that the
money recognized by the recognition unit (24) is returned to the
first storage unit (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323), when the money recognized by the recognition unit (24) is not allowed to be stored in the second storage unit (33, 35), i.e., such as when the second storage units (33, 35) are not used as the destination for banknotes removed from one of storage units (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323) during a reconciliation process when the temporary storage (34) is empty and is used instead of second storage units (33, 35), or such as when banknotes during the reconciliation process are rejected, and are transported to first or second dispensing units (22, 23, as mentioned at paragraph 290, for example. See also paragraph 338, which mentions in the last sentence that “banknote handling apparatus 1 may automatically select and determine the storage to be used in the reconciliation process in accordance with a predetermined condition (i.e., a rule)”.
Regarding Claim 12, Fukuda discloses
further comprising:
a notification unit, i.e., terminal (16), as mentioned at paragraphs 182-184, for example, that notifies that the deemed storage amount satisfies the predetermined condition, as mentioned at paragraphs 190.
Regarding Claim 13, Fukuda discloses
further comprising:
an input unit, i.e., either the setting unit (151), as mentioned at paragraph 185, the operation unit (27) as illustrated in figure 5 and as mentioned at paragraph 184, and noting an input unit is at least implied as being part of terminal (16) so as to effectuate human input into the system through the terminal, noting paragraph 190 stating that “the amount of the banknotes deposited is displayed on the terminal 16” and “[t]he depositing process ends when a human operates the terminal 16 or the operation unit 27 to confirm the depositing process”, for example, that allows entry of an instruction for starting the reconciliation, wherein
the control unit (15) starts the reconciliation when the control
unit (15) receives the instruction from the input unit (16, 27, 151), as mentioned at paragraphs 290 and 339, which states as follows.
[0290] In this example, how the banknotes travel in the reconciliation process has been described taking the case where the reconciliation process is sequentially performed on a plurality of storages as an example. However, the reconciliation process is not necessarily performed on a plurality of storages. The reconciliation process may be performed on a single storage. In such a case, if some banknotes are rejected during the reconciliation process, they may be stored in the multi-purpose storage 33 or transported to the first or second dispensing unit 22 or 23. As will be described later, when provided with the temporary storage 34, the banknote handling apparatus 1 may store the rejected banknotes in the temporary storage 34. The destination of the banknotes rejected during the reconciliation process may be determined in accordance with the manual operation of the operation unit 27 or the terminal 16. The controller 15 may automatically determine the destination of the banknotes rejected during the reconciliation process in accordance with a predetermined specific condition.
[0339] The storage to be used in the reconciliation process may be designated in accordance with the manual operation of the terminal 16 or the operation unit 27. In this case, the banknote handling apparatus 1 may present available storages on the terminal 16 or any other means in accordance with various information, such as the maximum storage capacity of the storage as the target of the reconciliation, and the number of banknotes stored in each storage. This allows a human to select a suitable storage, and the banknote handling apparatus 1 can smoothly perform the reconciliation process using the storage with a suitable capacity.
Emphasis provided.
Regarding Claim 14, Fukuda discloses
wherein
the control unit (15) determines whether the deemed storage
amount satisfies the predetermined condition, based on a
denomination of the money stored in the first storage unit (31, 311, 312, 313, 32, 321, 322, 323), as mentioned at paragraphs 260-265 and 325-326, for example.
Regarding Claim 15, see the rejection of Claim 1, above.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 3 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fukuda et al (US 2019/0172292 A1) in view of Wakabayashi et al (US 2016/0335830 A1).
Regarding Claims 3 and 8, Fukuda teaches the system as described above.
Regarding Claim 3 Fukuda does not expressly teach
wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of money allowed to
be concurrently supported by the transport unit.
Regarding Claim 3 Fukuda does not expressly teach, but Wakabayashi teaches
wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of money allowed to
be concurrently supported by the transport unit, i.e. conveyance path retention section (22S), as mentioned at paragraphs 126, 127, 130, 132 and 241 and as illustrated in figures 6 and 7, for example. Note also that paragraph 242 mentions that “various locations within the banknote deposit/withdrawal device 10 that are capable of retaining banknotes, for example the banknote storage box 17E, may be employed as temporary storage boxes for the deposit reject banknotes”.
Regarding Claim 3, before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of money allowed to
be concurrently supported by the transport unit, as taught by Wakabayashi, in Fukuda’s money handling apparatus, for the purpose of storing banknotes, thus increasing the flexibility of the system.
Regarding Claim 8, Fukuda does not expressly teach
wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to a total amount of an amount of
money allowed to be concurrently supported by the transport unit
and an amount of money allowed to be stored in the second storage
unit at (a) time of determining whether the deemed storage amount
satisfies the predetermined condition.
Regarding Claim 8, Fukuda does not expressly teach, but Wakabayashi teaches
wherein
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to a total amount of an amount of
money allowed to be concurrently supported by the transport unit (22S)
and an amount of money allowed to be stored in the second storage
unit, i.e., any of temporary holding section (15) or banknote storage boxes (17A-17E), counterfeit note box (18), and reject box (16), as illustrated in figures 2, 6 and 7, at (a) time of determining whether the deemed storage amount
satisfies the predetermined condition, and as mentioned at paragraphs 126, 127, 130, 132, 241 and 242, since any of storage units (15, 16, 17, 17A-17E, 18 and 22S) are capable of retaining banknotes, either individually or in combination, as needed to hold a particular volume of money/banknotes.
Claim(s) 10 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fukuda et al (US 2019/0172292 A1) in view of Sugitani et al (US 2011/0295741 A1).
Regarding Claims 10 and 11, Fukuda teaches the system as described above.
Regarding Claim 10, Fukuda does not expressly teach
wherein
the control unit determines that the reconciliation has
been terminated in an uncompleted state, when the money
recognized by the recognition unit has returned to the first
storage unit before all the money in the first storage unit is
discharged.
Regarding Claim 10, Fukuda teaches that a human cancels the depositing process at paragraphs 195 and 373, for example. Note also figure 28 showing step (S18), i.e., “stop process” and as mentioned at paragraph 345, for example. See also paragraphs 352-355 mentioning the choice of specific conditions by the setting unit (151).
Regarding Claim 10, Fukuda does not expressly teach, but Sugitani
wherein
the control unit (15, 225) as illustrated in figures 3 and 9 and as mentioned at paragraphs 168-170 and 173, determines that the reconciliation has
been terminated in an uncompleted state, when the money
recognized by the recognition unit has returned to the first
storage unit before all the money in the first storage unit is
discharged, as mentioned at paragraphs 305 and 314, which states as follows.
[0305] Finally, on the display screen of FIG. 20G, a state of waiting for selecting either of forced termination or restart of the automatic reconciling operation is displayed. When the restart of the automatic reconciling operation is selected, the automatic reconciling operation is performed again, from the weight measurement for each denomination of money (as shown in FIG. 20A). Meanwhile, when the forced termination is selected by using the keyboard operation section 226, the input of the ID and identification number of a certain person that approves the forced termination is requested. Once the ID and identification number of that person are inputted, the process is forcedly terminated, and then the display screen is changed into the menu selection screen.
[0314] Then, the indication for urging the operator to open each storing unit of the abnormal reconciling result (NG) and check the money stored therein with eyes is displayed. Finally, the state of waiting for the selection of the forced termination or restart of the automatic reconciling operation is displayed. When the restart of the automatic reconciling operation is selected, the automatic reconciling operation is performed again, from the weight measurement for each denomination of money. Meanwhile, when the forced termination is selected, the input of the ID and identification number of the person that approves the forced termination is requested. Once the ID and identification number of that person are inputted, the process is forcedly terminated, and then the display screen is changed into the menu selection screen.
Emphasis provided.
Regarding Claim 10, before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided wherein
the control unit determines that the reconciliation has
been terminated in an uncompleted state, when the money
recognized by the recognition unit has returned to the first
storage unit before all the money in the first storage unit is
discharged, as taught by Sugitani, in Fukuda’s money handling apparatus, for the purpose of forcing a termination of a reconciliation process upon the determination of an anomaly/error occurring during the process.
Regarding Claim 11, see the rejection of Claim 10, above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Regarding Claim 1, Nada ‘801 teaches
the predetermined condition is that the deemed storage
amount is less than or equal to an amount of the money allowed
to be concurrently positioned in a place other than the first
storage unit (61-64) in the money handling apparatus, i.e., money processing device (10), noting the storage abnormality as mentioned in paragraphs 5, 11-13, 84, 90-94, 123 and 146, for example, which state as follows.
[0005] In the money processing device of Patent Document 1, when, for example, staff manually loads the storage unit with money, he or she may load the storage unit with money of a denomination different from the denomination of money that is supposed to be stored in the storage unit and therefore a storage abnormal (an abnormality in which the denomination of a part or all of the pieces of money stored in the storage unit does not match the denomination of money that is supposed to be stored in the storage unit) may occur in the storage unit. In the money processing device of Patent Document 1, however, such a storage abnormality cannot be verified.
[0006] It is an object of the technique disclosed herein to provide a money processing device capable of verifying a storage abnormality, namely an abnormality in which the denomination of a part or all of the pieces of money stored in a storage unit does not match the denomination of money that is supposed to be stored in the storage unit.
[0011] The control unit may be configured to output the information on the storage abnormality of the storage unit when the number of pieces of the wrong denomination money is larger than a predetermined threshold.
[0012] With the above configuration, when the storage abnormality has occurred in the storage unit, there are a large number of pieces of the wrong denomination money. Accordingly, by outputting the information on the storage abnormality of the storage unit when the number of pieces of the wrong denomination money is larger than the predetermined threshold, the information on the storage abnormality of the storage unit can be appropriately output according to the number of pieces of the wrong denomination money.
[0013] The threshold may be set to a value according to storage capacity of a transport destination of the wrong denomination money.
[0084] The control unit 100 is configured to obtain the information on the number of pieces of wrong denomination money from the wrong denomination money information and, when the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is larger than a predetermined threshold, output storage abnormality information. This threshold is a reference value for determining whether or not a storage abnormality has occurred in the storage unit in the various processes of the money processing device 10. For example, this threshold is set to such a number of pieces of wrong denomination money that a storage abnormality can be regarded as having occurred in the storage unit that is the transport origin. In the present embodiment, the predetermined threshold of the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is referred to as the “storage abnormality threshold.” The storage abnormality threshold will be described later in detail.
[0090] For example, in the case where the wrong denomination money information includes information on the cumulative number of pieces of wrong denomination money, the storage abnormality information may be set to a value according to the storage capacity of the transport destination of the wrong denomination money. Specifically, the storage abnormality threshold may be set to such a number of pieces of wrong denomination money that a storage abnormality occurs in the storage unit that is the transport origin and the transport destination of the wrong denomination money may be filled with the wrong denomination money. For example, the storage abnormality threshold may be set to 90% of the storage capacity of the transport destination of the wrong denomination money.
[0091] As described above, by setting the storage abnormality threshold to a value according to the storage capacity of the transport destination of the wrong denomination money, the control unit 100 can output the storage abnormality information when the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is larger than the value according to the storage capacity of the transport destination of the wrong denomination money. If the wrong denomination money continues to be transported to the transport destination even though a storage abnormality has occurred in the storage unit that is the transport origin, an error stop may occur due to the presence of a large number of pieces of wrong denomination money. Accordingly, such an error stop due to the presence of a large number of pieces of wrong denomination money can be prevented by comparing the number of pieces of wrong denomination money with the value according to the storage capacity of the transport destination of the wrong denomination money and outputting the storage abnormality information.
[0092] In the case where the wrong denomination information includes the information on the cumulative number of pieces of wrong denomination money, the storage abnormality threshold may be set to a value according to the total number of banknotes fed from the storage unit that is the transport origin. Specifically, the storage abnormality threshold may be set to the total number of banknotes fed from the storage unit that is the transport origin multiplied by a predetermined ratio. As used herein, the ratio is the ratio of the number of pieces of wrong denomination money to the total number of banknotes fed from the storage unit and is such a ratio that a storage abnormality can be regarded as having occurred in the storage unit that is the transport origin. For example, the ratio is 90%.
[0093] As described above, by setting the storage abnormality threshold to a value according to the total number of banknotes stored in the storage unit, the control unit 100 can output the storage abnormality information when the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is larger than the value according to the total number of banknotes fed from the storage unit. In the case where a storage abnormality has occurred in the storage unit that is the transport origin, the ratio of the number of pieces of wrong denomination money to the total number of banknotes fed from this storage unit tends to be relatively high. Accordingly, by comparing the number of pieces of wrong denomination money with the value according to the total number of banknotes fed from the storage unit and outputting the storage abnormality information, the storage abnormality information can be appropriately output according to the number of pieces of wrong denomination money.
[0094] In the case where the wrong denomination money information includes the information on the number of consecutive pieces of wrong denomination money, the storage abnormality threshold may be set to the number of pieces of wrong denomination money which are consecutively transported to the transport destination of the wrong denomination money when a storage abnormality can be regarded as having occurred in the storage unit that is the transport origin. For example, the storage abnormality threshold is 15.
[0123] In the primary transport of the first reconciliation process, the control unit 100 outputs the storage abnormality information based on the wrong denomination money information. For example, in the primary transport of the first reconciliation process, the control unit 100 outputs the storage abnormality information when the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is larger than the storage abnormality threshold.
[0146] In the secondary transport of the second reconciliation process, the control unit 100 outputs the storage abnormality information based on the wrong denomination money information. For example, in the secondary transport of the second reconciliation process, the control unit 100 outputs the storage abnormality information in the case where the number of pieces of wrong denomination money is larger than the storage abnormality threshold.
Emphasis provided.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY ALAN SHAPIRO whose telephone number is (571)272-6943. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday generally between 8:30AM and 6:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anita Y Coupe can be reached at 571-270-3614. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEFFREY A SHAPIRO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
June 25, 2026
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