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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/13/2026 has been entered.
Status
This Office Action is in response to the remarks and amendments filed on 02/13/2026. The previous objections to the drawings have been withdrawn. Furthermore, the previous 35 USC 112 rejections have also been withdrawn. Claims 1-2, 4-6, and 8-10 remain pending for consideration.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims.
Therefore, “the plurality of fixed members are long fixed rods; a plurality of fixed rods are enclosed to form the fixed chamber; an edge of the ice bucket is abutted against the plurality of fixed rods and is provided in the fixed chamber” of claim 1 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-2, 4-6, and 8-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 1, the phrase “a plurality of fixed rods are enclosed to form the fixed chamber” includes a grammatical error and for examination purposes will be interpreted as -- a plurality of fixed rods is enclosed to form the fixed chamber --
Claims 2, 4-6, and 8-10 are also objected to due to dependency.
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 1-2, 4-6, and 8-10 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.
Regarding claim 1, the claim recites “the plurality of fixed members are long fixed rods; a plurality of fixed rods is enclosed to form the fixed chamber” which renders the claim indefinite. As recited, the claim is confusing because it is not entirely clear if the disclosed “long fixed rods” and “plurality of fixed rods” are referring to the same structures or to entirely different structures. More clarity is requested.
Claims 2, 4-6, and 8-10 are also rejected due to dependency.
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.
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 nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Munson (US 20240075972 A1), in view of Robison (US 3940175), and in further view of Reynolds (US 20020020304 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Munson teaches a trolley (serving cart 2 Fig. 1), comprising: a moving bracket (Fig. 32) comprising a bracket body (frame 4 Fig. 32), a storage portion (sliding drawers 28, 30a, and 30b Fig. 1) and a fixed table (work surface 24 and cooler door 110 Fig. 21), wherein the storage portion and the fixed table are provided on the bracket body (Fig. 1), the storage portion is provided below the fixed table (Fig. 1) and provided with a put-in port (corresponds to the opening and interior volume of sliding drawer 28 Figs. 1 and 21), a pick-and-place port (corresponds to the spacing between work surface 24 and sliding drawer 28 Fig. 1) is provided between the storage portion and the fixed table (Fig. 1), and the put-in port is communicated with the pick-and-place port (Fig. 1); and an ice bucket (ice chest 32 Fig. 9) placed in the storage portion from the put-in port (Figs. 9 and 21); the storage portion comprises a plurality of fixed members (sidewalls of sliding drawer 28 Fig. 21) connected to each other and enclosed to form a fixed chamber (interior volume of sliding drawer 28 Figs. 9 and 21); and the fixed table comprises a table plate (work surface 24 Fig. 21) and an extending plate (cooler door 110 Fig. 21); the table plate is provided on the bracket body (Fig. 21) and is provided above the storage portion (Fig. 21), the extending plate is provided on one side of the table plate (Figs. 20-21) in a width direction (width direction of serving cart 2 Figs. 20-21) and is configured to extend outside (Figs. 20-21); the extending plate is provided on the bracket body (Fig. 21).
Munson teaches the invention as described above but fails to explicitly teach “wherein a drain port is provided at a bottom of the storage portion; the extending plate is rotatably provided to be unfolded or folded relative to the table plate”.
However, Robison teaches wherein a drain port (discharge spout 67 Fig. 3) is provided at a bottom of a storage portion (Fig. 3 where compartment 36 corresponds to the storage portion of Munson); an extending plate (door 52 Figs. 1 and 3 corresponds to the extending plate of Munson) is rotatably provided to be unfolded or folded (Figs. 1 and 3 with Col. 3 lines 23-33) relative to a table plate (Figs. 1 and 3 where cover 27 corresponds to the table plate of Munson) to dispense a desired quantity of water from the container at any time (Col. 3 lines 41-46).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art before the effectively filed date to modify the apparatus of Munson to include “wherein a drain port is provided at a bottom of the storage portion; the extending plate is rotatably provided to be unfolded or folded relative to the table plate” in view of the teachings of Robison to dispense a desired quantity of water from the container at any time.
The combined teachings teach the invention as described above but fail to explicitly teach “the plurality of fixed members are long fixed rods; a plurality of fixed rods is enclosed to form the fixed chamber; an edge of the ice bucket is abutted against the plurality of fixed rods and is provided in the fixed chamber”.
However, Reynolds teaches a plurality of fixed members (platform supports 50 and frame 12 Fig. 2 correspond to the plurality of fixed members of Munson) are long fixed rods (Fig. 2); a plurality of fixed rods (platform supports 50 and frame 12 Fig. 2) is enclosed to form a fixed chamber (Fig. 1 where the interior of heating device holder 48 corresponds to the fixed chamber of Munson); an edge of an ice bucket (flanges of pan 16 Fig. 1 where pans 16 correspond to the ice bucket of Munson) is abutted against the plurality of fixed rods (Fig. 1) and is provided in the fixed chamber (Fig. 1) to provide a plurality of wells configure to receive the ice bucket (paragraph [0020]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art before the effectively filed date to modify the apparatus of the combined teachings to include “the plurality of fixed members are long fixed rods; a plurality of fixed rods is enclosed to form the fixed chamber; an edge of the ice bucket is abutted against the plurality of fixed rods and is provided in the fixed chamber” in view of the teachings of Reynolds to provide a plurality of wells configure to receive the ice bucket.
Regarding claim 2, the combined teachings teach wherein the ice bucket is provided with an accommodating chamber (interior volume of ice chest 32 Figs. 9 and 21 of Munson) and an opening (opening of ice chest 32 Fig. 21 of Munson) communicated with the accommodating chamber (Fig. 21 of Munson), the opening is configured to face the fixed table (Fig. 9 of Munson).
The combined teachings teach the invention as described above but fail to explicitly teach “a height of the pick-and-place port between the storage portion and the fixed table is greater than a height of the ice bucket”.
However, referring to paragraph [0070], Munson does teach providing an opening into sliding drawer 28 “large enough to remove and replace a standard one-liter bottle to and from the top drawer 28”.
Thus, the “a height of the pick-and-place port between the storage portion and the fixed table is greater than a height of the ice bucket” is recognized as a result-effective variable, i.e. a variable which achieves a recognized result. In this case, the recognized result is a height of the pick-and-place port being greater than a height of the ice bucket.
Therefore, since the general conditions of the claim, i.e. a pick-and-place port with a certain height and an ice bucket, were disclosed in the prior art by Munson, it is not inventive to discover the optimum workable range by routine experimentation, and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to provide “a height of the pick-and-place port between the storage portion and the fixed table is greater than a height of the ice bucket”.
Regarding claim 4, the combined teachings teach wherein the ice bucket comprises a first ice bucket (first pan 16 located on the left Fig. 1 of Reynolds) and a second ice bucket (middle pan 16 Fig. 1 of Reynolds), the storage portion (heating device holder 48 Fig. 1 of Reynolds corresponds to the storage portion of Munson) further comprises a separating plate (corresponds to the first left beam of frame 12 that separates the two left wells 14 Figs. 1-2 of Reynolds), the separating plate is connected to the plurality of fixed members (the outer perimeter of frame 12 Figs. 1-2 of Reynolds corresponds to the plurality of fixed members of Munson) to separate the fixed chamber into a first fixed chamber (first left well 14 Figs. 1-2 of Reynolds) and a second fixed chamber (second left well 14 Figs. 1-2 of Reynolds), the first ice bucket is provided in the first fixed chamber (Fig. 1 of Reynolds), and the second ice bucket is provided in the second fixed chamber (Fig. 1 of Reynolds).
Regarding claim 5, the combined teachings teach wherein the first ice bucket and the second ice bucket both comprise a bucket body (body of pan 16 Fig. 1 of Reynolds) and two lugs (flange surrounding the outer perimeter of pan 16 Fig. 1 of Reynolds) respectively provided on both sides of the bucket body (Fig. 1 of Reynolds where the flange is provided on all four sides of pan 16), the two lugs are configured to extend outward (Fig. 1 of Reynolds) and abut against the plurality of fixed members and the separating plate (Fig. 1 of Reynolds), and the accommodating chamber (the interior volume of pan 16 Fig. 1 of Reynolds corresponds to the accommodating chamber of Munson) and the opening (the top opening of pan 16 Fig. 1 of Reynolds corresponds to the opening of Munson) are provided in the bucket body (Fig. 1 of Reynolds).
Regarding claim 8, the combined teachings teach wherein the fixed table further comprises a storage box (removable caddies 40 and 42 Fig. 2 of Munson) provided on one side of the table plate (Fig. 22 of Munson) in a length direction (length direction of serving cart 2 Fig. 22 of Munson).
Regarding claim 9, the combined teachings teach wherein the moving bracket further comprises a pusher (user handle Figs. 1 and 21 of Munson) provided on one side of the fixed table (Fig. 21 of Munson) away from the extending plate.
Regarding claim 10, the combined teachings teach wherein a wheel (wheels 10 Fig. 7 of Munson) is provided at a bottom of the moving bracket (Fig. 7 of Munson).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manson, Robison, and Reynolds as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Na et al. (KR20070015320A, herein after referred to as Na).
Regarding claim 6, the combined teachings teach wherein the first ice bucket and the second ice bucket both comprise a fixed cover (lids 18 Fig. 1 of Reynolds).
The combined teachings teach the invention as described above but fail to explicitly teach “the bucket body is recessed with a groove, and the fixed cover is configured to cover the accommodating chamber in the groove”.
However, Na teaches a bucket body (body 110 Figs. 3-4 corresponds to the bucket body of Reynolds) is recessed with a groove (corresponds to the groove on which edges of lid 120 are inserted Fig. 4), and a fixed cover (lid 120 Fig. 4 corresponds to the fixed cover of Reynolds) is configured to cover an accommodating chamber (product storage space 140 Figs. 3-4 corresponds to the accommodating chamber of Munson) in the groove (Fig. 4) to stabilize the fixed cover when placed on the top of the bucket body.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art before the effectively filed date to modify the apparatus of the combined teachings to include “the bucket body is recessed with a groove, and the fixed cover is configured to cover the accommodating chamber in the groove” in view of the teachings of Na to stabilize the fixed cover when placed on the top of the bucket body.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/13/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to Applicant's arguments against the references individually on pages 8-11, Applicant is reminded that one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
In the case at hand, and for clarity purposes, the above rejection of amended claim 1 is repeated:
Munson teaches a moving bracket (Fig. 32) comprising a bracket body (frame 4 Fig. 32), a storage portion (sliding drawers 28, 30a, and 30b Fig. 1) and a fixed table (work surface 24 and cooler door 110 Fig. 21), wherein the storage portion and the fixed table are provided on the bracket body (Fig. 1), the storage portion is provided below the fixed table (Fig. 1) and provided with a put-in port (corresponds to the opening and interior volume of sliding drawer 28 Figs. 1 and 21), a pick-and-place port (corresponds to the spacing between work surface 24 and sliding drawer 28 Fig. 1) is provided between the storage portion and the fixed table (Fig. 1), and the put-in port is communicated with the pick-and-place port (Fig. 1); and an ice bucket (ice chest 32 Fig. 9) placed in the storage portion from the put-in port (Figs. 9 and 21); the storage portion comprises a plurality of fixed members (sidewalls of sliding drawer 28 Fig. 21) connected to each other and enclosed to form a fixed chamber (interior volume of sliding drawer 28 Figs. 9 and 21); and the fixed table comprises a table plate (work surface 24 Fig. 21) and an extending plate (cooler door 110 Fig. 21); the table plate is provided on the bracket body (Fig. 21) and is provided above the storage portion (Fig. 21), the extending plate is provided on one side of the table plate (Figs. 20-21) in a width direction (width direction of serving cart 2 Figs. 20-21) and is configured to extend outside (Figs. 20-21); the extending plate is provided on the bracket body (Fig. 21).
The above apparatus on Munson is modified by the teachings of Robinson to include a drain port (discharge spout 67 Fig. 3) is provided at a bottom of a storage portion (Fig. 3 where compartment 36 corresponds to the storage portion); an extending plate (door 52 Figs. 1 and 3 corresponds to the extending plate) is rotatably provided to be unfolded or folded (Figs. 1 and 3 with Col. 3 lines 23-33) relative to a table plate (Figs. 1 and 3 where cover 27 corresponds to the table plate) to dispense a desired quantity of water from the container at any time (Col. 3 lines 41-46).
The above apparatus of Munson is further modified by the teachings of Reynolds to include a plurality of fixed members (platform supports 50 and frame 12 Fig. 2 correspond to the plurality of fixed members) are long fixed rods (Fig. 2); a plurality of fixed rods (platform supports 50 and frame 12 Fig. 2) is enclosed to form a fixed chamber (Fig. 1 where the interior of heating device holder 48 corresponds to the fixed chamber); an edge of an ice bucket (flanges of pan 16 Fig. 1 where pans 16 correspond to the ice bucket) is abutted against the plurality of fixed rods (Fig. 1) and is provided in the fixed chamber (Fig. 1) to provide a plurality of wells configure to receive the ice bucket (paragraph [0020]).
Therefore, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive and the rejections are maintained.
Conclusion
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/SAMBA NMN GAYE/Examiner, Art Unit 3763
/JERRY-DARYL FLETCHER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3763