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 Invention I, claims 1-10 and 19-20, in the reply filed on 12/18/2025 is acknowledged.
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.
(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.
Claim(s) 1 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cha et al. (US 2020/0141040).
Regarding claims 1 and 19, Cha discloses a washing machine comprising: a drum (131); a detergent supply unit configured to supply detergent to the drum (160); a turbidity sensor configured to detect turbidity of water in the drum (404); memory storing one or more computer programs (408); and one or more processors (Figure 4: 406) communicatively coupled to the drum, the detergent supply unit, the turbidity sensor, and the memory, wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (paragraphs 34, 157), cause the washing machine to: control the detergent supply unit to supply the detergent to the drum in case that a washing cycle starts (505), detect the water turbidity by using the turbidity sensor in case that a predetermined time period elapses after the washing cycle starts (506), obtain result information by comparing the detected water turbidity with a critical value (507; paragraphs 107-108), and store the obtained result information in the memory (510).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10, and 20 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: the prior art does not disclose, or render obvious, the washing machine as defined by the combination of claims 1 and 2; the washing machine as defined by the combination of claims 1 and 10; or the one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as defined by the combination of claims 19 and 20. There is no apparent teaching, suggestion, or motivation to modify the closest prior art, Cha et al. (US 2020/0141040), to further have wherein the one or more computer programs further include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the washing machine to: obtain a first number, which is a number of washing cycles having the detected water turbidity less than the critical value, based on the result information, in case of receiving a user input for performing the washing cycle, and adjust a supply amount of detergent provided using the detergent supply unit in case that the first number is a critical number or more. There is no apparent teaching, suggestion, or motivation to modify the closest prior art, Cha et al. (US 2020/0141040), to further have wherein the one or more computer programs further include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the washing machine to: sense at least one of a laundry weight, a laundry volume, a temperature, or a humidity, obtain a probability value for a first washing cycle from an artificial intelligence model by inputting at least one of the laundry weight, the laundry volume, the temperature, or the humidity into the artificial intelligence model stored in the memory, and identify the washing cycle of the washing machine as being performed in a predetermined pattern in case that obtained probability value is a critical probability value or more, and wherein the artificial intelligence model is trained based on a washing cycle history of a plurality of users that includes history information related to the cycle performed by the washing machine and a first number ratio for each of the plurality of users.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID G CORMIER whose telephone number is (571)270-7386. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30 - 6:00.
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DAVID G. CORMIER
Examiner
Art Unit 1711
/DAVID G CORMIER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711