DETAILED ACTION
The communication dated 12/1/2025 has been entered and fully considered.
Claims 1-18 are currently pending. Claims 11-18 were withdrawn.
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 .
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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I in the reply filed on 12/1/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there exists no search burden. This is not found persuasive because one or more of the following reasons apply: (a) The inventions have acquired a separate status in the art in view of their different classification; (b) The inventions have acquired a separate status in the art due to their recognized divergent subject matter; (c) The inventions require a different field of search (e.g., searching different classes/ subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search strategies or search queries); (d) The prior art applicable to one invention would not likely be applicable to another invention; (e) The inventions are likely to raise different non-prior art issues under 35 U.S.C. 101 and/ or 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 11-18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 12/1/2025.
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)(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.
Claims 1-5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Heo U.S. Publication 2011/0241508 (henceforth referred to as Heo).
As for claim 1, Heo teaches a method of operating a first laundry appliance (Fig. 1: part 100) comprising a first coin box (Fig. 1: part 140) and a second laundry appliance (Fig. 1: part 200) comprising a second coin box (Fig. 1: part 240), the method comprising: receiving a load of articles in a laundry vessel of the first laundry appliance (paragraph [0047]); determining the first coin box of the first laundry appliance is unable to receive a payment for a cycle of the first laundry appliance after receiving the load of articles in the laundry vessel of the first laundry appliance (paragraphs [0051], [0062], and [0068]-[0072]); identifying the second laundry appliance, wherein the second coin box is able to receive the payment (paragraphs [0049]-[0050] and [0068]-[0072]); receiving the payment for the cycle of the first laundry appliance at the second coin box (paragraphs [0049]-[0050]); and activating the first laundry appliance, whereby the first laundry appliance performs the cycle of the first laundry appliance, in response to the payment at the second coin box (paragraphs [0068]-[0072]).
As for claim 2, Heo further teaches that determining the first coin box of the first laundry appliance is unable to receive the payment comprises determining the first coin box is full (paragraphs [0051], [0062], and [0068]-[0072]).
As for claim 3, Heo further teaches that identifying the second laundry appliance comprises determining the second coin box is able to receive the payment because the second coin box is not full (paragraphs [0049]-[0050] and [0068]-[0072]).
As for claim 4, Heo further teaches that the second laundry appliance is closest to the first laundry appliance (Fig. 1).
As for claim 5, Heo further teaches that the first laundry appliance and the second laundry appliance are members of a group of laundry appliances, and wherein the second laundry appliance is identified as the closest laundry appliance with a coin box that is not full to the first laundry appliance out of the group of laundry appliances based on a floor plan, the floor plan comprising location information of each laundry appliance from the group of laundry appliances (Fig. 1).
As for claim 8, Heo further teaches providing a user notification indicating the location of the second laundry appliance (Fig. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-7 and 9-10 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:
As for claims 6-7, Heo U.S. Publication 2011/0241508, the closest prior art, differs from the instant claims in failing to teach transmitting, by the first laundry appliance, a signal to a remote computing device, the signal indicating that the first coin box of the first laundry appliance is unable to receive the payment for the cycle of the first laundry appliance. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught by Heo as claimed.
As for claims 9-10, Heo U.S. Publication 2011/0241508, the closest prior art, differs from the instant claims in failing to teach receiving, by a remote computing device, an upload comprising a floor plan of a room, the first laundry appliance and the second laundry appliance located in the room, and receiving, by the remote computing device, location information for each of the first laundry appliance and the second laundry appliance. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught by Heo as claimed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEVON J SHAHINIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1384. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Barr can be reached at (571)272-1414. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LEVON J SHAHINIAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711