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 § 103
1. 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.
2. Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 3,789,826 (Baltz) in further in view of US Patent 6,390,310 B1 (Insalaco).
With respect to claim 1, Baltz shows an oven rack (15, Fig.1), comprising: a plurality of support members (34, FIg.1) to support an object thereupon; a rear brace (32, FIg.1) connected to rear portions of the plurality of support members such that the rear brace (32) is disposed perpendicularly with respect to the plurality of support members (34); a front brace (31, Fig.1) connected to front portions of the plurality of support members (34) such that the front brace (31) is disposed perpendicularly with respect to the plurality of support members (34, Fig.1).
With respect to claim 1, Baltz doesn’t show a guard portion connected to the front portions of the support members. Insalaco shows a guard portion (62, Fig.1, FIg.3) connected to the front portions of the plurality of support members (50, via front brace 48 and hinge 60), the guard portion (62) comprising: a plurality of curved portions (68, at 106 in Fig.4 and Fig.6) having a semicircular shape such that the plurality of curved portions (68) are connected to the front portions of the plurality of support members (50) at first ends thereof (via front brace 48 and hinge 60, Fig.6), a lateral front guard (100, Fig.4) connected to second ends of the plurality of the plurality of curved portions (68), such that the lateral front guard (100) extends perpendicularly across the second ends of the plurality of the plurality of curved portions (68, FIg.4), and a plurality of hinges (60) disposed across the front brace (48, Fig.4, FIg.6) to hingedly connect each of the plurality of curved portions (68) to the plurality of support members (50, FIg.4, Fig.6).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include a guard portion to the front of the rack of Baltz, such as taught by Insalaco, in order to prevent items on the rack from falling off the rack.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. With respect to applicant’s arguments that the pair of mounting blocks 60 in Insalaco are not hinges but instead are merely mounting blocks and therefore not comparable to the plurality of hinges disposed across the front brace of applicant’s invention, the examiner respectfully disagrees. First examiner notes that the figures in applicant’s invention do not clearly depict hinges 175, the figures 1A and 1B in applicant’s drawings merely point to a meeting point of the curved portions of the guard portion and the front brace of the rack and do not show what the hinges look like and thus the examiner cannot see how applicant’s hinges are different from that of the prior art’s hinges. Secondly, the mounting blocks 60 in Insalaco are considered hinges because they pivotably support the curved portions to the front of the rack. The definition of a hinge is “a jointed device on which a door, lid, or other swinging part turns” (merriam-webster dictionary) in this case each curved portion (68) swing from the respective mounting block (60, FIg.3, Fig.4, Fig.5) between two positions and thus the mounting blocks are considered hinges.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/HIWOT E TEFERA/Examiner, Art Unit 3637