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 group I in the reply filed on 10/07/2025 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.
Claim(s) 47-49 and 51-53 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Holemans et al (US2014/0319283).
47. A flexible container system (Figs 1-13B) for space operations, the flexible container system comprising: a flexible container (300) configured to be carried by a host spacecraft; an expulsion device (Figs. 3 and 4) configured to expel material from the flexible container, and a computer system (par. 0089) programmed with instructions that, when executed: deploy the flexible container from a stowed configuration (assembled and ready to use) to a deployed configuration (in use), wherein in the deployed configuration, the flexible container remains attached to the host spacecraft and extends away from the host spacecraft; and operate an expulsion device to expel material from the flexible container (paragraphs 0006, 0079 and 0082).
48. The flexible container system of claim 47 wherein the computer system is further programmed with instructions that, when executed, cause the material to be transferred to a second spacecraft docked with the host spacecraft (Figs. 3-4).
49. The flexible container system of claim 47 wherein the flexible container comprises a first flexible bladder and a second flexible bladder positioned within the first flexible bladder (Figs. 3-4).
51. The flexible container system of claim 47 wherein the host spacecraft is a first host spacecraft, and wherein the flexible container system further comprises a coupler for transferring the material between the flexible container and the first host spacecraft or between the flexible container and a second host spacecraft (Figs. 3-4).
52. The flexible container system of claim 47 wherein, in the stowed configuration, the flexible container is entirely contained by a host spacecraft (Figs. 3-4).
53. The flexible container system of claim 47, further comprising one or more doors for restraining the flexible container prior to deployment of the flexible container, and wherein the computer system is further programmed with instructions that, when executed, operate a release mechanism to release the one or more doors to allow the flexible container to extend away from the host spacecraft (Figs. 3-4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 50 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAREEN KAY THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)270-5611. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00pm.
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/KAREEN K THOMAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3736