DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/21/26 in regard to claim 1 have been fully considered but they are moot as they do not apply to the current grounds of rejection made in view of amendments to the claims.
Applicant’s argument regarding claim 9 are persuasive in view of amendments to the claim.
Response to Amendments
Amendments to the claims overcome the objection to claim 15 set forth in the prior Office action. Therefore, the objection is withdrawn.
Amendments to the claims overcome the rejection of claims 1-24 under 35 USC 112(b) set forth in the prior Office action. Therefore, the rejection is withdrawn.
The rejections of claims 1-8 and 15-23 under 35 USC 102(a)(1) and claims 10 and 24 under 35 USC 103 set forth in the prior Office action are withdrawn in order to present new rejections in view of amendments to the claims.
The rejections of claims 9 and 12-14 under 35 USC 102(a)(a) and claim 11 under 35 USC 103 set forth in the prior Office action are withdrawn in view of amendments to the claims.
Claim Objections
Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities: “the treatment [region] of dishwasher” should be “the treatment [region] of the dishwasher”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: “the” is repeated in lines four and five. 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 9 and 11-14 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.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the treatment zone”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is assumed to refer to the treatment region.
Remaining claims are rejected due to their dependency on a rejected claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4-8, and 15-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 20210259509 by Sperry in view of CN113208528A by Lai.
As to claim 1, Sperry teaches a dishwasher for a coffee shop and/or a fast-food restaurant (para. 5) comprising an input or insertion region (fig. 14, left side) for receiving reusable washware, wherein the dishwasher further comprises a transport device 234 for transporting washware from the input or insertion region to a treatment region 230 that comprises a washing and rinsing system (figs. 9, 14, para. 77) and a downstream drying system 228 (fig. 14); wherein the transport device transports the washware in a linear direction from the insertion region located at one end of the dishwasher to the output or removal region toward an opposite end of the dishwasher (fig. 14); wherein the input or insertion region comprises an access opening 106.
Sperry does not teach that its access opening is arranged as a side opening through which items are inserted in a direction that is transverse to the linear transport direction. However, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized as obvious to have the access opening on a side instead of or in addition to at an end, as disclosed by Sperry. Lai evidences that a dishwasher with an access opening 1201 arranged as a side opening (fig. 14) was known in the art, and the particular placement of the access opening would have been an obvious design choice (see MPEP 2144.04(VI)(C)). Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the claimed arrangement of the access opening as a side opening to have been obvious.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious at its effective filing date.
As to claim 2, Sperry teaches that the input or insertion region is separate from an inlet tunnel of the dishwasher leading to the treatment area (fig. 14).
As to claim 4, Sperry teaches that the input or insertion region comprises a user interface 124 (fig. 4) and an identification device 128 that cooperates with a data processing device and a data storage device, the identification device comprising an optical detection system, or is adapted for barcode recognition, RFID detection, 3D surface analysis, 3D matching, logo recognition, OCR detection, or color detection (para. 17, 71).
As to claim 5, Sperry teaches that the input or insertion region comprises an access opening associated with a closing element 106 (figs. 4, 14).
As to claim 6, Sperry teaches that the access opening includes an outline corresponding to a washware item to specify an orientation of the items when manually placing the item into the input or insertion region (fig. 4).
As to claim 7, Sperry teaches that the input or insertion region comprises a device for sorting washware items according to their size and/or type, wherein the items are automatically fed to a corresponding transport lane of the transport device (para. 82).
As to claim 8, Sperry teaches that the transport device comprises at least two transport lanes that run in parallel to transport at least two washware items in parallel through the dishwasher, wherein the lanes are adapted to exclusively accept items of a predetermined size and/or type assigned to the respective lane (fig. 15, para. 78).
As to claim 15, Sperry teaches that the transport device comprises at least one transport lane (fig. 15, two lanes depicted), wherein the lanes have dedicated acceptance areas 104, 206 adjacent to each other, each area adapted to accept one item, where the leans are associated with a hold-down device adapted to secure the item in a vertical direction (note that items are vertically held in place).
As to claim 16, Sperry teaches a hold-down device associated with a transport lane comprises at least one guide that travels together with the lane and extends above the item (fig. 11A, para. 72).
As to claim 17, Sperry teaches that the transport lane comprises at least one finger area projecting perpendicularly or transversely to the transport direction to at least sectionally accept a washware item (figs. 12, 14).
As to claim 18, Sperry teaches a stacking device 118 for automatically stacking washware items downstream of the drying system at the output or removal region of the dishwasher (figs. 4, 17A; paras. 54, 81).
As to claim 19, Sperry teaches that the stacking device is adapted to stack washware items dried in the drying system sorted by the size and/or type of the item in a corresponding stack of washware (paras. 54, 81).
As to claim 20, Sperry teaches a device for automatically determining the cleanliness of washware cleaned in the washing and rinsing system (para. 74).
As to claim 21, Sperry teaches that the dishwasher comprises a storage area upstream of the treatment area as interim storage for a pre-determined or specifiable number of washware items (figs. 10B, 14); and the output or removal region is adapted as a storage area for the interim storage of a pre-determined or specifiable number of items (fig. 4).
As to claim 22, Sperry teaches that the dishwasher comprises a control device to control the transport device such that it discontinuously transports the washware through the treatment area to the output or removal region, or transport the washware continuously at a predetermined or specifiable speed through the washing and rinsing system and the drying system (paras. 64, 77, 83).
As to claim 23, Sperry teaches a control device for controlling the transport device and/or controllable components associated with the washing and rinsing system and the drying system, wherein the control device controls the transport device and controllable components as a function of a presence or absence or number of washware items in the input or insertion region and/or the output or removal region (paras. 17, 83).
As to claim 24, Sperry does not teach specific dimensions of its dishwasher. However, based on the figures of Sperry, one of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the depicted dishwashers having typical beverage cups for size reference would reasonably be sized within, near, or about the claimed ranges.
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.
Claims 9 and 11-14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: As to claim 3, the prior art of record does not teach a dishwasher with the claimed wipers, and nothing in the present record suggests that the wipers and their arrangement would have been obvious. As to claim 9, the prior art of record does not teach a dishwasher having the totality of the claimed limitations, in particular a dishwasher with a singular transport device, a first access opening, at least one second access opening, each access opening having its down transport lane, washware items placed into corresponding access opening being transported through a common treatment region of the dishwasher.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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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/SPENCER E. BELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711