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
Claims 28 and 37-38 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 16 March 2026.
Claim Objections
Claim 22 is objected to because of the following informalities: In claim 22, the limitation “configured to allow to disassembly or assembly” should be changed to read - - configured to allow for disassembly or assembly - -.
In claim 30, the limitation “a plurality of elastic modules” should be clarified to align with the same previously presented reference “set of elastic modules.”
In claim 30, the limitation “the plurality of elastic modules connected between the mounting frames adjacent to each other” should be changed to read - - the plurality of elastic modules connected between adjacent mounting frames of the plurality of mounting frames - -.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 22-26, 29 and 41-42 are rejected is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (TW M 367652) in view of Lava et al. (US Patent No. 10,413,082 – hereinafter Lava).
Regarding Claim 22: Huang discloses an elastic pad (mattress of Huang – Fig. 1) comprising: a pad body (mattress 10 of Huang) including a set of elastic modules (springs 41 of Huang) and at least one replaceable pad layer (layer 50 of Huang) stacked in a vertical direction (Fig. 2 of Huang); an outer covering (cover 13 of Huang) configured to cover the pad body (Fig. 1 Huang), wherein the outer covering comprises a top covering portion (see Fig. 1 of Huang), and a side enclosure covering portion (side portion of the covering 13 of Huang) connected via a detachable structure (opening portion 22 of Huang) configured to allow to disassembly or assembly of the side enclosure covering portion (see the English translation of Huang which references the zipper closing the top portion on the bottom portion of the covering), the top covering portion covers a top surface of the pad body (Fig. 1 of Huang), and the side enclosure covering portion encloses and covers side surfaces of the pad body (Fig. 1 of Huang); and wherein the side enclosure covering portion and the top covering portion are connected via the detachable structure (zipper 22 of Huang).
Huang does not disclose wherein the side enclosure covering portion is configured so that a height of the side enclosure portion is adjustable to adapt to different heights of the pad body.
However, in the same field of endeavor, mattresses covers (see the abstract of Lava), Lava teaches an elastic pad (mattress - see the abstract of Lava) wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) is configured so that a height of the side enclosure covering portion is adjustable to adapt to different heights of the pad body (Col. 5, lines 46-50 of Lava - “Moreover, as seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, a plurality of side panels 28, 32, and 36 may be combined together into a single mattress cover 10 to accommodate internal mattress structures corresponding to heights H.sub.3 (with side panels 28 and 32) and H.sub.4 (with side panels 28, 32, and 36).”).
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to combine Huang (drawn to an elastic pad with outer covering) and Lava (drawn to an elastic pad with adjustable height utilizing mattress adjustment layers and adjustment panels) with a reasonable expectation of success by adding additional side panels to Huang. One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because the inclusion of a side panel as taught by Lava enables assembling mattress covers of different heights without the replacement of the mattress cover when adjusting the thickness of the mattress (Col. 5, lines 40-60 of Lave – “Further, different side panels 28, 32, and 36 may have different heights and may be used interchangeably. Thus, by combining side panels with different heights and including any number of side panels, mattress covers 10 may be assembled to have any height and Col. 1, lines 55-63 of Lava – “(7) Moreover, this problem is compounded when additional mattress builds are provided to additional retailers. For example, a mattress manufacturer may provide several mattress builds to a retailer that may have internal mattress structures with different thicknesses due to differences in layers included within a particular build. Thus, for a given mattress size, such as a king, queen, single, etc., the manufacturer must use as many different mattress covers as there are different mattress thicknesses.”).
Regarding Claim 23: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) comprises a plurality of side enclosure covering strips (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) arranged in a thickness direction of the elastic pad (Fig. 7 of Lava), and adjacent side enclosure covering strips are connected to each other via the detachable structure (as shown in Fig. 7 of Lava and Col. 5, lines 40-55 of Lava which discuss the use of zippers 26a, 26b, 34a, 34 and 38a, 38b used for attaching adjacent side panels), wherein, after at least one side enclosure covering strip is detached, two adjacent connecting edges connected previously to upper and a lower connecting edges of the detached side enclosure covering strip connectable via the detachable structure (compare Figures 1-6 of Lava which show the transition of the mattress from H1-H2-H3-H4 via adjacent zipper tracks).
Regarding Claim 24: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein an edge of the top covering portion (12 of Lava or as shown in Fig. 5 of Huang via the top edge of the mattress cover showing) extends down to form an upper side enclosure edge (as shown in Figs. 1-7 of Lava or as shown in Fig. 5 of Huang via the top edge of the mattress cover showing), and the side enclosure covering portion is connected to the upper side enclosure edge via the detachable structure (Col. 5, lines 40-44 of Lava discusses the connection of the side panel 28 with tracks 26a and 26b or as shown in Fig. 5 of Huang via the top edge of the mattress cover showing).
Regarding Claim 25: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the elastic layer is disposed between the top covering portion and the set of elastic modules (Fig. 1 of Huang).
Regarding Claim 26: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the pad body comprises a pad layer (lower most pad member of Huang) located at a lowermost part of the pad body (Fig. 1 of Huang).
Regarding Claim 29: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the detachable structure comprises at least one of: a zipper structure (zipper 22 of Huang), a hook and loop material, a snap connection, and a button connection (Col. 6, lines 42-44 of Lava - “Further, as an alternative to zippers (or in addition to) hook and loop fasteners, buttons, snaps, and combinations thereof, may be used in the present invention.”).
Regarding Claim 41: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the elastic pad is a mattress (see the abstract of Huang).
Regarding Claim 42: Huang in view of Lava make obvious furniture, comprising the elastic pad of claim 22 (see the abstract of Huang).
Claim(s) 27 and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (TW M 367652) in view of Lava et al. (US Patent No. 10,413,082 – hereinafter Lava) further in view of Delahousse et al. (FR 2884883 – hereinafter Delahousse).
Regarding Claim 27: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 but do not disclose wherein a plurality of sets of elastic modules are stacked in a vertical direction.
However, in the same field of endeavor, spring mattresses (see the abstract of Delahousse), Delahousse teaches a plurality of sets of elastic modules are stacked in a vertical direction (see Fig. 7 of Delahousse).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the claimed invention was effectively filed to have combined Huang (directed to a spring mattress with cover), Lava (directed to an adjustable cover) and Delahousse (directed to a spring mattress with two layers of springs) and arrived at a mattress with two layers of springs and an adjustable cover. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because all of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods (e.g. duplicating the spring and top layer of Huang and utilizing bumps on the lower surface of 30 of Huang) with a reasonable expectation of success and with no change in their respective functions and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable (e.g. enabling flipping or rotating of the mattress for longer use).
Regarding Claim 28: Huang in view of Lava and Delahousse make obvious the make obvious the elastic pad of claim 27 further comprising a middle spacer (sheet 5 of Delahousse) between two adjacent sets of elastic modules (Fig. 7 of Delahousse).
Note that since Huang teaches bumps for securing the bottoms of the springs, one having ordinary skill in the art when applying the teachings of Delahousse to Huang would find it obvious to instead of mounting the springs 41 with a sheet between them, to form both sides of layer 30 with bumps for mounting the springs to.
Claim(s) 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (TW M 367652) in view of Lava et al. (US Patent No. 10,413,082 – hereinafter Lava) further in view of Anh Yoo (KR 100717531).
Regarding Claim 30: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the set of elastic modules comprises a bottom support layer (bottom layer 30 of Huang), a plurality of elastic modules (41 of Huang), and a balance pad (50 of Huang) with a plurality of positioning holes, an upper surface of the bottom support layer having a plurality of mounting frames (rectangular bumps 32 of Huang – Figs. 4-5) spaced apart from each other (Figs. 4-5 of Huang), the plurality of elastic modules connected between the mounting frames (Figs. 4-5 of Huang) adjacent to each other, the balance pad laid over the plurality of the elastic modules (Fig. 5 of Huang) […].
Neither Huang nor Lava disclose or make obvious the balance pad comprising a plurality of positioning holes or the balance pad [allowing] a portion of each elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole, so that movement of each elastic module in a transverse direction of the balance pad is restricted.
However, in the same field of endeavor, spring cushioning members (see the abstract of Anh Yoo), Anh Yoo teaches the balance pad (101, 102, 103 of Anh Yoo – Fig. 9a) comprising a plurality of positioning holes (insertion port 24a of Anh Yoo – Fig. 9a) or the balance pad [allowing] a portion (22 of Anh Yoo – Fig. 9a) of each elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole (spring 200 of Anh Yoo – Fig. 9a), so that movement of each elastic module in a transverse direction of the balance pad is restricted (abstract of the English translation of Anh Yoo - “It is possible to suppress lateral displacement of the exposed wire spring”).
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to combine Huang (directed toward a spring cushion), Lava (directed to an adjustable covering) and Anh Yoo (directed to a spring cushion having positioning holes for portions of the springs) with a reasonable expectation of success by replacing the springs of Huang, as modified by Lava, and replacing 50 of Huang with a cushioning pad according to embodiment 9a of Anh Yoo. One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because the upper step 22 and pad comprising insertion ports 24a as taught by Anh provide the benefit of creating a load buffering effect based on load size which extends the service life of the springs (paragraph 5 on page 3 of the English translation of Anh Yoo) and preventing contact noise between springs (see paragraph [0001] of the Background – Art section of the English translation of Anh Yoo).
Claim(s) 31-32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (TW M 367652) in view of Lava et al. (US Patent No. 10,413,082 – hereinafter Lava) in view of Anh Yoo (KR 100717531) further in view of Delahousse et al. (FR 2884883 – hereinafter Delahousse).
Regarding Claim 31: Huang in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 but do not disclose wherein the set of elastic modules comprises a middle support layer, an upper balance pad with a plurality of positioning holes, and a lower balance pad with a plurality of positioning holes, wherein: an upper surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of upper mounting frames spaced apart from each other, the upper surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of upper elastic modules connected between adjacent upper mounting frames, the upper balance pad is laid over the plurality of the upper elastic modules to allow a portion of each upper elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole, so that movement of each upper elastic module in a transverse direction of the upper balance pad is restricted; and wherein: a lower surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of lower mounting frames spaced apart from each other, the lower surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of lower elastic modules connected between adjacent lower mounting frames, and the lower balance pad is laid below the plurality of the lower elastic modules to allow a portion of each lower elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole, so that the movement of each lower elastic in a transverse direction of the lower balance pad is restricted.
However, in the same field of endeavor, spring cushioning members (see the abstract of Anh Yoo), Anh Yoo teaches an upper balance pad (101, 102, 103 of Anh Yoo – Fig. 10a) with a plurality of positioning holes (24a of Anh Yoo), and a lower balance pad (lower most 101, 102, 103 of Anh Yoo – Fig. 10a) with a plurality of positioning holes (lower most holes 24a of Anh Yoo), [….] a plurality of upper elastic modules (upper halves of springs 10 of Anh Yoo) [….], the upper balance pad is laid over the plurality of the upper elastic modules (Fig. 10a) to allow a portion of each upper elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole (Fig. 10a), so that movement of each upper elastic module in a transverse direction of the upper balance pad is restricted (abstract of the English translation of Anh Yoo - “It is possible to suppress lateral displacement of the exposed wire spring”); and wherein: [….] the lower surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of lower elastic modules (lower halves of springs 10 of Anh Yoo) […], and the lower balance pad is laid below the plurality of the lower elastic modules (Fig. 10a of Anh Yoo) to allow a portion of each lower elastic module to enter into a respective corresponding positioning hole, so that the movement of each lower elastic in a transverse direction of the lower balance pad is restricted (abstract of the English translation of Anh Yoo - “It is possible to suppress lateral displacement of the exposed wire spring”).
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to combine Huang (directed toward a spring cushion), Lava (directed to an adjustable covering) and Anh Yoo (directed to a spring cushion having positioning holes for portions of the springs) with a reasonable expectation of success by replacing the springs of Huang, as modified by Lava, and replacing 50 of Huang with a cushioning pad according to embodiment 9a of Anh Yoo. One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because the upper step 22 and pad comprising insertion ports 24a as taught by Anh provide the benefit of creating a load buffering effect based on load size which extends the service life of the springs (paragraph 5 on page 3 of the English translation of Anh Yoo) and preventing contact noise between springs (see paragraph [0001] of the Background – Art section of the English translation of Anh Yoo).
Huang, Lava and Anh Yoo do not disclose or make obvious wherein the set of elastic modules comprises a middle support layer, an upper balance pad a plurality of upper elastic modules connected between adjacent upper mounting frames, the upper balance pad is laid over the plurality of the upper elastic modules, and wherein: the lower surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of lower elastic modules connected between adjacent lower mounting frames, and the lower balance pad is laid below the plurality of the lower elastic modules (Fig. 5 of Delahousse).
However, in the same field of endeavor, spring mattresses (see the abstract of Delahousse) wherein the set of elastic modules comprises a middle support layer (support structure 5 of Delahousse), an upper balance pad (upper upholstery material 3 of Delahousse - Fig. 5) [….], and a lower balance pad (lower upholstery material 3 of Delahousse – Fig. 5) […], wherein: […] a plurality of upper elastic modules (spring members 6 of Delahousse) […], the upper balance pad is laid over the plurality of the upper elastic modules (Fig. 5 of Delahousse) […], the lower surface of the middle support layer has a plurality of lower elastic modules (Fig. 5 – 6’ of Delahousse) […], and the lower balance pad is laid below the plurality of the lower elastic modules (Fig. 5 of Delahousse) […].
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the claimed invention was effectively filed to have combined Huang (directed to a spring mattress with cover), Lava (directed to an adjustable cover) Anh Yoo (directed to a spring mattress with padded layers receiving the tops/bottoms of springs) and Delahousse (directed to a spring mattress with two layers of springs) and arrived at a mattress with two layers of springs and two outer padded layers with holes for receiving ends of springs and an adjustable cover. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because all of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods (e.g. duplicating the spring and top layer of Huang and utilizing bumps on the lower surface of 30 of Huang) with a reasonable expectation of success and with no change in their respective functions and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable (e.g. enabling flipping or rotating of the mattress for longer use).
Regarding Claim 32: Huang in view of Lava, Anh Yoo and Delahousse make obvious the elastic pad of claim 31 wherein the upper elastic module and the lower elastic module both have a truncated conical shape (Fig. 10A of Anh Yoo), wherein a larger-size end of the upper elastic module is connected to the upper mounting frame (via the combination of art in the rejection of claim 31), and a smaller-size end of the elastic module is above the larger-size end (Fig. 10a of Anh Yoo and the rejection of claim 31 above); a larger-size end of the lower elastic module is connected to the lower mounting frame (Fig. 10a of Anh Yoo and the rejection of claim 31 above), and a smaller- size end of the lower elastic module is oriented downwards and is located in a respective one of the positioning holes of the lower balance pad (Fig. 10 and the rejection of claim 31 above).
Claim(s) 22-26, 33-36, 39, and 40-42 is/are alternatively rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over An Jung (KR 100881350) in view of Lava et al. (US Patent No. 10,413,082 – hereinafter Lava).
Regarding Claim 22: An Jung discloses an elastic pad (mattress of An Jung) comprising: a pad body (the combination of cushion members 30 and 30’ of An Jung) and including a set of elastic modules (cushion members 30 of An Jung) and at least one replaceable pad layer (30’ of An Jung) stacked in a vertical direction (see at least Fig. 10 of An Jung); an outer covering (side paper 40 and upper and lower cover papers 50,50’ of An Jung - Fig. 10) configured to cover the pad body (Fig. 10 of An Jung), wherein the outer covering comprises a top covering portion (50 of An Jung), and a side enclosure covering portion (40 of An Jung) connected via a detachable structure (zipper 60 of An Jung) configured to allow to disassembly or assembly of the side enclosure covering portion (paragraph 3 on page 9 of the English translation of An Jung - “The side paper 40 and the upper and lower cover papers 50 and 50 'are configured in the same manner as the general mattress, but the upper and lower ends of the side paper and the outer circumferential parts of the upper and lower cover paper zippers 60 and 60', respectively”), the top covering portion covers a top surface of the pad body (Fig. 10 of An Jung), and the side enclosure covering portion encloses and covers side surfaces of the pad body (Fig. 10 of An Jung); wherein the side enclosure covering portion and the top covering portion are connected via the detachable structure (paragraph 3 on page 9 of the English translation of An Jung - “The side paper 40 and the upper and lower cover papers 50 and 50 'are configured in the same manner as the general mattress, but the upper and lower ends of the side paper and the outer circumferential parts of the upper and lower cover paper zippers 60 and 60', respectively”); [….].
An Jung does not disclose wherein the side enclosure covering portion is configured so that a height of the side enclosure covering portion is adjustable to adapt to different heights of the pad body.
However, in the same field of endeavor, mattresses covers (see the abstract of Lava), Lava teaches an elastic pad (mattress - see the abstract of Lava) wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) is configured so that a height of the side enclosure covering portion is adjustable to adapt to different heights of the pad body (Col. 5, lines 46-50 of Lava - “Moreover, as seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, a plurality of side panels 28, 32, and 36 may be combined together into a single mattress cover 10 to accommodate internal mattress structures corresponding to heights H.sub.3 (with side panels 28 and 32) and H.sub.4 (with side panels 28, 32, and 36).”).
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to combine An Jung (drawn to an elastic pad with removable outer covering) and Lava (drawn to an elastic pad with adjustable height utilizing mattress adjustment layers and adjustment panels) with a reasonable expectation of success by adding additional side panels to An Jung. One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because the inclusion of a side panel as taught by Lava enables assembling mattress covers of different heights without the replacement of the mattress cover when adjusting the thickness of the mattress (Col. 5, lines 40-60 of Lave – “Further, different side panels 28, 32, and 36 may have different heights and may be used interchangeably. Thus, by combining side panels with different heights and including any number of side panels, mattress covers 10 may be assembled to have any height and Col. 1, lines 55-63 of Lava – “(7) Moreover, this problem is compounded when additional mattress builds are provided to additional retailers. For example, a mattress manufacturer may provide several mattress builds to a retailer that may have internal mattress structures with different thicknesses due to differences in layers included within a particular build. Thus, for a given mattress size, such as a king, queen, single, etc., the manufacturer must use as many different mattress covers as there are different mattress thicknesses.”).
Regarding Claim 23: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) comprises a plurality of side enclosure covering strips (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) arranged in a thickness direction of the elastic pad (Fig. 7 of Lava), and adjacent side enclosure covering strips are connected to each other via the detachable structure (as shown in Fig. 7 of Lava and Col. 5, lines 40-55 of Lava which discuss the use of zippers 26a, 26b, 34a, 34 and 38a, 38b used for attaching adjacent side panels), wherein, after at least one side enclosure covering strip is detached, two adjacent connecting edges connected previously to upper and a lower connecting edges of the detached side enclosure covering strip connectable via the detachable structure (compare Figures 1-6 of Lava which show the transition of the mattress from H1-H2-H3-H4 via adjacent zipper tracks).
Regarding Claim 24: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein an edge of the top covering portion (12 of Lava) extends down to form an upper side enclosure edge (as shown in Figs. 1-7 of Lava), and the side enclosure covering portion is connected to the upper side enclosure edge via the detachable structure (Col. 5, lines 40-44 of Lava discusses the connection of the side panel 28 with tracks 26a and 26b).
Regarding Claim 25: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the elastic layer is disposed between the top covering portion and the set of elastic modules (Fig. 1 of An Jung).
Regarding Claim 26: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the pad body comprises a pad layer (lower most pad member 30’ as shown in Fig. 10 of An Jung) located at a lowermost part of the pad body (An Jung – Fig. 10).
Regarding Claim 29: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the detachable structure comprises at least one of: a zipper structure (zippers 60 of An Jung), a hook and loop material, a snap connection, and a button connection (Col. 6, lines 42-44 of Lava - “Further, as an alternative to zippers (or in addition to) hook and loop fasteners, buttons, snaps, and combinations thereof, may be used in the present invention.”).
Regarding Claim 33: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the outer covering comprises a bottom covering portion (lower cover paper 50’ of An Jung), the pad body (lower pad 30’ of An Jung – Fig. 2b) is placed on the bottom covering portion such that the bottom covering portion covers a bottom surface of the pad body (see Fig. 2b of An Jung), wherein an upper edge of the side enclosure covering portion is connected with an edge of the top covering portion via the detachable structure (see Fig. 2b of An Jung which shows the top covering portion 50 connecting to the side enclosure covering portion 40 of An Jung), and a lower edge of the side enclosure covering portion is connected with an edge of the bottom covering portion via the detachable structure (see Fig. 2a of An Jung showing the zipper 60’ at the location of the bottom panel 50’).
Regarding Claim 34: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 33 wherein an edge of the bottom covering portion extends up to form a lower enclosure edge (see bottom portion 14 having a lip that extends upward and ends in tracks 26b as shown in Fig. 2 of An Jung), and the side enclosure covering portion is connected with the lower enclosure edge via the detachable structure (see Figs. 1-7 of An Jung and Col. 5, lines 40-60 which discuss the connection of the side panels via zippers).
Regarding Claim 35: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 33 wherein a pad layer (lowermost pad member 30’ of An Jung as viewed in Fig. 1b) is disposed between the bottom covering portion and the set of elastic modules (Fig. 1b).
Regarding Claim 36: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the side enclosure covering portion and a bottom support layer (bottom layer of the encasement of cushions 30 labeled 32 as shown in Fig. 3 of An Jung) of the set of elastic modules are connected via the detachable structure (via all assembled elements of the mattress of An Jung as modified by Lava are connected via the detatchable structures since the zippers, side, top and bottom panels connect to encase the elastic modules via the zippers).
Regarding Claim 39: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) comprises a plurality of side enclosure covering strips (side panels 28, 32, 36 of Lava) arranged along a thickness direction of the elastic pad (Fig. 7 of Lava), wherein adjacent side enclosure covering strips are connected via the detachable structure (as shown in Fig. 7 of Lava and Col. 5, lines 40-55 of Lava which discuss the use of zippers 26a, 26b, 34a, 34 and 38a, 38b used for attaching adjacent side panels), a lowermost side enclosure covering strip is connected to a bottom support layer (bottom layer of the encasement of cushions 30 labeled 32 as shown in Fig. 3 of An Jung) of the set of elastic modules via the detachable structure (Fig. 9 of An Jung shows how the upper and lower layers 50,50’ connect to the pad 30’ via zipper 60a and how side paper 40 connects to the upper and lower cover papers 50, 50’ with the zipper 60), and an uppermost side enclosure covering strip is connected to the top covering portion via the detachable structure (all assembled elements of the mattress of An Jung as modified by Lava are connected via the detatchable structures since the zippers, side, top and bottom panels connect to encase the elastic modules via the zippers).
Regarding Claim 40: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the side enclosure covering portion (side sheet 40 of An Jung – Fig. 6b) and the pad layer (bottom cushion layer 30’ of An Jung – Fig. 8) located at a lowermost part of the pad body (see Fig. 8 of An Jung) are connected via the detachable structure (zippers 60’ as shown in Fig. 5 of An Jung).
Regarding Claim 41: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious the elastic pad of claim 22 wherein the elastic pad is a mattress (see the abstract and figures of An Jung).
Regarding Claim 42: An Jung in view of Lava make obvious furniture, comprising the elastic pad of claim 22 (see the first and second full paragraphs of page 2 of the English translation of An Jung which describes a mattress or bed comprising a mattress).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent No. 3,493,980 to Haller is cited for teaching a mattress with zippers 22, 24 removably attaching an outer section panel to a top cover.
US Patent No. 6,804,848 to Rose is cited for teaching a mattress with a removable peripheral fabric sidewall 28.
US Patent No. 6,128,798 to Barman et al. is cited for teaching a mattress with cavities 18 receiving ends of springs 20.
US PG Pub. No. 2012/0117728 to O’Neill is cited for teaching a removable mattress cover adapted to fit mattresses of different heights.
US Patent No. 11,497,322 to Negus et al. is cited for teaching connecting multiple layers of a mattress together with zippers.
JP 2002177097 to Williams is cited for teaching a multilayered coil spring mattress.
CN 208491439 U to Sun is cited for teaching a mattress with springs mounted with a middle layer comprising through holes.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMANDA L BAILEY whose telephone number is (571)272-8476. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 AM-4:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Justin Mikowski can be reached at (571) 272-8525. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AMANDA L BAILEY/Examiner, Art Unit 3673
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