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 .
Claims 1-15 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 3, 2024 has been considered by the examiner.
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 1-4, 6, 9-12, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Korean Patent No. KR20160076796 to Kim et al. in view of European Patent No. EP3832526 to Nilsson et al. (A machine translation of the documents are enclosed with this action and referred to herein).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, the Kim patent teaches an apparatus for loading a unit cell C, the apparatus comprising: a magazine configured to receive unit cells and configured to be placed into set positions. See Fig. 1.
However, the Kim patent lacks a specific teaching there are a plurality of magazines.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the subject invention to modify the Kim patent to have a plurality of magazines, since it has been held that mere duplication of the essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art. St Regis Paper Co. v. Bemis Co., 193 USPQ 8.
However, the Kim patent lacks a teaching of an identification part on the magazine.
The Nilsson patent teaches an identification device, label 320 that is put on a shelf and identified by a camera 10. See Fig. 1A.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the subject invention to modify the Kim patent to have the identification device of the Nilsson patent as it would have been combining known prior art elements using known method to provide the predictable result of being able to identify the items in the magazine.
Regarding claims 2, 6, 11 and 12, the Nilsson patent teaches the labels can change colors (see paragraph 0090) which teaches that it is capable of a plurality of identification parts are provided in different colors to identify the plurality of magazines.
Regarding claim 3, the Nilsson patent teaches that the label 320 has different images, and this this is interpreted as being capable to having the plurality of identification parts are provided in different shapes to identify the plurality of magazines, as the images can be different shapes. See paragraph 0090 of Nilsson.
Regarding claim 4, the Nilsson patent teaches that label can be a barcode. See paragraph 0090.
Regarding claims 9 and 15, the combined device of the Kim and Nilsson patent teaches all of the elements of the claim, except for the explicit teaching the unit cells are provided as a plurality of unit cells having differently stacked structures, and wherein the plurality of unit cells having the differently stacked structures are loaded into the plurality of magazines.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the subject invention to modify the Kim and Nilsson device to have different shacked structures for the different unit cells that are different, as it is known that unit cells can have different shapes so different magazines would be used for each different shape and this would be known in the art as a matter of design choice.
Regarding claim 14, the sensing part 310 comprises a plurality of color sensors configured to sense colors of the identification parts respectively provided in the plurality of magazines. This is interpreted as camera 310 in Nilsson.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7, 8 and 13 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
German Patent No. DE20011990 teaches a magazine.
Chinese Patent No. CN113822089 to Yan teaches a label and camera.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN HOLMES whose telephone number is (571)272-3448. The examiner can normally be reached 10AM-6PM EST M-F.
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/JUSTIN HOLMES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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