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. Claims 1-5, 8-13 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0160147 A1 (Mansour) in view of US Patent 6,151,536 (Arnold) in further in view of US 2020/0410801 A1 (Rahilly).
With respect to claim 1, Mansour shows a smart storage cabinet (105) for holding product canisters (capable of holding small product canisters) comprising: a main door (transparent door, Fig.9) which provides access to a main compartment, wherein the main door has a striker (910 on door, FIg.9); a striker receiver (910 on cabinet, FIg.9) which receives the striker when the door is in a closed position (section 0104), wherein the striker receiver (910 is comprised of a lock (section 0104 “the smart lock 910 can be used to limit access to the humidor and can be used for tracking when the humidor 105 has been opened”); one or more canister drawers (110, Fig.1A, Fig.9) slidably coupled with the main compartment (each compartment defined by the slide rail 190 location), wherein the one or more slidable drawers (110) comprise a plurality of slots (325, Fig.3A, Fig.4E) for holding product canisters; a secondary drawer (other drawer 110, Fig.1A, Fig.9) slidably coupled with a secondary compartment (another compartment within the cabinet defined by the location of a pair of slide rails 190); and an inventory scanner (905, FIg.9, section 0103/915, FIg.9, section 0105) configured to track the number of canisters present within each drawer and the contents of each canister (sections 0103, 0105, 0106).
With respect to claim 1, Mansour doesn’t disclose the lock communicates with a dispenser. Arnold teaches a striker receiver (58, FIg.1) which receives a striker (62, FIg.4) on the door (56, Fig.4, FIg.1) comprising a lock (60, Fig.4) communicating with a dispenser 12 (“lock 58 may be operated upon receipt of electrical signals generated by processer 24. In this manner, a user may gain access to auxiliary storage unit 14 utilizing processor 24 of dispensing cabinet 12”; Col.6 lines 32-37). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to communicate the striker receiver of Mansour with a dispenser, such as taught by Arnold in order to have a single dispenser that may be employed to gain access to a wide variety of smart cabinets in variety of locations.
With respect to claim 1, modified Mansour teaches the smart lock 910 can be used for tracking when the cabinet has been opened (section 0104) however doesn’t explicitly disclose a sensor to detect when the door is open or closed. Rahilly teaches an interface module (110, FIg.2) for locking the door (14) having a sensor (paragraph 0083) to detect when the door (14) is an opened or closed position. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include a sensor to the smart cabinet of modified Mansour, such as taught by Rahilly, in order to determine when the door is still open or not locked/closed to prevent tampering of the contents in the cabinet.
With respect to claim 2, the combination (Arnold) teaches wherein the access to the cabinet (14) is limited to users who have access to the dispenser (12; user gains access to storage unit 14 utilizing processor 24 of dispensing cabinet 12; Col.6 lines 32-37).
With respect to claim 3, the combination (Mansour) teaches having two canister drawers (110) wherein each of the slidable drawers holds 56 canisters in a grid (grid formed by the bars 305 “the display bars 305 are arranged in the frame 215 formed around the base 205 such that the plurality of tubular channels 325 form a grid of tubular channels” section 0086; FIg.4A, Fig.4B; the total grid on each drawer 110 has 108 slots and thus can hold 56 canisters shaped to fit the slots).
With respect to claim 4, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the grid (the display bars 305) is detachable for cleaning (Fig.2A, Fig.2B; section 0086).
With respect to claim 5, the combination (Mansour) teaches further comprising a second inventory scanner (916/915, FIg.9) disposed on a lower surface of a first canister drawer (110; Fig.9; “below each tray 110” section 0105) and configured to scan canisters of a second canister drawer (110) upon loading and removal from the second canister drawer.
With respect to claim 8, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the inventory scanner (905/915-917) is integrated into the main compartment and is configured to scan canisters upon loading or removal of canisters from the one or more drawers (Fig.9; sections 0103; 0105; 0106).
With respect to claim 9, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the inventory scanner (905/915) is a camera, RFID sensor or BAR code scanner (sections 0103; 0105; 0106).
With respect to claim 10, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the camera (905) is configured to determine the contents of the one or more slidable drawers (110; section 0103).
With respect to claim 11, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the canisters are equipped with a tag (920; section 0105; 0106) which contains information on the canister and the contents of the canister.
With respect to claim 12, the combination (Mansour) teaches wherein the tag (920) comprises an RFID tag (sections 0105-0106)
with respect to claim 13; the combination doesn’t show the tag is located on a cap of a canister. However the canister is not positively recited in the claims and is an intended use recitation and it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to place the tag on a cap of a canister, since it has been held that a mere relocation of parts of an invention involved only routine skill in the art.
With respect to claim 16, the combination (Arnold) teaches wherein the cabinet (14) communicates wirelessly with the dispenser (12; Col.6 lines 63-65).
3. Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0160147 A1 (Mansour) and US Patent 6,151,536 (Arnold) in view of US 2020/0410801 A1 (Rahilly) in further in view of US Patent 5,533,799 (Nickolaus).
With respect to claim 6, modified Mansour doesn’t show wheels and wheel locks. Nickolaus teaches a cabinet with wheels (20, FIg.1) and wheel locks (20a). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include wheels and wheel locks to the cabinet of modified Mansour, such as taught by Nickolaus, in order to easily move the cabinet from one place to another and lock it in position.
4. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0160147 A1 (Mansour) and US Patent 6,151,536 (Arnold) in view of US 2020/0410801 A1 (Rahilly) in further in view of US Patent 4,272,138 (Stark).
With respect to claim 7, modified Mansour doesn’t show a tip prevention safety feature. Stark shows a tip prevention safety feature (16,17, 9, Fig.3, FIg.3-Fig.5) that prevents more than one drawer from being extended at a time (Col.5 lines 51-Col.6 line 6). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the cabinet of modified Mansour a tip prevention safety feature, such as taught by Stark, in order to prevent tipping/toppling of the cabinet from the plurality of drawers being opened at the same time.
5. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0160147 A1 (Mansour) and US Patent 6,151,536 (Arnold) in view of US 2020/0410801 A1 (Rahilly) in further in view of US Patent 8,282,895 B2 (Miller).
With respect to claim 14, modified Mansour doesn’t teach the inventory scanner is a handheld scanner. Miller teaches wherein the inventory scanner is a handheld scanner (Col.24 lines 31-40). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to make the inventory scanner, handheld scanner, such as taught by Miller, to easily find and scan the barcode on the products in the drawer.
6. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0160147 A1 (Mansour) and US Patent 6,151,536 (Arnold) in view of US 2020/0410801 A1 (Rahilly) in further in view of US 2015/0366377 A1 (Savage).
With respect to claim 15, modified Mansour doesn’t teach a pressure sensor. Savage teaches a pressure sensor (30, Fig.3, sections 0027-0028) within each of the plurality of slots (28) of the drawers (24, FIg.1, Fig.2), wherein the pressure sensor is configured to track how many slots are occupied (sections 0027, 0028). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include a pressure sensor in each of the slots of the drawers of modified Mansour, such as taught by Savage, in order to easily detect the presence or absence of an item in each slot/detect the placement of an item and removal of the item from each slot.
Conclusion
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/HIWOT E TEFERA/Examiner, Art Unit 3637
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