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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed on 10 July 2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-9 are currently presented in the instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement(s)
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 7/10/2024 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) certain methods of organizing human activity, in particular managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people by “providing information to a person without interfering with the person’s primary activity”. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because there are no significant structural elements or methods distinguishing over displaying information. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
With respect to claims 1-9, all of the claims are directed towards a display of information regarding the recyclability of a plastic part. The display of information, as described above, is considered to be a method of organizing human activity, as the display of recyclability merely “provides information to a person without interfering with the person’s primary activity”. A user who looks at the plastic part would gain the knowledge, but there is nothing in the claim that requires a user to perform any tasks with that knowledge, or perform any steps to apply that knowledge. There are also no steps required to perform the shipping inspection or applying the display, only that the display exists on the part.
The dependent claims do not significantly improve this reading, as the language is overly broad to include just the statement of ‘recyclable’ or not. The shipping inspection data of claim 1 can be considered anything of note, including ‘recyclable’, without being anything in particular or related to the color or foreign substance inspections of claim 3 (claims 4 and 5 are dependent on claim 1).
Displaying markings of a plastics recyclability is also wildly known, with recognized and relatively standardized, such as these resin identification codes as defined by the European Commission. While not specifically recognizing that all of these plastics are recyclable or not, they identify the materials the item is made of to facility the recycling process (image below obtained from Wikipedia).
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717
961
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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 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) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Kashiwakura et al. (Publication No.: JP 2006110803 A, herein known as D1, supplied and provided with a machine translation herewith) and Kashiwakura et al. (Publication No.: JP 20041794941 A, herein known as D2, supplied and provided with a machine translation herewith) or in view of each other.
With respect to claims 1-9, as described above in the rejection under 101, any plastic part that has undergone any inspection (or the specific inspections of claims 2 and 3) prior to being applied with a recyclable mark would read on these limitations.
D1 discloses “In office automation equipment and home appliances, many plastic parts are used, and as described in [Patent Document 1] to [Patent Document 3], such parts are used for the purpose of recycling. Various kinds of information are displayed. As a method of forming the display, as described in [Patent Document 3], it is common to perform stamping when molding a part using a mold.
As described in [Patent Document 1] to [Patent Document 3], the contents of such display include the blending ratio of the virgin material and the recycled material constituting the plastic part, and the part number, for the purpose of recycling. Etc., including the manufacturing history. The virgin material means a plastic part manufactured as a new product, and the recycled material means a recovered plastic part, that is, a plastic part manufactured by mixing a recovered material with a virgin material.”. This shows that creating a display regarding the recyclability of a plastic part is known in the art, is known in the art.
D1 further discloses two displays, a display part 1, and a color display part 10 “The display unit 1 as a display for plastic parts is displayed on the exterior surface of a recyclable plastic part (not shown) that is a recyclable object, that is, an OA equipment or a part for home appliance mounted on the OA equipment or home appliance. Is.
The display unit 1 displays a manufacturing history for identifying a plastic part, and includes a manufacturing date 2, a part number 3, a resin name 4, a resin grade 5, and a filling as a time display substantially indicating the manufacturing time. The reinforcing agent 6, the safety file number 7, and the color display 10 that substantially indicates the color of the part are displayed.”
“The color display 10 may be any display as long as it substantially indicates the color of the component, and may display the name of the color, that is, the color name directly, or a code indicating the color, that is, the color A code may be displayed to substantially indicate the color.”
These two displays, while not described to explicitly say recyclable or not, are clearly directed towards displaying recycling information that can be easily accessed and determined by a user. The color display 10 does not require, but also implies, the shipping data having data of a color difference of the surface, especially when reviewed as described in D1.
D2 discloses “[0010] FIG. 1 shows an example of a display unit using symbols such as a manufacturing history displayed on an exterior surface of a recyclable plastic part (not shown). In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a display unit on which a manufacturing history for identification is displayed. In the display section, the date of manufacture 2, part number 3, resin name 4, resin grade 5, filling / reinforcing agent 6, and safety file No. 7 are displayed. The part number 3 includes a model code. In the illustrated example, “X020” indicates the model code, and “2340” indicates the part number.
[0011] As described above, the date of manufacture 2 and the part number 3 are displayed on the display unit 1, and the part number is managed separately in the part number 3, for example, in a part mass table for each part number. At the time of material production, the production date and mass of the recovered material can be grasped, and the mass for each degree of deterioration of physical properties over time can be known. From this, the degree of reinforcement of physical properties and the degree of color complementation by manufacturing date 2 are known, and the recovery amount is known by part number 3, and if necessary, the amounts of physical property enhancement additives and color complementary colors can be easily known in advance, and recycled materials In addition, complicated verification and preparation work is required for the manufacture of the product, and production management and quality control operations are greatly improved, so that inexpensive and high-quality recycled materials can be provided.” [0015] [The invention's effect] According to the first aspect of the invention, since the manufacturing history is displayed on the display section of the recycled plastic parts, it is possible to grasp the market installation period of the recovered OA equipment and the like, and the physical property deterioration and the color deterioration due to the installation period. Can be easily determined, the recovery conditions can be easily set during the production of the recycled material, and the inexpensive and high-quality recycled material can be produced. In addition, if fillers, reinforcing agents, and safety file numbers are displayed on the manufacturing history display of plastic recycled parts, it is safe for various recycling processes in open recycling, thermal recycling, and chemical recycling, as well as in closed materials. In addition, effective and efficient responses can be made.
[0016] According to the second aspect of the present invention, the manufacturing history display of the recycled plastic parts is displayed as a readable code as electronic information. Therefore, the manufacturing history display of the recovered material is read by the electronic information system, and the physical property of the recovered material is deteriorated. Providing the manufacturer with the amount of the recovered material of the situation and the state of deterioration of the color makes it possible to produce a higher-quality and less expensive recycled material.”
Like in D1, D2 describes displaying information that can be interpreted as regarding the recyclability of the plastic part (based on the ratio of recycled and virgin material, manufacturing dates, degree of reinforcements, lost/gained mass, etc.) as well as the history of the recycled/recyclable part.
Both D1 and D2, alone or in combination, both describe methods of displaying information regarding a plastic part designed to be recycled and interpreted by manufactures the state of the plastic parts through displays, display codes, and color displays that would allow for either a machine or a worker to be able to determine the recyclability or usability of the plastic part being examined. Even if the displays do not explicitly describe ‘recyclable’ ‘not recyclable’ or ‘unknown recyclability’, it would have been inherent or obvious that these codes, when reviewed by machine or a workman in the art, would be capable of making these determinations.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
All foreign references are provided with a machine translation with this Office Action.
Tanabe et al. (Publication No.: JP 2013126767 A)
Tanabe et al. (Publication No.: JP 2011089026 A)
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIANA HANCOCK whose telephone number is (571)270-7547. The examiner can normally be reached on 10AM-6PM EST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Stephanie Bloss can be reached on (571) 272-3555. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/D.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2852
7/28/2026
/STEPHANIE E BLOSS/Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
Prosecution Insights