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 1-11 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 18, 2024 has been considered by the examiner.
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 3-8 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.
In claim 3, line 2, the term “a first workstation” should read “the first work station” as this element was claimed earlier.
In claim 4, line 4, the term “an order” should be “the order” as this element was claimed earlier.
In claim 5, line 3, the “an operation” should be “the operation” as this element was claimed earlier.
In claim 5, line 6, the term “the order” should be “an order” as this element was not mentioned earlier.
In claim 6, line 2, the term “an order” should be “the order” as this element was claimed earlier.
In claim 7, line 2, line 4, line 7, line 10, the term “a bin” should be “the bin” as this element was claimed earlier.
In claim 8, line 2, the term “an order” should be “the order as this element was claimed earlier.
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, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chinese Patent No. CN113998352 to Zheng et al. (A machine translation of the document is enclosed with this action and referred to herein).
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 11, the Zhen patent teaches an apparatus and method for processing a suspended order, applicable to a smart warehouse system (page 7 AGV warehouse), the method comprising: receiving a taking over request for a target order (page 7), and determining a first workstation (this is interpreted as the feeding port) corresponding to the target order according to the taking over request, wherein the target order is an order suspended when a second workstation performs an order suspending operation; determining a processing strategy of the target order based on a state of the target order when being suspended at the second workstation; and completing the target order at the first workstation based on the processing strategy. See pages 7 and 8 where the feeding port is changed before an order is finished, this is interpreted as a suspended operation.
The Zheng patent lacks a specific teaching of a specific suspension order.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the subject invention to realize that the equivalent of a suspension order is done in the Zheng patent as there is a control to change the delivery from one port to another to provide the predictable result of more efficient management of the warehouse and this can only be done with changing where the feeding port and is therefore a suspension from the original feeding port.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 9 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.
Claims 3-8 would be allowable if rewritten 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 and to include 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.
Chinese Patent No. CN113177827 to Zhou teaches work station ordering.
Canadian Patent No. CA3151992 to Winkler et al. teaches a takeover of orders.
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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