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 .
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 14-18, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101. As claimed, there is no apparatus claimed to accomplish the method set out in claims 14-18. Accordingly, the claim is open to interpretation as being done by people, that is, a person may be doing the measuring in claim 14. Whether a device falls within the scope of the claim cannot be ascertained until a particular user engages the device. Consequently, the claim is indefinite. Ex parte Brummer, 12 USPQ2d 1653 (BdPatApp & Inter 1989). No particular person is identified and likewise no particular apparatus is identified. There is not way to ascertain if the claim is anticipated by the prior art.
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.
Claim 13 is 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.
Claim 13 is an independent claim that is not part of claim 1. The evidence for this is that the preamble of claim 13 is for a “work vehicle” whereas the preamble of claim 1 is for “A tank assembly …”. Therefore reference in claim 13, for a work vehicle, to claim 1, a tank assembly, does not particularly point out, nor does it distinctly claim the invention. The two are drawn to different inventions and therefore claim 1 cannot be so referenced in claim 13.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by GB2231767 to Simpson.
With respect to claim 19, Simpson discloses a tank defining an enclosure see numeral 12 in Fig. 2 and configured to receive a granular material material (sic) (see Abstract); an egress port (see numeral 22 in Fig. 2 and page 3, fourth sentence); a conveyor (see numeral 14 in Fig. 2 and page 3, first full paragraph, first sentence) positioned towards a bottom portion of the tank
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and extending between the egress port (22) and the enclosure of the tank (11) and (see annotated Fig. 2, supra); and wherein operation of the conveyor expels the granular material from the enclosure (see page 3, second to last sentence).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 20 is 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 1-12 are allowed. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach or disclose a first and second tank attached to and in communication with an granular material applicator having sensors associated with each tank and a conveyor between the tanks to move material therebetween.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LESTER RUSHIN, III whose telephone number is (313)446-4905. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4p.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, GENE CRAWFORD can be reached at 571-272-6911. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LESTER RUSHIN, III/
Examiner
Art Unit 3651
/GENE O CRAWFORD/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3651