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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 07/26/2024 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
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.
Claim(s) 21, 22, 24-26, 28-31 and 39-40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shikami [US5375828], in view of Hauck [US20200215423].
Regarding claim 21, Shikami discloses a collector for a modular game (Fig. 5), the collector comprising:
a partial sphere-shaped base, the base having a width at least five times the width of a single modular cube, and further having a surface with a circular perimeter (Fig. 5); and a retrieval tray attached to the base (Fig. 5, “a transparent plastic tube 82, which establishes mechanical communication between the first end 76 and second end 80 of the track”).
However, Shikami does not explicitly disclose wherein the retrieval tray extends beyond the circular perimeter.
Nevertheless, Shikami discloses a flipper lever 84 in Fig. 5. And Hauck teaches in a like invention, a retrieval tray extends beyond the circular perimeter (Fig. 10, 116B).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the collector disclosed by Shikami, to have the retrieval tray extends beyond the circular perimeter, as taught by Hauck, in order to be able to catch the playing piece when the playing piece went through flipper lever 84.
Regarding claim 22, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 21, further including a moveable stopper positioned along the circular perimeter of the base before reaching the retrieval tray (Shikami, Fig. 5, flipper lever 84).
Regarding claim 24, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 21, the base further comprising a top, the top having joinery that is connectable with a bottom surface of a first modular cube (Shikami, Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 25, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 24, further comprising a plurality of additional modular pieces connectable in series to the first modular cube (Shikami, Figs. 4-7).
Regarding claim 26, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 25, wherein a number of the plurality of additional modular pieces are connectable in a single cantilevered direction
Regarding claims 28 and 29, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 26, wherein the plurality of additional pieces includes at least one rail; wherein the plurality of additional pieces further includes at least one cube (Shikami, Figs. 4-7).
Regarding claim 30, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 21, the collector being comprised of wood (Hauck, [0059], “For volume production the components may be created using an injection mold process or other suitable process such as making the components from metal, wood or other materials”).
Regarding claim 31, the combination of Shikami and Hauck discloses the collector of claim 21, the retrieval tray being removably attachable to the base (Hauck, Fig. 1, [0046], “ball tray 17 having a pair of attachment permanent magnets 17A and 17B to serve the same purpose as the magnets 13 and 14 of the ball tray 8 respectively”).
Regarding claims 39 and 40, please refer to the claim rejections of claims 21 and 25.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 32-38 are allowed.
Claims 23 and 27 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YINGCHUAN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-1375. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 - 4:30 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas Weiss can be reached at (571) 270-1775. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YINGCHUAN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3711
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