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 § 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) 1-10 and 15-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bethuy, et al. (“Bethuy”) (U.S. Pub. 2016/0368752).
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Bethuy discloses a beverage system, comprising:
a fluid feeder configured to discharge a fluid (cf. figure 11 and §97: "In an implementation, as shown in FIG. 11, a beverage dispensing system 170 may include a water supply system 182 ... In certain implementations, the beverage dispensing system may produce the equivalent or shots, mixed drinks, cocktails, sangria, spiked beverages or the like according to user preferences ... ");
an ingredient feeder configured to discharge one or more ingredients (cf. figure 11 and §79: "Nutritional supplements in liquid, powder, or other form may be added to the beverage or the total fluid volume dispensed in a fixed quantity, mass, or in a quantity proportional to a property of the beverage or the user's desire .... ");
a mixing chamber (seen in Fig. 29 and others) having a dispensing opening, the mixing chamber configured to receive the fluid and ingredients;
a dispenser configured to control dispensing from the mixing chamber via the dispensing opening (cf. claim 1: " ... a dispense nozzle in communication with the dosing
system, for independently receiving each selected ingredient and water, mixing the one or more selected ingredients and the water within the dispense nozzle and dispensing the beverage that has been mixed in the dispense nozzle ... "); and
a controller or control circuit programmed to perform operations comprising:
receiving from a user a selection for a beverage (cf. §98: "In general, a user may use display and touchscreen 176 to select one or more user preferences for a customized beverage, that may be communicated through operator interface controller 174 to controller 172.
Responsive to the user input, controller 172 may control the water supply system 182, ingredient supply system 400, and dispensing system 600 to deliver a custom, healthy and natural beverage to a container.");
obtaining, based on the selection, information relating to a first portion and a second portion of the beverage, wherein:
the first portion comprises a first amount of the fluid and a first amount of at least one target ingredient) and;
generating, based on the obtained information, a first set of signals for a process including:
producing, based on the first set of signals the first portion of the beverage, wherein the first set of signals comprise:
a first fluid signal, the first fluid signal causing the fluid feeder to discharge the first amount of the fluid into the mixing chamber;
a first ingredient signal, the first ingredient signal causing the ingredient feeder to discharge the first amount of the at least one target ingredient into the mixing chamber; and
a first dispensing signal, the first dispensing signal causing the dispenser to allow at least some of a mixture of the fluid and the at least one target ingredient to be dispensed from the mixing chamber.
(cf. claim 1: " ... a dispense nozzle in communication with the dosing system, for independently receiving each selected ingredient and water, mixing the one or more selected ingredients and the water within the dispense nozzle and dispensing the beverage that has been mixed in the dispense nozzle ... ")
Bethuy does not specify a second portion comprises a second amount of the fluid; generating, based on the obtained information, a second set of signals for a process; producing, based on the second set of signals the second portion of the beverage wherein the second set of signals comprise:
a second fluid signal, the second fluid signal causing the fluid feeder to discharge the second amount of the fluid into the mixing chamber;
a second dispensing signal, the second dispensing signal causing the dispenser to allow at least some of the second amount of the fluid to be dispensed from the mixing chamber; or adding the second portion to the first portion, or a mixture comprising the first portion.
However, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to duplicate the number of portions, fluids, signals and accompanying software and controls, in order to give the user additional choices of fluids and flavor ingredients by adding them to the first portion to give the user more choices in beverages, since it has been held that mere duplication of the essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art. In re Harza, 274 F.2d 669, 124 USPQ 378 MPEP 2144.04 VI. B.
Regarding claims 2-6 and 16-20, as explained above, Bethuy discloses that further characteristics of the preparation of the beverage, such as different volumes of the first and second fluid, different target ingredients, additional portions and additional signals would be easily implemented and obvious in order to give the user additional choices of fluids and flavor ingredients.
Regarding claim 7, Bethuy discloses that the fluid feeder is connected to a fluid supply source (Fig. 11: water supply 190, ingredient supply system 400).
Regarding claim 8, Bethuy discloses that the fluid feeder comprises a controllable valve (Fig. 11: 213, 215, 216, 406, 506) operably connected to the controller or control circuit (172) to controllably discharge the fluid.
Regarding claim 9, Bethuy discloses that the fluid feeder comprises or is in fluid communication with a fluid conduit positioned around a rim of the mixing chamber, the fluid conduit having a plurality of apertures to allow discharging of the fluid into the mixing chamber. (conduits on 611 seen in Fig. 25)
Regarding claim 10, Bethuy discloses a mixer configured to mix the fluid and the one or more ingredients in the mixing chamber. (claim 1: “a dispense nozzle in communication with the dosing system, for independently receiving each selected ingredient and water, mixing the one or more selected ingredients and the water within the dispense nozzle and dispensing the beverage that has been mixed in the dispense nozzle”);
Regarding claim 21, Bethuy discloses at least one of the first set of signals or the second set of signals further comprise a heating signal (controlled by actuation of a solenoid valve), the heating signal causing a heater (111) to heat at least some of the first amount of the fluid or the first amount of the at least one target ingredient or heat at least some of the second amount of the fluid before or after being discharged into the mixing chamber. (¶ [0057])
Regarding claim 22, Bethuy discloses the first set of signals further comprise a first pressurizing signal (¶ [0064]: to solenoid valve 112), the first pressurizing signal causing a pressurized gas assembly (manifold 113) to deliver pressurized gas (from CO2 tank 119): for pressurizing the fluid (dissolving into the fluid) before discharged into the mixing chamber.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bethuy as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of Moore, et al. (“Moore”) (U.S. Pub. 2020/0087132).
Regarding claim 11, Bethuy discloses a mixing chamber (Fig. 25) but is silent that the mixer comprises a mechanical stirrer, a vibration stirrer or an ultrasonic transducer.
Moore discloses a beverage dispenser with a (¶ [0025]) mixing chamber (170) that comprises a mechanical stirrer, a vibration stirrer (agitation) or an ultrasonic transducer (acoustic).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to substitute Bethuy’s mixing means with Moore’s mixing means, which may comprise a mechanical stirrer, a vibration stirrer (agitation) or an ultrasonic transducer (acoustic), since doing so would be a mere substitution of one known mixing configuration for another known mixing configuration with the expected results that the substituted mixing means would mix the ingredients prior to dispensing the beverage (see MPEP 2143 I B).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-14 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.
Claim 12 requires that the dispenser is configured to move along a direction to adjust how much of the dispensing opening of the mixing chamber is available for dispensing from the mixing chamber. Prior art Bethuy discloses a mixing chamber but does not mention that the dispenser can move along a direction to adjust how much of the dispensing opening of the mixing chamber is available for dispensing of the mixing chamber and it would not have been obvious to modify the prior art as required barring improper hindsight analysis.
Claims 13 and 14 depend from claim 12.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See form PTO-892, attached.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL J MELARAGNO whose telephone number is (571)270-7735. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri: 8 am - 5 pm +/- flex.
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/MICHAEL J. MELARAGNO/Examiner, Art Unit 3754
/PAUL R DURAND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3754 February 12, 2026