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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 3 and 4 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 04/10/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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(s) 1 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by FR 2 784 669 (Bernard). A translation of Bernard was included with this action. Page and Line numbers below refer to this translation.
In Re claim 1 Bernard discloses a container filling system comprising: a beverage product reservoir (1); multiple beverage container filling valves (4) connected to the reservoir and configured to fill containers with beverage product from the reservoir; a product recirculation flow path (path connecting to fill valves through flow meter elements 17) connected to each of the filling valves and configured to maintain a flow of beverage product through each of the filling valves when each of the filling valves is closed; a flow meter (17) configured to output flow meter signals indicative of flow rates through the flow meter; and a controller configured to receive the flow meter signals and to generate, based on the received flow meter signals, control signals to maintain a flow rate through the product recirculation flow path value (Lines 117-156).
Bernard as applied to claim 1 above performs the method of claim 12 during ordinary use and operation.
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) 5 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bernard.
In Re claim 5 Bernard discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose a flow rate equal to between 5% and 15% of a rate of a product flowing into the reservoir.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to manufacture the Bernard apparatus to have a recirculation flow rate equal to between 5% and 15% of a rate of product flowing into the reservoir. since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
In Re claim 7 Bernard discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose a flow path having a width of about 0.625 inches.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to manufacture the Bernard apparatus to have a flow path with a width of about 0.625 inches. since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Claim(s) 13-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bernard in view of US PGPub 2012/0060965 (Poeschl).
In Re claim 13 Bernard discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose a second beverage component.
Poeschl discloses a beverage having multiple components (abtract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to modify the method of using the Bernard apparatus by adding a step of filling the containers with a second component, in order to permit a user to bottle a beverage having multiple components.
In Re claims 14-17 it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to use the Bernard apparatus and method, as modified by the teaching of Poeschl, bottle any desired substance including liquids with inclusions at various ratios.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 6, 8-11 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON KAROL NIESZ whose telephone number is (571)270-3920. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 EST.
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/JASON K NIESZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
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