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) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuhara, U.S. Patent 5,992,426 in view of Liston, WO 2017/190342 and Stratman, U.S. Patent 9,482,267.
Yuhura teaches:
A container lid (14) including a knuckle (18) extending downward from an edge of an
outer surface, and two aligned first holes (18a) through two ends of the knuckle respectively;
a base (12) configured to close or open the container lid and including a cavity (see below) corresponding to the knuckle and being complementary thereto, and two aligned second holes (16a) through two ends of the cavity respectively, the second holes being aligned with the first holes (see Figs. 1-2); and
a hinge assembly including two hinge shafts (20) made of plastic and being cylindrical.
Yuhura does not teach:
Each of the hinge shafts including a groove wherein the groove extends from an outer surface of the hinge shaft to an axial center of the hinge shaft, a width of the groove is gradually increased from a bottom to an opening thereof, and the hinge shafts are inserted through the second holes and the first holes to pivotably secure the container lid to the base.
Liston teaches:
A cosmetic container (Fig. 1) with a hinge shaft (30) including a groove (31) extending from an outer surface of the hinge shaft to an axial center of the hinge shaft and the hinge shaft is inserted into first and second holes to pivotably secure a container lid to a base (see Figs. 1, 3-4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide Yuhura with hinges shafts having a groove, as taught by Liston, because the groove allows for a friction fit to maintain the hinge assembly of Liston and this requires fewer complex holes than Yuhura (see splines 26) which reduce the manufacturing complexity of the device.
Yuhura-Liston does not teach:
A width of the groove is gradually increase from a bottom to an opening thereof.
Stratman teaches:
A shaft with a groove that increase from a top to a bottom (see 24 in Fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide Yuhura-Liston with a gradually increasing width of the groove because that would allow the shaft to be squeezed at the groove to reduce the overall cross-sectional area which would allow it to be inserted into different diameter holes and this would permit the shaft to be used effectively in holes that have a wide manufacturing tolerance and this would reduce manufacturing costs overall.
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Regarding Claim 2, in the instant combination, Liston teaches an opening (21) with a mirror fastened in the opening (see selection from machine translation below, see attached machine translation).
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Regarding Claim 3, in the instant combination, Yuhura teaches the base (12) further comprising a recess (see below) on a bottom.
**Examiner’s Note: Examiner notes that the above claim contains the claim language “for storing cosmetics“, and a claim containing a “recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus” if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim because the prior art need only be capable of meeting the claimed limitations. See MPEP 2114 [R-1].
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Regarding Claim 4, in the instant combination, Yuhura teaches:
The second hole has a first end distal the cavity and a second end proximate the cavity, the first end having an inner diameter greater than an inner diameter of the second end (see below).
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Regarding Claim 5, in the instant combination, Yuhura teaches:
The container lid further comprises a male member (24) extending downward from the edge of the outer surface opposite to the knuckle (Fig. 1), and the base further comprises a female member (12a) disposed on an edge corresponding to the male member (Fig. 1), the male member being configured to insert into the female member to be fastened together (Fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 6, the instant combination is silent with regard to the hinge shafts formed by injection molding. However, at the time the invention was filed it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide with hinges shafts made by injection molding because this is highly cost-efficient method of manufacturing for high volumes and “Even though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process, the patentability of the product does not depend on its method of production. Determination of patentability is based on the product itself. If the product in the product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior product was made by a different process", In re Thorpe, 227 USPQ 964, 966. See MPEP 2113.
Regarding Claim 7, the instant combination is silent with regard to the diameter of the hinges shaft being less than 3.5 mm. However, at the time the invention was filed it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at to provide the hinge shafts being less than 3.5 mm because this an appropriate size for a pocket or purse carried device and it has been held that “where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation” and the applicant has not provided any unexpected result form or specific problem solved by the claimed dimension. See MPEP 2144.05 [R-5].
Regarding Claim 8, in the instant combination Liston teaches a hole diameter smaller than the hinge shaft (see machine translation selection below). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide the hinge shaft diameter greater than each of the first hole and second hole because that would allow the friction fit described in Liston to allow the hinge to function and also provide a “hold open” feature to allow use of the mirror provided with the cosmetic device.
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW J SULLIVAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5218. The examiner can normally be reached IFP, Typically M-Th, 8:00-6:00, regular Fr availability.
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/MATTHEW J SULLIVAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3677
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