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 .
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because, in line 1, “Provided is” should be deleted and “serving beverages a method” should be “serving beverages and a method”. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: In page 3, line 1, “is configured to move in consist of the” is grammatically incorrect.
Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “moveable beverage dispensing head that is tiltable and elevatable” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from claim 4. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities: “to move in consist of the lateral” is grammatically incorrect. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 – 3 and 5 – 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MacFarlane et al. (2020/0375388; cited prior art) in view of Brogna et al. (5000345).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, the MacFarlane et al. reference discloses a method of operating and an autonomous retail kiosk (110) for serving beverages, comprising: two or more production workcells and a transfer station having a staging rack (para. [0341]), wherein; each production workcell comprises; a beverage dispenser for dispensing liquid (204; para. [0324]), a presentation station (209; para. [0321]) for presenting a beverage to a consumer, a robotic arm (231; para. [0323]) for moving beverages between the beverage dispenser, the presentation station and the transfer station; and wherein said transfer station is configured to receive a beverage container from a first robotic arm (231; paras. [0323, 0326, 0328]) within a first workcell and deliver the beverage container to a second robotic arm (232; para. [0413]) within a second workcell, thereby moving the beverage container from the first workcell to the second workcell (robotic arms 231 and 232 are capable of moving beverages between any point within their respective workcells. The MacFarlane et al. reference doesn’t disclose the transfer station/staging rack being a carousel for distributing beverage containers. The Brogna et al. reference discloses another automated drinkmaker system having a carousel to move beverage containers to individual stations. One advantage being greater immunity from contamination of the system by drink spills from other drinks which have been processed (col. 2, lines 29-36) and/or as another well-known conveyance system for beverage containers within the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to modify the MacFarlane et al. device to substitute a carousel for the staging rack as, for example, taught by the Brogna et al. reference in order to handle beverage containers while decreasing contamination possibilities and it would be obvious to try a carousel for container transfer without unexpected results.
Regarding claim 2, wherein the planes in which each robotic arm is configured to move in consist of the lateral, vertical and transverse planes. Robotic arms (231, 232) are capable of moving in all the defined planes. See para’s [0412 – 0426].
Regarding claims 3 and 12, further comprising one or more beverage makers configured to provide a beverage to the beverage dispenser. See brewing station (202), grinding station (203), milk foaming station (204). See para. [0324].
Regarding claim 5, wherein the presentation station comprises a rotating platform. See paragraph [0729].
Regarding claim 6, wherein the kiosk comprises two substantially identical production workcells with bilateral symmetry. See Figure 1 showing substantially identical production workcells (110).
Regarding claims 7 and 13, wherein each robotic arm (231, 232) is configured to: move a beverage container from a beverage container dispenser to a beverage dispenser, move the beverage container from the beverage dispenser to the carousel, and move the beverage container from the carousel to a presentation station. See para’s [0326-0328] and [0490].
Regarding claim 8, further comprising a beverage container lidding station (i.e., lidding bay) comprising a beverage container lidder which serves the two or more production workcells, or wherein each of the two or more production workcells further comprises one or more beverage container lidding stations each comprising a beverage container lidder. See para. [0413].
Regarding claim 9, further comprising a beverage disposal receptacle (11510) for receiving a waste beverage from a robotic arm. See para. [0395].
Regarding claim 10, wherein the carousel is further configured to receive a beverage container from a robotic arm and deliver the beverage container to the same robotic arm, thereby acting to store the beverage container. The carousel in modified MacFarlane et al. takes place of the staging rack in the transfer station and would receive containers from the robotic arms (231, 232).
Regarding claims 14 and 15, see para’s [0413, 0513, 0520, 0522].
Regarding claim 16, see para’s [0357, 0645-0648].
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MacFarlane et al., as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Smith et al. (6648025).
Regarding claim 4, modified MacFarlane et al. discloses the invention (discussed supra), but doesn’t disclose wherein the beverage dispenser is a moveable beverage dispensing head that is tiltable and elevatable. The Smith et al. reference discloses another automatic beverage dispenser (10) having a tiltable and elevatable dispensing head (200; col. 5, lines 26 – 57) to vary the height and angle of the nozzle. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to modify the MacFarlane et al. device to have a tiltable and elevatable dispensing head as, for example, taught by the Smith et al. in order to accommodate different size containers and reduce foaming by directing the fluid toward the side of the container when filling.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The Jennings et al. (7577498) reference discloses a robotic beverage server (400) having multiple robotic serving arms (226).
The Trigell et al. (6112948) reference discloses an automatic beverage dispenser (Figure 1) having a height adjustable dispensing head (Figure 4).
The Goulet et al. (6053359) reference discloses an automatic beverage dispenser having a carousel (20) to move the beverage containers within the system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY LEWIS MAUST whose telephone number is (571)272-4891. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday, 7am - 5pm.
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/TIMOTHY L MAUST/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753