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 Objections
Claim 30 is objected to because of the following informalities: In line 3, the recitation “one said shelf” should be “one shelf”. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 16-17, 20, 22, 24-30, and 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke).
With respect to claim 16: Becke discloses a shelf (glass shelf 6) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (Fig. 1), the shelf comprising: a base plate (glass shelf 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of shelf 6, including leading edge 8 and trailing edge 9); and an edge protection element (shock-absorbing layer 7, lacquer layer 7a) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge (“The lacquer layer 7a may at least partially or completely cover a planar middle section of the support surface 6a of the glass shelf 6 and at least one side edge of the glass shelf 6, in particular the front edge 8 and / or a trailing edge 9 of the glass shelf 6. Deviating from the illustration according to Fig. 2 Thus, the lacquer layer 7a may extend around the front edge 8 and / or a rear edge 9 of the glass shelf 6, as for example for the second embodiment in the form of a storage mat 7b as a layer 7 in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.”); said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner (“applied undetachably”) on said outer edge and being formed as a printed edge protection element (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”).
With respect to claim 17: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a screen-printed edge protection element (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”).
With respect to claim 20: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element has a front face which is curved (due to the rounded front edge 8 and rounded trailing edge 9 and/or like the end portion 11 of Fig. 3).
With respect to claim 22: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element is structured on its front face (structured to correspond to the rounded front edge 8).
With respect to claim 24: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element is configured at least in some regions to be soft-elastic (“the layer is selected in terms of its thickness and its softness or elasticity of the known per se material”; “shock-absorbing”; “made of a silicone material or other elastomer or other plastic”).
With respect to claim 25: Becke discloses wherein said base plate is made of glass (“glass shelf 6”).
With respect to claim 26: Becke discloses wherein the shelf is a compartment shelf (shelf 6 is used in a compartment as shown in Becke Fig. 1).
With respect to claim 27: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element has elastic, shock-absorbing properties (“the layer is selected in terms of its thickness and its softness or elasticity of the known per se material”; “shock-absorbing”; “made of a silicone material or other elastomer or other plastic”).
With respect to claim 28: Becke discloses wherein said front face is curved in a convex manner (in that rounded front edge 8 is convex).
With respect to claim 29: Becke discloses a shelf (glass shelf 6) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (Fig. 1), the shelf comprising: a base plate (glass shelf 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of shelf 6, including leading edge 8 and trailing edge 9); and an edge protection element (shock-absorbing layer 7, lacquer layer 7a) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge (“The lacquer layer 7a may at least partially or completely cover a planar middle section of the support surface 6a of the glass shelf 6 and at least one side edge of the glass shelf 6, in particular the front edge 8 and / or a trailing edge 9 of the glass shelf 6. Deviating from the illustration according to Fig. 2 Thus, the lacquer layer 7a may extend around the front edge 8 and / or a rear edge 9 of the glass shelf 6, as for example for the second embodiment in the form of a storage mat 7b as a layer 7 in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.”), said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner (“applied undetachably”) on said outer edge (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”) and formed as a soft-elastic edge protection element (“the layer is selected in terms of its thickness and its softness or elasticity of the known per se material”; “shock-absorbing”; “made of a silicone material or other elastomer or other plastic”).
With respect to claim 30: Becke discloses a household refrigerator (“household refrigerating appliance”; refrigerator 1), comprising: a housing (body 2) defining a receiving space (inner container 3) for food; and at least one said shelf (glass shelf 6) disposed in said receiving space (Fig. 1), said at least one shelf containing: a base plate (glass shelf 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of shelf 6, including leading edge 8 and trailing edge 9); and an edge protection element (shock-absorbing layer 7, lacquer layer 7a) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge (“The lacquer layer 7a may at least partially or completely cover a planar middle section of the support surface 6a of the glass shelf 6 and at least one side edge of the glass shelf 6, in particular the front edge 8 and / or a trailing edge 9 of the glass shelf 6. Deviating from the illustration according to Fig. 2 Thus, the lacquer layer 7a may extend around the front edge 8 and / or a rear edge 9 of the glass shelf 6, as for example for the second embodiment in the form of a storage mat 7b as a layer 7 in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.”), said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner (“applied undetachably”) on said outer edge and being formed as a printed edge protection element (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”).
With respect to claim 32: Becke discloses a method for producing a shelf (glass plate 6) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (refrigerator 1), which comprises the steps of: printing an edge protection element (shock-absorbing layer 7, lacquer layer 7a) in a non-releasable manner (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”) at least in some regions onto an outer edge (perimeter edge of shelf 6, including leading edge 8 and trailing edge 9) of a base plate of the shelf (glass plate 6) by a printing method (“The lacquer layer 7a may at least partially or completely cover a planar middle section of the support surface 6a of the glass shelf 6 and at least one side edge of the glass shelf 6, in particular the front edge 8 and / or a trailing edge 9 of the glass shelf 6. Deviating from the illustration according to Fig. 2 Thus, the lacquer layer 7a may extend around the front edge 8 and / or a rear edge 9 of the glass shelf 6, as for example for the second embodiment in the form of a storage mat 7b as a layer 7 in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.”; “the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of WO 2007/040941 A1 (Borowiec).
With respect to claims 18-19: Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a pad-printed edge protection element” as recited in claim 18. Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a digitally printed edge protection element” as recited in claim 19.
Borowiec’s invention is to anti-fog coatings typically applied to transparent refrigerator doors (e.g., Borowiec Fig. 4). The transparent substrate of the door may be glass (page 10). Borowiec page 9 discloses:
In another embodiment, shown in Figure 2, an anti-fog film assembly 210 further comprises a graphic component 280 on second surface 234 of film 230 and/or a graphic component 282 on first surface 232 of film 230. In this embodiment, as shown, anti-fog layer 220 is disposed on an area of film 230 having a first surface 232 and second surface 234 opposite first surface 232. The graphic component(s) 280, 282 may be any of a variety of designs, including letters, words, numbers, aesthetic images, borders, symbols or the like. The graphic component(s) may be applied via any of a variety of techniques including screen printing, pad printing, sublimation, laser printing, digital offset printing, lithography, offset printing, ink jet printing, digital ink jet printing, digital offset printing, heat transfer printing, and the like. Other techniques are known to those skilled in the art.
Borowiec shows that one of ordinary skill in the refrigerator art recognizes screen printing, pad printing, digital ink jet printing, and digital offset printing as functionally-equivalent means of printing on a glass plate or substrate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Becke’s lacquer layer 7a to be applied via pad printing, digital ink jet printing, or digital offset printing – as an obvious and functionally-equivalent variation of the screen printing method disclosed by Becke.
Claim(s) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of KR 10-2021-0035137 A (Koo) and CN 111912166 A (Chen).
With respect to claim 23: Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element has a metallic or ceramic appearance” as claimed.
Koo discloses a ceramic printed layer 5417 that is printed on a glass layer 5413. Chen discloses metal ink screen printing on decorative glass 23, 33 to thereby match the appearance, texture, and colour of the adjacent metal refrigerator door frame.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Becke’s lacquer layer 7a to be metallic or ceramic, in order to match the appearance, texture, and/or colour of the shock-absorbing layer 7 and/or the shelf 6 to a metal-bodied refrigerator.
Claim(s) 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) as applied to claim 30 above, and further in view of DE 10 2015 214 273 A1 (Staud).
With respect to claim 31: Becke does not disclose “wherein said at least one shelf is disposed in said receiving space in a releasable manner” as claimed.
Becke states “glass shelves 6 can be mounted either fixed or extendable in the inner container 3 with a variety of known to those skilled in the art, not shown holders, rails, grooves, straps and / or extracts”.
Staud Fig. 1 shows refrigerated goods carriers (shelves) 5 made of a glass plate 6, and releasably mounted on support contours 4 of a refrigerated storage room 3. The carriers 5 “can be mounted at different heights” using the various support contours 4.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Becke’s inner container 3 to have Staud’s support contours 4 thereon, in order to enable Becke’s shelves 6 to be mounted at different, user-selectable heights within the inner container 3.
Claim(s) 16-17, 20-22, and 24-32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 10 2015 214 273 A1 (Staud) in view of EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) and DE 298 09 137 U1 (AEG Hausgerate).
With respect to claim 16: Staud discloses a shelf (refrigerated goods carrier 5) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (Fig. 1), the shelf comprising: a base plate (glass plate 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of plate 6, including leading edge 8); and an edge protection element (edge protection element 7) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge (Figs. 2-9).
Staud does not disclose “said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner on said outer edge and being formed as a printed edge protection element” as claimed.
Staud teaches that the edge protection element 7 made of “metal such as aluminum or stainless steel, or a hard plastic” (Figs. 2-4), “preferably solid metal” (Fig. 5), “reasonably stiff material” (Fig. 6), a base of relatively hard material such as plastic and an outer part 25 “soft and moderately compliant” and/or “rubber elastic slightly yielding material” (Fig. 7), and clear, colorless, molded plastic (Figs. 8-9).
Staud Fig. 10 shows the process of machining the glass plate 6 with grinding wheels 9 in order to form the recesses 10 of groove 21 needed to attach the edge protection element (as in Staud Figs. 2-9).
Becke discloses a shock-absorbing layer 7, lacquer layer 7a on a glass shelf 6. Becke states, “The lacquer layer 7a may at least partially or completely cover a planar middle section of the support surface 6a of the glass shelf 6 and at least one side edge of the glass shelf 6, in particular the front edge 8 and / or a trailing edge 9 of the glass shelf 6. Deviating from the illustration according to Fig. 2 Thus, the lacquer layer 7a may extend around the front edge 8 and / or a rear edge 9 of the glass shelf 6, as for example for the second embodiment in the form of a storage mat 7b as a layer 7 in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.” Becke further states, “the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied.” Becke states the layer 7a is “applied undetachably”.
AEG Hausgerate discloses a shelf 2 having a print 4 having scratch-resistant properties, and providing wear resistance. AEG Hausgerate teaches that printing is particularly inexpensive.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Staud’s edge protection element 7 to be printed on the edge of the glass plate 6, in order to preclude the need for machining the glass plate 6 for attachment of the edge protection element 7 and/or to prevent unwanted detachment of the edge protection element 7 from the glass plate 6 (by being “applied undetachably”).
With respect to claim 17: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a screen-printed edge protection element (“the lacquer layer 7a may also be in a screen printing process be applied”).
With respect to claim 20: Staud, as modified, meets wherein said edge protection element has a front face which is curved (similarly to Staud Fig. 5 showing part 7 with a curved outer portion; Staud Fig. 6 showing leg 24 with curved corners/ends; and/or Staud Fig. 7 at portion 25).
With respect to claim 21: Staud, as modified, meets wherein said edge protection element has a height which corresponds to a height of said outer edge (similarly to Staud Fig. 6).
With respect to claim 22: Staud, as modified, meets discloses wherein said edge protection element is structured on its front face (similarly to any of Staud Figs. 5-7).
With respect to claim 24: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element is configured at least in some regions to be soft-elastic (“the layer is selected in terms of its thickness and its softness or elasticity of the known per se material”; “shock-absorbing”; “made of a silicone material or other elastomer or other plastic”).
With respect to claim 25: Staud discloses wherein said base plate is made of glass (“glass plate 6”).
With respect to claim 26: Staud discloses wherein the shelf is a compartment shelf (Fig. 1).
With respect to claim 27: Becke discloses wherein said edge protection element has elastic, shock-absorbing properties (“the layer is selected in terms of its thickness and its softness or elasticity of the known per se material”; “shock-absorbing”; “made of a silicone material or other elastomer or other plastic”).
With respect to claim 28: Staud, as modified, meets wherein said front face is curved in a convex manner (similarly to any of Staud Figs. 5-7).
With respect to claim 29: The same combination of prior art used above meets a shelf (glass plate 6, as modified) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (Staud Fig. 1), the shelf comprising: a base plate (glass plate 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of plate 6, including leading edge 8); and an edge protection element (edge protection element 7, as modified to be printed onto plate 6) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge (similarly to Staud’s figures, also as in Becke’s disclosure), said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner on said outer edge and formed as a soft-elastic edge protection element (as disclosed by Becke).
With respect to claim 30: The same combination of prior art used above meets a household refrigerator, comprising: a housing (Staud’s body 1) defining a receiving space for food (storage room 3); and at least one said shelf (glass plate 6, as modified) disposed in said receiving space (Staud Fig. 1), said at least one shelf containing: a base plate (glass plate 6) having an outer edge (perimeter edge of plate 6, including leading edge 8); and an edge protection element (edge protection element 7, as modified to be printed onto plate 6) disposed at least in some regions on said outer edge, said edge protection element disposed in a non-releasable manner on said outer edge and being formed as a printed edge protection element (as disclosed by Becke).
With respect to claim 31: Staud discloses wherein said at least one shelf is disposed in said receiving space in a releasable manner (via the support contours 4).
With respect to claim 32: The same combination of prior art used above meets a method for producing a shelf (glass plate 6, as modified) for items to be stored in a household refrigerator (Staud Fig. 1), which comprises the steps of: printing an edge protection element (edge protection element 7, as modified to be printed onto plate 6) in a non-releasable manner at least in some regions onto an outer edge of a base plate of the shelf by a printing method (as disclosed by Becke).
Claim(s) 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 10 2015 214 273 A1 (Staud) in view of EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) and DE 298 09 137 U1 (AEG Hausgerate) as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of WO 2007/040941 A1 (Borowiec).
With respect to claims 18-19: Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a pad-printed edge protection element” as recited in claim 18. Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element is at least in some regions a digitally printed edge protection element” as recited in claim 19.
Borowiec’s invention is to anti-fog coatings typically applied to transparent refrigerator doors (e.g., Borowiec Fig. 4). The transparent substrate of the door may be glass (page 10). Borowiec page 9 discloses:
In another embodiment, shown in Figure 2, an anti-fog film assembly 210 further comprises a graphic component 280 on second surface 234 of film 230 and/or a graphic component 282 on first surface 232 of film 230. In this embodiment, as shown, anti-fog layer 220 is disposed on an area of film 230 having a first surface 232 and second surface 234 opposite first surface 232. The graphic component(s) 280, 282 may be any of a variety of designs, including letters, words, numbers, aesthetic images, borders, symbols or the like. The graphic component(s) may be applied via any of a variety of techniques including screen printing, pad printing, sublimation, laser printing, digital offset printing, lithography, offset printing, ink jet printing, digital ink jet printing, digital offset printing, heat transfer printing, and the like. Other techniques are known to those skilled in the art.
Borowiec shows that one of ordinary skill in the refrigerator art recognizes screen printing, pad printing, digital ink jet printing, and digital offset printing as functionally-equivalent means of printing on a glass plate or substrate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Becke’s lacquer layer 7a to be applied via pad printing, digital ink jet printing, or digital offset printing – as an obvious and functionally-equivalent variation of the screen printing method disclosed by Becke.
Claim(s) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 10 2015 214 273 A1 (Staud) in view of EP 2 960 605 A1 (Becke) and DE 298 09 137 U1 (AEG Hausgerate) as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of KR 10-2021-0035137 A (Koo) and CN 111912166 A (Chen).
With respect to claim 23: Becke does not disclose “wherein said edge protection element has a metallic or ceramic appearance” as claimed.
Koo discloses a ceramic printed layer 5417 that is printed on a glass layer 5413. Chen discloses metal ink screen printing on decorative glass 23, 33 to thereby match the appearance, texture, and colour of the adjacent metal refrigerator door frame.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Becke’s lacquer layer 7a to be metallic or ceramic, in order to match the appearance, texture, and/or colour of the shock-absorbing layer 7 and/or the shelf 6 to a metal-bodied refrigerator.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW ROERSMA whose telephone number is (571)270-3185. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Troy can be reached at 571-270-3742. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW ROERSMA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3637
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