DETAILED ACTION
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) 1-3, 11, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al (US 20220382241 A1).
Claim 1, Kang discloses a plurality of cartridges (11) containing a cosmetic material therein and formed with a head through which pressure is applied to discharge the cosmetic material (13, 11c, 12);
a pusher (123) for pressurizing the head of one of the plurality of cartridges;
a controller (150) configured to raise or lower the pusher; and
a first sensor (150a, 150b) configured to detect a magnitude of a load when the head is pressed ([0323] – [0325]).
Kang discloses the claimed invention except for the first sensor is installed in the pusher. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to relocate the sensor to the pusher, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. MPEP 2144.04.
Claim 2, Kang discloses wherein the controller (150) is configured to: obtain a status of the pusher (123), including whether the head is pressurized ([0323]), through the first sensor (150a, 150b).
Claim 3, Kang discloses wherein the controller (150) is configured to: determine that the pusher is in a first state in which the head is not pressurized when the first sensor detects no load ([0152], [0323]), and determine that the pusher is in a second state in which the head is pressurized when the first sensor detects a load.
Claim 13, Kang discloses a second sensor (135) configured to detect a weight of the cosmetic material discharged from the cartridge, and the second sensor is installed below a receiving body (51) where the container receiving the discharged cosmetic material is placed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-10, 12, and 14-15 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.
Conclusion
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JEREMY W. CARROLL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3754
/Jeremy Carroll/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3754
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