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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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) 1-4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Attias (DE 4237577).
With regard to claim 1, Attias discloses a printing system [Fig.1A] comprising:
a conveyance device (16) [Para. 0047] configured to convey a container (12) [reusable bottles; Para. 047]; and
a printing device (112) [Para. 0059] configured to perform laser printing on the container, wherein
the conveyance device is configured to hold top and bottom of the container [Fig. 6] and convey the container being held along a predetermined path [Fig. 1, 5A-6 and 16], and
the printing device is provided at a position adjacent to the predetermined path where laser printing can be performed on the container being conveyed [Fig. 1B].
With regard to claim 2, Attias discloses wherein the conveyance device includes a rotary table (31) being rotatable and a locator pair (52, 36) [Figs 4 and 6] configured to hold the top and bottom of the container,
the locator pair is mounted to a periphery of the rotary table, and the predetermined path is a path along a rotation track of the rotary table [Fig. 1B].
With regard to claim 3, Attias discloses wherein the locator pair is rotatably mounted to the rotary table [connected to central axis (34) of carousel; See Fig. 16].
With regard to claim 4, Attias discloses further comprising a control device (104) [Para. 0034, 0065; Fig. 8] configured to independently control rotation of the rotary table and the locator pair.
With regard to claim 7, Attias discloses a printing method comprising: performing printing on a container (12) held and conveyed by a conveying device (16) by irradiating the container with a laser beam [See Fig. 10], the conveying device holding top and bottom of the container and conveying the held container along a predetermined path [See Fig. 1, 5A-6 and 16] .
Hi Kristal, regarding application 18/871,973, allowable subject matter is indicated as follows
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) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Attias (DE 4237577) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Nishimura (JP 2019189282).
With regard to claim 6, Attias does not disclose wherein the conveyance device is a roll labeler.
Nishimura teaches a conveyance device (11) is a roll labeler (2) [Para. 0010].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize a conveyance device as a roll labeler as taught by Nishimura for the purpose of affixing labels to the sides of the containers
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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.
The primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter of claim 5 is the inclusion of the limitations of wherein in the control device function, the rotation speed of the locator pair is determined so as to suppress a relative speed with respect to the printing device of a surface, facing the printing device, of the container being conveyed in a state of being held by the locator pair. It is this limitation(s) found in the claims, as it is claimed in the combination of that has not been found, taught or suggested by the prior art of record, which makes these claims allowable over the prior art.
Conclusion
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/TRACEY M MCMILLION/Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/RICARDO I MAGALLANES/Supervisor Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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