DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Intended Use
2. It is noted that claims 18-23 contain multiple statements of intended use or field of use (e.g. “a vertically moveable fork”, “a control unit that is able to” etc.). These statements of intended/field of use are essentially method limitations and may not be afforded their full patentable weight. These claims, as well as other statements of intended use, do not serve to patentably distinguish the claimed structure over that of the reference.
See MPEP § 2114 which states:
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 the prior art apparatus” if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim.
Claims directed to apparatus must be distinguished from the prior art in terms of structure rather than functions.
Apparatus claims cover what a device is not what a device does.
As set forth in MPEP § 2115, a recitation in a claim to the material or article worked upon does not serve to limit an apparatus claim.
Additionally, the terms “configured to" or "arranged to" are considered to be structurally modified statements and are not intended use. Claims amended to include the above listed language may patentably distinguish themselves structurally.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
Claims 18-20, 22, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wehner (US 2022/0379792)., and further in view of Fischer (US 2018/0081369).
Regarding claim 18, Wehner discloses an autonomous forklift truck (Wehner at abstract, Figs. 1-3, 23) comprising:
A vertically movable fork that is provided with at least two arms for lifting loads (fork assembly includes two forks, moveable in the vertical direction for cargo lifting and transport; Wehner at abstract, 0007, Fig. 7).
A drive system for moving the forklift truck (propulsion via ICE, motor, etc.; Wehner at 0022).
A control unit that is able to actuate operation of the drive system in order to autonomously guide the forklift truck, and that is able to actuate vertical movement of the vertically movable fork (controller configured to operate the forklift in autonomous mode, as well as control the fork assembly; Wehner at abstract, 0007).
A contactless load detection device, the contactless load being disposed above the at least two arms of the vertically movable fork, the contactless load detection device being able to emit a light beam that sweeps over at least one predefined planar detection zone situated above the at least two arms in order to detect the presence or the absence of a load (cargo detection and cargo load information acquired via sensor suite attached to the mast above the tines; Wehner at 0024, 0031).
Determining means for determining a movement of the forklift truck, the determining means being able to acquire information representative of the movement of the forklift truck from a position, saved by the control unit, of the forklift truck in which it is setting down or picking up a load (while at work loading and unloading, the position and movement of forklift and forks are sensed by any one or more of inertial, from LIDAR, GPS, rotary encoders, etc.; Wehner at 0006, 0007, 0024).
Wherein the control unit receives information representative of the movement of the forklift truck that is output by the determining means and information representative of a presence or absence of the load in the predefined planar detection zone that is output by the contactless load detection device and is able to actuate the operation of the drive system and the vertical movement of the vertically movable fork on a basis of the information (sensed data including load information used to control the forklift and forks for anti-tip and load stability purposes, e.g. emergency stop; Wehner at abstract, 0005, 0032).
Wehner is silent as to the contactless load detection device being moveable together with the vertically moveable fork.
Fischer, in a similar invention in the same field of endeavor, teaches a laser scanner mounted above the tines of the forklift, configured to always scan a planar area parallel to the tines of the forklift (Fischer at 0070, 0071, 0086, Figs. 6A and 7A).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the claimed invention to augment the base forklift of Wehner with the contactless load sensing of Fischer. Doing so would increase spatial awareness of the autonomous vehicle by monitoring a load at the height of the tines.
Regarding claim 19, Wehner discloses wherein the determining means comprises at least one rotary encoder that is able to measure rotation of at least one wheel of the forklift truck (wheel-based forklift using rotary encoders for positioning; Wehner at 0005, 0028, 0038).
Regarding claim 20, the combination teaches wherein the predefined planar detection zone that is swept by the light beam emitted by the contactless load detection device is horizontal (Fischer at Figs. 6A, 7A).
Regarding claim 22, Wehner discloses further comprising an onboard locating device configured to acquire forklift-truck position data and communicate with the control unit, the contactless load detection device being separate from the onboard locating device (e.g. GPS is separate from other positioning and locating sensors; Wehner at 0024).
Regarding claim 23, Wehner discloses wherein the determining means is separate from the onboard locating device (the position and movement of forklift and forks are sensed by any one or more distinct devices such as inertial, from LIDAR, GPS, rotary encoders, etc.; Wehner at 0006, 0007, 0024).
Claim Objections
4. Claim 21 is 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.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims Allowable - Reasons for Allowance
This statement is not intended to necessarily state all the reasons for allowance or all the details why the claims are allowed and has not been written to specifically or impliedly state that all the reasons for allowance are set forth (MPEP 1302.14).
5. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
5a. Independent claim 24 is allowed. None of the prior art cited could anticipate, or be combined to render obvious if the load is not detected in the immediately preceding detection step, repeating the reversing step and the detection step until a load is detected in at least one predefined planar clearance zone with respect to a free end of the at least two arms of the fork; and a step of moving the forklift truck, which is triggered at least on a basis of the presence or absence of a load in the predefined planar clearance zone.
5b. Independent claim 29 is allowed. None of the prior art cited could anticipate, or be combined to render obvious following the step of advancing the forklift truck by the predetermined advancing distance, a step of detecting the load using the contactless load detection device in at least one predefined planar detection zone which is contiguous with the preceding planar detection zone, which is situated next to the contactless load detection device with respect to the preceding planar detection zone, and which has a lateral dimension equal to a value of advancing the forklift truck carried out in the advancing step; if the load is detected in the preceding detection step, repeating the advancing step and the detection step until a load is detected in at least one predefined planar pick-up zone; a step of lifting the load if the load is detected in the at least one predefined planar pick- up zone; and after the lifting step, a step of moving the forklift truck and transporting the load.
Subsequently, claims 25-28 and 30-34 and are also now allowable due to dependence on their respective independent claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN M DAGER whose telephone number is (571)270-1332. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 0830-1730.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Ortiz can be reached on 571-272-1206. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JONATHAN M DAGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663 22 June 2026
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