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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 12-15 in the reply filed on 6/29/26 is acknowledged.
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 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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Long (5459982) in view of Terlizzi et al. (4672793).
Long teaches method of packaging a block of compressed material, comprising:
receiving a plurality of pieces of material (col. 6 lines 44-45prior to being fed or fed; fig. 7 ref. 50)
facilitating movement (col. 6 lines 44-45 fed; fig. 7 gravity, fig. 7 without dour ref. 52), incrementally (col. 7 lines 7-10), of the received pieces to a plenum (fig. 12 ref. 60 col. 6 lines 54-58), the plenum includes a movable piston (col. 6 lines 60-66) and compression chamber (col. 6 line 56 ref. 60),
wherein the compression chamber comprises fixed top (col. 4 lines 31-32 fig. 1 ref. 58), right (fig. 1 ref. 66), left (fig. 1 ref. 68), and bottom walls (fig. 1 ref. 62), and a movable wall (fig. 16 ref. 96; col. 7 lines 23-26) that can be positioned between a first position (fig. 16 closed) where the movable wall is adjacent to the top, right, left, and bottom walls (fig. 16 closed) and a second position (col. 7 lines 23-27 retracted) where the movable wall is withdrawn from the top, right, left, and bottom walls (col. 7 lines 23-27; withdrawn, i.e. no long closed chamber, absent),
upon the movement of a first portion of the pieces into the plenum, moving a closure (col. 6 lines 52-59 ref. 52) to a first position that prevents further movement of pieces of food into the plenum (col. 6 lines 52-59 fig. 8 closed)
after the closure is moved to the position that prevents further movement of pieces into the plenum, moving the piston against the pieces within the plenum toward the compression chamber (col. 6 lines 61-66)
moving the movable wall to the first position (col. 7 lines 23-25 closed) before a first time that the closure is moved to the first position (col. 6 lines 45-48 prior to adding) and maintaining the movable wall in the first position until all pieces of food that established a desired weight (col. 7 lines 7-10) have been urged toward the compression chamber (col. 7 lines 2-6)
moving the closure to a second position to allow further movement of pieces to the plenum (col. 7 lines 2-6)
again (col. 7 lines 7-10 charge cycle) moving the closure to the first position and again moving the piston against the pieces of food within the plenum toward the compression chamber (col. 7 lines 7-10)
after all pieces of food that established a desired weight (col. 7 lines 7-10) have been urged into the compression chamber, moving the movable wall to the second position (col. 7 lines 20-27) to allow for the step of removing the compressed food item from the compression chamber (col. 7 lines 42-45) and moving the compressed food from an exit aperture in the compression chamber (col. 7 lines 42-45), wherein when the movable wall is in the first position the movable wall blocks movement from the compression chamber through the exit aperture (col. 7 lines 20-28 retaining wall).
Long teaches packaging of material and thus one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to look to the art of packaged compressed materials.
Terlizzi teaches compressing meat for packaging (col. 1 lines 25-28). Thus since Long teaches an apparatus as claimed for a same purpose of compacting and packaging and since Terlizzi teaches it is known to compact and package a food product. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute one type of material with that of food as taught by Terlizzi for its art recognized purpose of providing molded and packaged food products which are advantageously shipped and marketed in the packaging as taught by Terlizzi (col. 1 lines 40-48).
Claim 13, Long teaches after removing the compressed food from the compression chamber, further comprising packaging the compressed material (col. 7 lines 43-44). Though silent to a package of a predetermined size and shape, Long teaches the material cycled till the desired weight is achieved for packaging (col. 7 lines 7-10). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide a package of a predetermined size and shape thus providing a package of a size and shape to accept the material as taught by Long.
Claim 14, wherein after the movable wall is moved to the first position, maintaining the movable wall in the first position until the closure has moved to the second position after all pieces of food that established the desired weight have moved into the plenum and have been urged toward the compression chamber (col. 7 lines 20-27).
Claim 15, wherein the compression chamber comprises a uniform cross-sectional area from a plane through a head of the piston when the piston is in the second position proximate to the exit aperture of the plenum (fig. 16).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
5046304, 4273789, 3759170, 3327622 directed to methods of shaping by compaction food product.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Steven Leff whose telephone number is (571) 272-6527. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 8:30 - 5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Erik Kashnikow can be reached at (571) 270-3475. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEVEN N LEFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1792
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