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/Restriction
The Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant has elected claims 23-24 for examination without traverse.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 23-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over Hardwick (US Pat. 7,288,310 B2).
Regarding claim 23, Hardwick discloses a floor covering product (Abstract, lines 1-7: “The present invention relates generally to a process for manufacturing resilient floor and wall tiles and the products obtained thereby. More particularly, the invention relates to resilient tiles which have been individually cut, routed and mechanically embossed on two adjacent edges to give the appearance that each individual tile has grout lines on two adjacent edges”) comprising a bevel at an edge adjacent to a bottom surface thereof (Col. 2, lines 19-22: Again, the saw optionally creates a slight beveled edge which runs from the top surface of the tile to the top surface of the remaining portion of the substrate. (See FIG. 5)”), the bevel being formed by: die punching at least one resilient slab into plural resilient planks (Col. 2, lines 3-4: “The tile is then finish cut with a die cutter to a final dimension of nominal tile size”);
forming, by a shaping tool, a bevel in at least one bottom edge of each of the plural resilient planks to create a profiled plank (The bevel is formed with a skimming saw);
wherein the shaping tool is a profiler configured to form the bevel conveying, by a plank conveyor, the plural resilient planks to a first de-stacker; de-stacking, by the first de-stacker, the plural resilient planks into individual ones of the plural resilient planks; conveying the individual ones of the plural resilient planks to the shaping tool; conveying the profiled planks to a second de-stacker; and feeding, by the second de-stacker, the profiled planks to the plank conveyor (The conveyance of the plank is irrelevant to the structure of said plank).
Regarding claim 24, Hardwick discloses a resilient plank (Abstract, lines 1-7: “The present invention relates generally to a process for manufacturing resilient floor and wall tiles and the products obtained thereby. More particularly, the invention relates to resilient tiles which have been individually cut, routed and mechanically embossed on two adjacent edges to give the appearance that each individual tile has grout lines on two adjacent edges”) comprising a bevel at an edge adjacent to a bottom surface thereof (Col. 2, lines 19-22: Again, the saw optionally creates a slight beveled edge which runs from the top surface of the tile to the top surface of the remaining portion of the substrate. (See FIG. 5)”), the bevel being formed by: die punching at least one resilient slab into plural resilient planks (Col. 2, lines 3-4: “The tile is then finish cut with a die cutter to a final dimension of nominal tile size”);
forming, by a shaping tool, a bevel in at least one bottom edge of each of the plural resilient planks to create a profiled plank (The bevel is formed with a skimming saw);
wherein the shaping tool is a profiler configured to form the bevel conveying, by a plank conveyor, the plural resilient planks to a first de-stacker; de-stacking, by the first de-stacker, the plural resilient planks into individual ones of the plural resilient planks; conveying the individual ones of the plural resilient planks to the shaping tool; conveying the profiled planks to a second de-stacker; and feeding, by the second de-stacker, the profiled planks to the plank conveyor (The conveyance of the plank is irrelevant to the structure of said plank).
Conclusion
The prior art discloses numerous patents with similar subject matter as the claimed invention. Dempsey (US 7550192 B2), Maxwell (US 4471012 A), Vandevoorde (US 10829942 B2), and Litral (US 9127459 B2) all disclose flooring products containing a beveled edge. The elected inventions comprise apparatus claims that rely heavily on the process of fabricating and processing said flooring products. Apparatus claims largely do not require the method steps of the instant application as long as they can prove they disclose the final product.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY HOOPER MUDD whose telephone number is (571)272-5941. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joshua Michener can be reached at 5712721467. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HENRY HOOPER MUDD/Examiner, Art Unit 3642 /JOSHUA J MICHENER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3642
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