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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/04/2026 has been entered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 (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 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, 5, 7, 9-10, and 12-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doi et al. (US 8,256,624) (hereinafter referred to as Doi) in view of Michels et al. (US 2015/0021385 A1) (hereinafter referred to as Michels), cited by the applicants.
Re claim 1, Doi discloses a banknote handling apparatus, comprising:
an inlet (11) through which a banknote is fed from outside of the banknote handling apparatus into inside of the banknote handling apparatus (figs. 1 and 4);
a transport (16) to transport the banknote (figs. 4 and 6A);
an outlet (13) through which banknotes are fed out from inside of the banknote handling apparatus to outside of the banknote handling apparatus (figs. 4 and 6A);
a plurality of storages (21A-21F), each storage of the plurality of storages storing banknotes (figs. 4 and 6A);
an upper assembly (10) including the inlet (11) and the outlet (13) (figs. 4 and 6A); and
a lower assembly (20, 30) below the upper assembly (10), the lower assembly including the plurality of storages (21A-21F) and a collection cassette (31) which stores the banknotes fed from the plurality of storages (21A-21F) (fig. 6A; col. 10, lines 40-54), wherein:
a storage (21A-21D) of the plurality of storages (21A-21F) has two drums (fig. 6A),
the banknote is fed out to the transport in a first direction (vertical direction) (fig. 6A),
the storage (21A-212D) comprises an inlet-outlet part facing the transport (16) and opened toward the transport (16) with respect to the first direction (vertical direction) (see fig. 6A),
the transport (16) is located on an opposite side of the storage (21A-21D) from the collection cassette (31) with respect to the first direction (vertical direction), with the storage (21A-21D) interposed between the transport (16) and the collection cassette (31) (fig. 6A),
the transport (16) transports the banknote to the storage (21A-21D) through the inlet-outlet part along the first direction (vertical direction) (fig. 4);
the collection cassette (31) has an inlet part facing toward the transport (16) (see figs. 4, 6A, 6B), and
the transport (16) transports the banknote to the collection cassette (31) through the inlet part along the first direction (vertical direction) (see figs. 4, 6A, 6B).
Doi fails to specifically teach wherein:
the banknote is wound on each drum with a pair of tapes sandwiching the banknote therebetween as each drum rotates,
the banknote sandwiched between the pair of tapes is fed out to the transport as each drum rotates in a direction opposite to the winding direction of the tapes, and
centers of the two drums are arranged along a second direction which is angled with respect to the first direction.
Michels discloses a banknote handling apparatus comprising a plurality of storages (100, 200, 300, 400), wherein:
a storage (100, 200, 300) of the plurality of storages has two drums (102, 104) (fig. 1, para. [0052]),
the banknote is wound on each drum with a pair of tapes sandwiching the banknote therebetween as each drum rotates (paras. [0061]-[0065]),
the banknote sandwiched between the pair of tapes is fed out to the transport as each drum rotates in a direction opposite to the winding direction of the tapes (para. [0063]), and
centers of the two drums (102, 104) are arranged along a second direction which is angled with respect to the first direction (fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to substitute Doi’s storage system with Michels’ two roll storage system in order to store two different unmixed denominations using a common cash box (see Michels, para. [0010]-[0011]). Furthermore, one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have been motivated to employ a two roll storage system within Doi’s storage unit in order to increase the number of denominations stored using a smaller number of cash boxes.
Re claim 3, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses the banknote handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the banknote is fed out to the transport in a horizontal (see Doi, fig. 6A, storage (21E and 21F); and Michels, fig. 1).
Re claim 5, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the banknote is fed out to the transport in a front-rear direction of the banknote handling apparatus (Doi shows, in fig. 4, the banknote being fed to storage 21E and 21F; and Michels shows, in fig. 1 the banknote being fed to storage (100, 200, 300)).
Re claims 7 and 9, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the inlet-outlet part is opened at a front side of the banknote handling apparatus (see Michels, fig. 1), but fails to teach wherein the inlet-outlet part is opened at a rear side of the banknote handling apparatus.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to locate the opening of the inlet-outlet part at a rear side of the banknote handling apparatus, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
Re claims 10 and 12, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses the banknote handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the centers of the two drums are aligned in a front-rear direction of the banknote handling apparatus, and are arranged at different positions in a vertical direction (see Michels, fig. 1).
Re claim 13, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the two drums include a first drum (102) and a second drum (104), the first drum (102) is arranged at a rear side of the banknote handling apparatus, the second drum (104) is arranged at a front side of the banknote handling apparatus, and the center of the first drum is located higher than the center of the second drum (see Michels, fig. 6).
Re claim 14, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the two drums include a first drum (104) and a second drum (102), the first drum (104) is arranged at a rear side of the banknote handling apparatus, the second drum (102) is arranged at a front side of the banknote handling apparatus, an inlet-outlet part (28) toward the second drum (102) is located higher than an inlet-outlet part (30) toward the first drum (104) (see Michels, fig. 1)
Doi as modified by Michels fails to teach wherein an inlet-outlet part toward the second drum is located lower than an inlet-outlet part toward the first drum.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to locate an inlet-outlet part toward the second drum lower than an inlet-outlet part toward the first drum, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
Re claim 15, Doi as modified by Michels discloses the claimed invention except for wherein an inlet-outlet part toward the second drum is located lower than an inlet-outlet part toward the first drum.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to locate an inlet-outlet part toward the second drum lower than an inlet-outlet part toward the first drum, since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art. In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70.
Re claim 16, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the two drums include a first drum and a second drum, the second drum is arranged at a front side of the banknote handling apparatus (see Michels, fig. 1, first drum 104, second drum 102) or the second drum is located so that the center of the second drum is lower than the center of the first drum (see fig. 6, first drum 102, second drum 104).
Doi as modified by Michels fails to teach wherein the second drum has a higher storage capacity than the first drum.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to provide a storage having drums with different storage capacities as it would have been a matter of design of choice of the manufacturer. One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have been motivated to use drums with different storage capacities in order to store more commonly used denominations and less commonly used denominations within a single storage unit.
Re claim 17, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the second drum (104) is located so that the center of the second drum (104) is lower than the center of the first drum (102) (see Michels, fig. 6).
Doi as modified by Michels fails to teach wherein the second drum has a higher storage capacity than the first drum.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to provide a storage having drums with different storage capacities as it would have been a matter of design of choice of the manufacturer. One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have been motivated to use drums with different storage capacities in order to store more commonly used denominations and less commonly used denominations within a single storage unit.
Re claim 18, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses wherein the second drum (104) is located so that the center of the second drum (104) is lower than the center of the first drum (102) (see Michels, fig. 6).
Doi as modified by Michels fails to teach wherein the second drum has a higher storage capacity than the first drum.
However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to provide a storage having drums with different storage capacities as it would have been a matter of design of choice of the manufacturer. One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have been motivated to use drums with different storage capacities in order to store more commonly used denominations and less commonly used denominations within a single storage unit.
Re claim 19, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses the banknote handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each drum has a rotation axis, and the rotation axes of the two drums are arranged along the second direction (Michels, para. [0063]).
Re claim 20, Doi as modified by Michels further discloses the banknote handling apparatus according to claim 10, wherein each drum has a rotation axis, and the rotation axes of the two drums are arranged along the second direction (Michels, para. [0063]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
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/APRIL A TAYLOR/Examiner, Art Unit 2876
/THIEN M LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876