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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
The applicant’s priority to provisional applications 63399368 and 63459895 filed on August 19th, 2022, and April 17th, 2023 has been accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statements filed on December 18th, 2024, July 14th, 2025 and November 17, 2025 have been considered by the examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claim1-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1-17) of U.S. Patent No. 12208526. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of ‘526 anticipate the claims of the instant invention (see tables below).
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowed once the Double Patenting rejections are overcome.
Independent claims 1 and 16 are allowable for disclosing “wherein the pressure sequence
is correlated with representative pressure sequences associated with corresponding pick quality
types to determine whether the pick operation on the target object was successful or not.”
The closest prior art of Nakashima et al. (US 20230064484) discloses a sorting system (Fig. 1), comprising: a pressure meter (senor 24) configured to sense a pressure associated with an airflow through a gripper mechanism (compartment 24) associated with a diverting mechanism (actuator 10) over time during a pick operation that is performed on a target object; and one or more processors (controller 26) configured to: receive, from the pressure meter, the sensed pressure associated with the airflow through the gripper mechanism over time as a pressure sequence associated with the pick operation on the target object (Col. 7, L50-57); and correlate the pressure sequence associated with the pick operation on the target object with a representative pressure sequence (Col. 5, L36-40). Defranceski et al. (US 10634243) discloses the use of pressure sequences to find “functional states” of an actuator.
While Nakashima et al. (US 20230064484) discloses the use of a pressure measurement
to determine if a pick operation was successful (P010, L11-14), this is only looking at a signal
data point and not pressure over time. There is no teaching or suggestion in the prior art that
would render it obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the invention to combine the references to arrive at the instant invention as claimed.
Claims 2-15 and 17-20 would be allowable by virtue of their dependencies.
Conclusion
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/J.L.B./Examiner, Art Unit 3653
/MICHAEL MCCULLOUGH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3653