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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee, US PGPub 2021/0402610 in view of Tatsuo et al., JP 08038267.
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Regarding claim 1, Lee discloses a serving robot (1) comprising: a driving unit (20); a vertical frame (180b) positioned above the driving unit (20) and extending in a vertical direction (z); a moving block (400a,b) having one side (side adjacent 180b) positioned on the vertical frame (180b); a tray mover (170a,b) configured to move the moving block (400a,b) in the vertical direction (z) along the vertical frame (180b); and a tray plate (200a,b) seated on an opposite side (right side in fig 3) of the moving block (400a,b). Lee does not disclose the tray mover mechanism including rotating and screw shafts.
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Tatsuo et al. teaches a similar tray lifting mechanism (see fig 1-4), wherein the tray mover includes: a rotation shaft (20) positioned in the vertical frame (four screw nuts 20) and extending in the vertical direction (top to bottom in fig 1); a motor (30) configured to provide a rotational force to a screw shaft (20) wherein the moving block (51) is coupled to an outer circumferential surface of the screw shaft (20) and moves in the vertical direction (as described above) when the screw shaft rotates (20). (claim 1)
wherein the tray (41-44) mover includes: a connection gear (32,33) positioned at an end of the rotation shaft (20); and a timing belt (34, 22) coupled to the motor (30) at one side and coupled to the connection gear (33) at an opposite side to transmit the rotational force of the motor (30) to the rotation shaft (20) – see fig 3 (claim 13)
wherein the vertical frame (as described above) and the rotation shaft (20) include a pair of vertical frames (see fig 3-4) and a pair of rotation shafts (see 20 on left and right in fig 4) positioned on left and right sides, respectively, wherein the timing belt (34,22) allows the pair of rotation shafts (as described above) to be connected to the motor (30), and is connected to the respective connection gears (32,33,21) of the pair of rotation shafts (20) to transmit a driving force. (claim 14)
wherein the moving block (51) includes a pair of moving blocks (see 51 on left and right in fig 4) to support both sides of the tray plate (41-43). (claim 15)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the drive mechanism described by Tatsuo et al. in the system disclosed by Lee in order to better stabilize the serving tray for heavier loads.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-12 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 2-12 are patentable over the prior art of record because the teachings of the references taken as a whole do not show or render obvious the combination set forth in claim 2, including every structural element recited in the claims, especially, the configuration wherein the rotation shaft includes a fixing portion positioned on one side of the screw shaft, wherein the serving robot includes a coupling unit coupled to the fixing portion and rotatable together with the rotation shaft, wherein the coupling unit moves in the vertical direction within a range of the fixing portion and is selectively coupled to the screw shaft, wherein the screw shaft rotates together with the rotation shaft when being coupled to the coupling unit, wherein the screw shaft does not rotate when being separated from the coupling unit.
None of the references of the prior art teach or suggest the elements of the robotic system as advanced above and such do not provide the necessary motivation, absent applicant's specification, for modifying the system in the manner required by the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL A RIEGELMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7956. The examiner can normally be reached 8-6 EST Monday - Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert Hodge can be reached at (571) 272-2097. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MICHAEL A. RIEGELMAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3654
/MICHAEL A RIEGELMAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654
