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 .
This is the First Office Action on the merits of Application No. 19/009480, filed on 01/03/2025. Claims 1-5 are still pending in the application.
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, 3-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 3841112 to Hasberg (henceforth referred to as Hasberg).
Regarding claims 1, 3-5, Hasberg teaches a forklift extension, comprising:
a first and second parallel hollow rectangular tubes (i.e. Fig. 7, ref. 11) having respective open first ends;
a spreader bar (i.e. Fig. 7, ref. 12) positioned between the rectangular tubes at said open first ends;
a support bar (i.e. Fig. 7, ref. 17) attached to the rectangular tubes at ends opposite to said open first ends;
a wheel frame attached to the support bar, said wheel frame comprising first and second parallel arms (i.e. Mark up of Fig. 7) connected to a transverse wheel spacer member (i.e. Fig. 7, ref. 14) extending horizontally outwardly of the first and second parallel arms;
first and second mounting brackets (i.e. Mark up of Fig. 7) attached respectively to first and second ends of the wheel spacer member;
a first axle (i.e. Fig. 7, axle of ref. 19) journaled in the first mounting bracket and a second axle (i.e. Fig. 7, axle of the other ref. 19) journaled in the second mounting bracket, said first and second axles spaced apart and colinear; and
first and second wheels (i.e. Fig. 7, ref. 19), each wheel mounted on a respective axle;
wherein said wheels are positioned to be tangent to a plane defined by a lower surface of the wheel frame and project from their respective mounting brackets in a vertical and horizontal direction.
Wherein the wheel frame and the support bar cooperate to form an open rectangle (i.e. Mark up of Fig. 7, ref. 14, 17 and first and second parallel arms form open rectangle).
Further comprising a first diagonal brace connecting the wheel frame with the first mounting bracket, and second diagonal brace connecting the wheel frame with the second mounting bracket (i.e. See Mark up of Fig. 4).
Wherein the rectangular tubes, spreader bar, support bar, and wheel frame all have a common thickness (i.e. Fig. 1, ref. 1 and 3 are shown with common thickness/height), and whose upper and lower surfaces define an upper and lower plane.
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Hasberg does not specifically teach the fork extension used for actuating a collapsible shipping container. However, this is functional language and Sin teaches a collapsible shipping container comprising hinged doors (i.e. Fig. 2, ref. 103) that can be activated by a fork lift extension. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to actuate the hinge doors of a shipping container as taught in Sin with the fork extension as taught in Hasberg and there would have been reasonable expectation of success.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
CN 107459697 to Huang et al teaches a collapsible container and a fork lift extension;
US Patent No. 9,415,984 to Shinosky teaches a fork lift extension;
US Patent No. 6,079,941 to Lee teaches a fork lift extension;
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIEM M TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7825. The examiner can normally be reached M 9-5, W-F 10-2.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Mansen can be reached at 571-272-6608. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DIEM M TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3654
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