DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 2/26/25. Claims 1-19 are pending. Claims 1-19 are rejected.
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
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-7, 9-10 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 6,397,418 to Stjerna in view of US Patent Application Publication 2018/0049559 to Jewett et al. (“Jewett”).
Claim 1. A pocket spring mattress comprising: a plurality of double layer spring units arranged in rows and columns (Stjerna, Fig. 1) to form a rectangular shaped mattress (Stjerna discloses “manufacturing a mattress”; one of ordinary skill in the art would have known that mattresses are commonly made in standard rectangular sizes), each of the double layer spring units including an upper pocket spring unit (Stjerna, Fig. 1, #1) arranged axially onto a lower pocket spring unit (Stjerna, Fig. 1, #2), the upper pocket spring unit having an upper fabric pocket, and the lower pocket spring unit having a lower fabric pocket (Stjerna column 2, lines 28-30 discloses that “the cover is made from a textile material”), the upper fabric pocket and the lower fabric pocket being formed from a same continuous (Stjerna Figs. 1-2) fabric material, an upper spring and a lower spring, the upper spring being enclosed in the upper fabric pocket and the lower spring being enclosed in the lower fabric pocket, the upper fabric pocket and the lower fabric pocket being welded (Stjerna column 2, lines 28-30 discloses that “the cover is made from a textile material and advantageously it is of a type that may be welded”) therebetween to form the double layer spring unit, such that a welded seam extends between the upper spring and the lower spring; wherein the upper springs or the lower springs are reference springs having a first spring constant and frame springs having a second spring constant greater than the first spring constant (Stjerna generally discloses springs of different strength, in column 4, lines 11-18, but does not provide details of different types of springs; however, the use of springs with various strength properties are well known in the prior art; Jewett teaches in paragraph [0014] that springs may “vary in barrel diameter, out-of-pocket height or wire gauge, or any combination thereof,” which provides zones of different firmness; firmness of a spring is equivalent to the spring constant; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide springs of various types in order to provide any desired strength properties for a mattress, as taught by Jewett); wherein frame springs are arranged in at least one of the upper and the lower pocket spring units of at least one outermost row or column of the double layer spring units in a configuration such that the edge of the mattress is reinforced (Jewett teaches edge reinforcement in at least Fig. 2); and wherein the frame springs have a greater wire diameter than a wire diameter of the reference springs to provide the second spring constant being greater than the first spring constant (Jewett teaches in paragraph [0014] that springs may “vary in barrel diameter, out-of-pocket height or wire gauge, or any combination thereof”)
Claim 2. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein a series of adjacent double layer spring units are attached to each other to form an elongated spring string (Stjerna Fig. 1)
Claim 3. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 2, wherein each spring string is arranged side by side with another spring string forming an upper spring layer formed by the upper pocket spring units, and a lower spring layer formed by the lower pocket spring units (Stjerna Fig. 1).
Claim 4. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein frame springs are arranged in at least one of the upper and the lower pocket spring units of at least two adjacent outermost rows or columns of the double layer spring units (regarding edge reinforcement, see Jewett Fig. 2).
Claim 5. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein frame springs are arranged only in the upper pocket spring units of two adjacent outermost rows and columns of the double layer spring units, forming a reinforced edge around the circumference of the mattress (regarding edge reinforcement, see Jewett Fig. 2; regarding differing spring properties in upper and lower layers, see Stjerna column 4, lines 11-18 and Jewett paragraph [0014]).
Claim 6. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein frame springs are arranged only in the lower pocket spring units of two adjacent outermost rows and columns of the double layer spring units, forming a reinforced edge around the circumference of the mattress (regarding edge reinforcement, see Jewett Fig. 2; regarding differing spring properties in upper and lower layers, see Stjerna column 4, lines 11-18 and Jewett paragraph [0014]).
Claim 7. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein frame springs are arranged in the upper and the lower pocket spring units of two adjacent outermost rows and columns of the double layer spring units, forming a reinforced edge around the circumference of the mattress (regarding edge reinforcement, see Jewett Fig. 2; regarding the same spring properties in upper and lower layers, see Stjerna column 4, lines 11-18; regarding various differing properties in springs, see Jewett paragraph [0014]).
Claim 9. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein the continuous fabric material is a nonwoven fabric material comprising thermoplastic material (Stjerna column 2, lines 28-31: “the cover is made from a textile material and advantageously it is of a type that may be welded, but also other types of material, such as various kinds of plastic materials”).
Claim 10. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 2, wherein each spring string comprises between 14 and 16 double layer spring units per meter of spring string; and wherein each spring string is attached via an adhesive side by side to another spring string (regarding size of springs, see Jewett paragraph [0014] and Fig. 2, which teaches approximately 31 springs in a length of approximately 2 meters; regarding adhesive, Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Claim 17. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 2, wherein each spring string comprises 15 double layer spring units per meter of spring string; and wherein each spring string is attached via an adhesive side by side to another spring string (regarding size of springs, see Jewett paragraph [0014] and Fig. 2, which teaches approximately 31 springs in a length of approximately 2 meters; regarding adhesive, Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 6,397,418 to Stjerna and US Patent Application Publication 2018/0049559 to Jewett et al. (“Jewett”), in view of US Patent 4,161,046 to Golembeck.
Claim 8. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein the second spring constant of the frame springs is at least 15% higher than the first spring constant of the reference springs (Stjerna and Jewett do not disclose specific numerical properties of springs, however various springs are known to be used in mattress, as taught by Golembeck column 2, lines 3-13 in which one spring is disclosed with a spring constant of 8 lbs/in and another spring is disclosed to be 13 lbs/in, which is more than 15% greater than the first spring; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the springs of Golembeck in the mattress of Stjerna and/or Jewett, as an obvious matter of design choice to optimize a users comfort, and additionally since doing so would have simply been combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable and obvious results).
Claim 16. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 1, wherein the second spring constant of the frame springs is at least 30% higher than the first spring constant of the reference springs (Golembeck column 2, lines 3-13 teaches one spring with a spring constant of 8 lbs/in and another spring is disclosed to be 13 lbs/in, which is more than 30% greater than the first spring).
Claims 11-15 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 6,397,418 to Stjerna in view of US Patent Application Publication 2018/0049559 to Jewett et al. (“Jewett”) and US Patent Application Publication 2010/0257675 to DeMoss.
Claim 11. This claim recites various structures that are anticipated or made obvious by the prior art of Stjerna and/or Jewett, see above rejections. Regarding Applicant’s method claims directed toward feeding, heating, bending, cutting, placing, and sealing, these are common steps in the manufacturing of coil spring mattresses, and are described in at least DeMoss paragraphs [0025]-0027]. it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to construct the mattress of Stjerna and/or Jewett with the steps described by DeMoss, since doing so would have simply been combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable and obvious results.
Claim 12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising arranging the upper spring and the lower spring in a common pocket, and sealing the common pocket around the springs and between the upper spring and the lower spring thereby forming the upper fabric pocket for the upper spring and the lower pocket for the lower spring, thus forming two pocket spring units together forming the double layer spring unit (Stjerna Fig. 1).
Claim 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the fabric material is cut to form a spring string after a predetermined number of double layer spring units are formed (Stjerna Fig. 1, and Jewett Fig. 2).
Claim 14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising attaching each spring string via an adhesive, or by ultra-sonic welding, side by side to another spring string (Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Claim 15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising sealing the pockets via ultra-sonic welding (Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Claim 18. The pocket spring mattress according to claim 13, wherein each spring string comprises between 14 and 16 double layer spring units per meter of spring string; and wherein each spring string is attached via a hot melt adhesive, side by side to another spring string (regarding size of springs, see Jewett paragraph [0014] and Fig. 2, which teaches approximately 31 springs in a length of approximately 2 meters; regarding adhesive, Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Claim 19. The method according to claim 13, further comprising attaching each spring string via a hot melt adhesive side by side to another spring string (regarding adhesive, Stjerna discloses “Interconnection of rows may be effected by welding or gluing” in column 3, lines 46-47).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MYLES A THROOP whose telephone number is (571)270-5006. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Troutman can be reached at 571-270-3654. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MYLES A THROOP/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3679
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