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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-9, and 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cheng (NPL Machine Translation of CH-719509-A2).
Regarding claim 1, Cheng discloses A cash handling apparatus comprising:
a communication unit (295) that transmits and receives information to and from an external device;
a cash handling unit (2) that performs cash handling including at least one of a depositing process and a dispensing process;
a control circuitry (290) that controls the cash handling unit to perform the cash handling; and
an acquiring unit (240) that acquires coupon information of a coupon, wherein
when the control circuitry has received, via the communication unit, a transaction amount (“target sum,” Paragraph 18, lines 1-2) of a transaction and an instruction for performing cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount (“deposit transaction,” Paragraph 12, lines 1-2),
the control circuitry causes the cash handling unit to perform cash handling based on a coupon amount included in the coupon information acquired by the acquiring unit, the transaction amount, and an amount of cash deposited to the cash handling unit (Paragraph 25, lines 1-7).
Regarding claim 2, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
in a case where the coupon amount is equal to the transaction amount,
the control circuitry notifies, via the communication unit, that the cash handling of receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount has been completed, without causing the cash handling unit to perform the cash handling (Paragraph 25, lines 1-7).
Regarding claim 3, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the coupon amount is less than the transaction amount,
the control circuitry causes the cash handling unit to perform cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to a shortfall amount obtained by subtracting the coupon amount from the transaction amount, and notifies, via the communication unit, that the cash handling of receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount has been completed (Paragraph 25, lines 1-7).
Regarding claim 4, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the coupon amount exceeds the transaction amount and a setting allows for dispensing change when a coupon is used in the transaction,
the control circuitry causes the cash handling unit to perform cash handling for dispensing change equivalent to an amount obtained by subtracting the transaction amount from the coupon amount, and notifies, via the communication unit, that the cash handling of receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount has been completed (Paragraph 25, lines 1-7).
Regarding claim 6, Cheng teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising
a display (20) that displays information on the transaction, wherein
after the control circuitry receives the instruction for performing the cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount,
the control circuitry causes the display to display a screen for prompting input of coupon information (Paragraph 78, lines 1-3) into the acquiring unit, and identifies the coupon amount based on the coupon information input through the acquiring unit (Paragraph 107, lines 1-4).
Regarding claim 7, Cheng teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising
a display (20) that displays a screen for prompting input of coupon information (Paragraph 78, lines 1-3), wherein
the control circuitry identifies the coupon amount based on the coupon information input through the acquiring unit (Paragraph 107, lines 1-4) before receiving the instruction for performing the cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount.
Regarding claim 8, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the acquiring unit includes a reader (Paragraph 107, lines 1-4), and
the control circuitry identifies the coupon amount based on the coupon information read from the coupon by the reader (Paragraph 107, lines 1-4).
Regarding claim 9, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising
an operation unit (210) that receives an operation performed by a customer, wherein
the control circuitry causes the reader to start reading the coupon information based on an operation performed through the operation unit (Paragraph 94, lines 1-2).
Regarding claim 13, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the coupon is issued by a coin depositing apparatus (100) that receives coins deposited by a customer and stores the coins in the coin depositing apparatus, and
a coupon amount based on a total amount of the coins deposited in the coin depositing apparatus by the customer is given to the coupon (Paragraph 22, lines 1-4).
Regarding claim 14, Cheng discloses The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1, configured to
receive coins deposited by a customer and store the coins in the cash handling unit, and
issue the coupon whose coupon amount is given based on a total amount of the coins deposited in the cash handling unit by the customer (Paragraph 22, lines 1-4).
Regarding claim 15, Cheng discloses A cash handling method to be performed by a cash handling apparatus, the cash handling method comprising:
receiving, via a communication unit (295), a transaction amount (“target sum,” Paragraph 18, lines 1-2) and an instruction for performing cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount;
acquiring, by an acquiring unit (240), coupon information of a coupon;
and performing, by a cash handling unit (2), cash handling, based on a coupon amount included in the coupon information acquired by the acquiring unit, the transaction amount, and an amount of cash deposited to the cash handling unit (Paragraph 25, lines 1-7).
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) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng (NPL Machine Translation of CH-719509-A2) in view of Tone (NPL Machine Translation of JP-2013191084-A).
Regarding claim 5, Cheng teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, Cheng does not expressly teach, however Tone teaches wherein
in a case where the coupon amount exceeds the transaction amount and a setting does not allow for dispensing change when a coupon is used in the transaction, the control circuitry receives a selection of whether to continue or cancel use of the coupon (Page 9, lines 38-49), and
if a selection to continue the use of the coupon is received (Page 9, lines 38-50 and Page 10, lines 1-3), the control circuitry notifies, via the communication unit, that the cash handling of receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount has been completed, without causing the cash handling unit to perform the cash handling, and
if a selection to cancel the use of the coupon is received (Page 9, lines 38-49, and Page 10, lines 10-16), the control circuitry causes the cash handling unit to perform cash handling for receiving cash equivalent to the transaction amount and notifies, via the communication unit, that the cash handling has been completed.
Regarding claim 5, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to combine the cash handling apparatus taught by Cheng with the coupon usage selection taught by Tone. One of ordinary skill in the art would identify that in a case where a coupon’s value exceeded the sum of the transaction, a user would want to be prompted whether or not to use that coupon in a case where change would not be dispensed equaling the difference between the transaction amount and the value of the coupon. In a case where the coupon was selected not to be used, one of ordinary skill in the art would identify that the remaining value of the transaction would still need to be settled by the cash handling apparatus.
Claim(s) 10 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng (NPL Machine Translation of CH-719509-A2) in view of Gawlas (NPL Machine Translation of DE-102020006318-A1).
Regarding claim 10, Cheng teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 8.
Regarding claim 10, Cheng does not expressly teach, however Gawlas teaches
the control circuitry causes the reader to read a coupon number (11) from the coupon,
acquires the coupon amount (26) based on the coupon number, via the communication unit, from an external device (4) storing therein coupon data, in which coupon amounts of a plurality of coupons are registered in association with coupon numbers of the respective coupons (Page 8, lines 11-14), and
identifies the coupon amount (26).
Regarding claim 10, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to combine the cash handling apparatus taught by Cheng with the external storage device taught by Gawlas. One of ordinary skill in the art would identify that storing coupon information in a central location, rather than locally on each apparatus, would allow users to redeem coupons at other cash handling apparatus’, not just the one they initially received a coupon from. This would ensure users did not need to remember which exact cash handling apparatus they had used for a previous Cah handling operation in order to redeem a coupon.
Regarding claim 12, Cheng in view of Gawlas teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 10, wherein
in the coupon data, availability information indicating whether or not a coupon has been used is registered in association with a coupon number of each coupon (Page 8, lines 42-45 and Page 9, lines 1-2), and
the control circuitry notifies a coupon number of the coupon used in the transaction, via the communication unit, whereby the availability information corresponding to the coupon number is updated to used (Page 8, lines 42-45 and Page 9, lines 1-2).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng (NPL Machine Translation of CH-719509-A2) in view of Gawlas (NPL Machine Translation of DE-102020006318-A1) and further in view of Tone (NPL Machine Translation of JP-2013191084-A).
Cheng in view of Gawlas teaches The cash handling apparatus according to claim 10.
Cheng in view of Gawlas does not expressly teach, however Tone teaches in the coupon data, change dispensing permission information indicating whether or not dispensing of change is allowed when a coupon amount exceeds a transaction amount (Page 9, lines 38-45), is registered in association with a coupon number of each coupon, and
the control circuitry acquires the change dispensing permission information corresponding to the coupon number of the coupon used in the transaction, and determines whether or not to dispense change in the cash handling performed for the transaction, based on the acquired change dispensing permission information.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to combine the cash handling apparatus taught by Cheng in view of Gawlas with the dispensing permission information taught by Tone. One of ordinary skill in the art would identify that including information on whether a coupon could be changed if its value exceeded the transaction amount would allow the user to choose whether they wanted to forfeit the difference in value between the transaction amount and the value of their coupon. The presence of this information in the coupon information taught by Cheng in view of Gawlas would also allow businesses to store all relevant information on coupons in one database.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN R UEBERSCHAER whose telephone number is (571)270-5553. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30am-4:00pm.
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/J.R.U./Examiner, Art Unit 3653
/MICHAEL MCCULLOUGH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3653
