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 action is in response to the specification and drawing amendments; as well as, the remarks received on April 16, 2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings were received on April 16, 2026. These drawings are acceptable.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed April 16, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With respect to claim 1, Applicant has argued that FREDERICK fails to teach the application head (EOAT) 82 configured to pretreat the retaininer blank on its own; rather, Applicant has found the application head (EOAT) 82 to cooperate with other elements of the packaging apparatus to manipulate the retainer blank in a pretreatment manner. Examiner does not dispute this assessment of FREDERICK since Applicant has acknowledged that FREDERICK discloses “the application head comprises devices for pretreating” an application blank. Examiner would like to note that the claims do not negate additional elements contributing to the pretreatment of the blank handled by the application head. It appears that the features/limitations upon which applicant relies (i.e. only the application head has pretreatment devices) are not recited in the rejected claims. Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims.1 Thus, Applicant maintains that the application head meets the limitations of an application head as claimed.
Regarding claim 3, Applicant has argued that FREDERICK fails to discloses an application head (EAOT) with a prebreaking plate having prebraking devices. In particular, Applicant has found the prebreaking devices disclosed by FREDERICK to not be a part of the application head. Examiner has provided the annotated diagram of FREDERICK figure 4 to support the rejection of claim 3 below.
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Diagram I
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(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.
Claims 1-4, 9-13, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by FREDERICK et al. (US 2022/0348368).
In reference to claims 1 and 2, FREDERICK et al. discloses a packaging apparatus comprising: at least one feed device 40; at least one dividing device (see Diagram II below of Figure 1) grouping at least two articles A; an application head 80 for applying and affixing a packaging blank B to at least one of the group of articles A (figures 2 & 5); a magazine 50 that holds a plurality of the packaging blanks B (paragraph [0032]; figure 5); wherein the application head 82 is provided with pretreating devices (paragraph [0047]- “…one or more of the retainer blank, die block and/or EAOT may be adapted to at least initiate formation of the banner portion of such clip, as by bending or creasing.”) configured to partially fold tabs 116 of through-openings 112 in the packaging blank B supplied from the magazine 50.
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Diagram II
Regarding claim 3, paragraphs [0047] and [0052] of FREDERICK et al. further disclose the application head 80 including an application plate 81 and a prebreaking plate 82, wherein the application plate 81 is equipped with retaining devices 83 and the prebreaking plate 82 is equipped with prebreaking devices 86 (paragraph [0052]- “effectuate sought after retainer blank manipulates, e.g. and without limitation, dividing, scoring, bending folding, etc…”).
With respect to claim 4, figures 2 and 4 of FREDERICK et al. further discloses the application plate 81 comprising a first number of openings 84, and the prebreaking plate 82 having a first number of prebreaking device 86 that extend in a downward direction (toward a blank B secured thereto) from a bottom side of the prebreaking plate 82.
Regarding claims 9 and 10, paragraph [0044] of FREDERICK et al. discloses the magazine 50 comprising a first pretreatment device (e.g. fingers) configured to at least partially fold regions (e.g. die lines 114 at through-openings 112) of a packaging blank B at the top of the magazine (figure 5).
In reference to claim 11, FREDERICK et al. discloses a packaging apparatus comprising: at least one feed device 40; at least one dividing device (see Diagram II above of Figure 1) grouping at least two articles A; an application head 80 for applying and affixing a packaging blank B to at least one of the group of articles A (figures 2 & 5); a magazine 70 that holds a plurality (each blank stacked in holder 50 are transferred to magazine 70) of the packaging blanks B (paragraph [0032]; figure 5); wherein the application head 82 is provided with pretreating devices (paragraph [0047]- “…one or more of the retainer blank, die block and/or EAOT may be adapted to at least initiate formation of the banner portion of such clip, as by bending or creasing.”) configured to partially fold tabs 116 of through-openings 112 in the packaging blank B supplied from the magazine 70. Figure 2 of FREDERICK et al. further discloses the magazine 70 comprising pretreatment devices 72 configured to fold edge portions 116 of through-openings 112 in the packaging blanks B arranged on the magazine 70, wherein the pretreatment devices 72 are truncated cone mandrels that extend upwardly from a surface of the magazine 70.
With respect to claims 12 and 13, FREDERICK et al. discloses a method for producing packaging units comprising: feeding a plurality of articles (figure 1); holding (figure 5) a plurality of packaging blank B in a magazine 50, wherein the packaging blanks B comprise through-openings 112 with edge regions 116; dividing (see Diagram II above) the plurality of articles into article groups A of at least two articles; pretreating (paragraph [0046-0047]) the edge regions 116 of the through openings 112 in the packaging blank B; applying the pretreated packaging blanks B to article groups A with an application head 80; wherein the pretreatment step (paragraph [0052]) is carried out by the application head 80.
In reference to claim 15, paragraph [0044] of FREDERICK et al. further discloses the magazine 50 comprising a first pretreatment device (e.g. fingers) configured to at least partially fold regions (e.g. die lines 114 at through-openings 112) of a packaging blank B at the top of the magazine (figure 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 14 and 16 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 of claims 5-8 and 14: Upon examination, the art considered as a whole, alone or in combination, neither anticipated nor renders obvious the claimed packaging method and apparatus comprising the provision of application head including an application equipped with a first number of openings and retaining device for temporarily holding a packaging blank, and a prebreaking plate equipped with prebreaking devices that extend from the bottom side of the prebreaking plate; wherein the prebreaking plate and prebreaking devices are arranged a first distance above the application plate in a first operating position and arranged a second distance above the application plate in a second operating position such that the prebreaking devices are at least partially arranged within corresponding openings in the application plate for the purpose of pretreating edges of the blank that correspond with the openings to more effectively secure the blank to a group of articles.
Most related prior art, such as FREDERICK et al., discloses a blank application head having plates that are configured to move relative to one another (figures 5 & 6); however, the prebreaking devices are not arranged relative to corresponding openings as claimed. Thus, it is Examiner’s opinion that it would not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine or modify the prior art in order to arrive at Applicant's invention as claimed.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GLORIA R WEEKS whose telephone number is (571)272-4473. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-2pm & 5pm-7pm EST.
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/GLORIA R WEEKS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3731
June 21, 2026
1 See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
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