DETAILED ACTION
This non-final Office action is in response to Applicant’s patent application filed on 9/25/2025. An action on the merits follows.
Claims 1-3 are pending in the application.
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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by JP2020063075 of Yoshida et al. (henceforth Yoshida).
Regarding claim 1, Yoshida teaches
A packaging apparatus (100) comprising:
an accommodation portion forming unit (30) that forms an accommodation portion (inner cavity of package 11) with a packaging material (31, 32) having an elongate sheet shape (see fig. 1), the accommodation portion serving to accommodate an object (10) to be packaged; and
a printing unit (40) that prints information related to the object to be packaged on the packaging material (“With this, when the packaging material is discarded, the area on which the personal information such as the address and the name is printed can be selectively peeled and disposed of, so that the individual thermal recording paper 321 can be removed without peeling. Information leakage can be prevented.”), wherein
the packaging material has
a base material (322), and
a heat-sensitive color-developing layer (321) stacked on the base material (fig. 5),
the accommodation portion forming unit has
a heating member (35a, 35b), and
a receiving member (351a, 351b) disposed to face the heating member (fig. 2),
the heating member and the receiving member press the packaging material from both sides to form the accommodation portion (fig. 6, “More specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the first sealer portion 35a heat-welds the first packaging material 31 and the second packaging material 32 together with the first lower sealer portion 351a to form a package.”), and
in the packaging material that is being conveyed through the accommodation portion forming unit, the heat-sensitive color-developing layer is positioned farther away from the heating member than the base material (fig. 2).
Regarding claim 3, as shown in claim 1, Yoshida teaches
wherein the printing unit has
a thermal head (“In the present invention, any mechanism capable of printing using heat, such as a thermal printer (thermal head), may be used as long as it can print on a thermal recording paper.”), and
in the packaging material that is being conveyed through the printing unit, the heat-sensitive color-developing layer is positioned closer to the thermal head than the base material (see figs. 2 and 7, 321 (heat-sensitive color-developing layer) is on the outside surface as shown in fig. 2 and therefore is closer to the thermal head (which replaces the laser 42)).
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 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshida.
Regarding claim 2, as shown in claim 1, Yoshida teaches
wherein the base material has
a first surface (upper surface of 322 closer to layer 321 as shown in fig. 5c) on which the heat-sensitive color-developing layer is stacked (see fig. 5c), and
a second surface (lower surface of 322 as shown in fig. 5c) opposite to the first surface,
the packaging material has
a seal layer (323) that melts by being heated by the heating member, the seal layer being stacked on the second surface (fig. 5c).
Yoshida does not explicitly teach
a temperature at which the seal layer melts is equal to or higher than a temperature at which color development occurs in the heat-sensitive color-developing layer.
In Yoshida, color developing occurs after sealing of the package (see figs. 1-2). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed such that a temperature at which the seal layer melts is equal to or higher than a temperature at which color development occurs in the heat-sensitive color-developing layer, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable, such as allowing the sealing of the package without developing the heat-sensitive color-developing layer (in order to later allowing developing of the color layer by the printing unit), involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See attached PTO-892. For example:
JP 2018122875 (cited on IDS filed 9/25/25) teaches a thermal head (41) as claimed.
JP 2016093961 (cited on IDS filed 9/25/25) teaches the packaging apparatus having an accommodation portion forming unit (A, B, C) using packaging material (fig. 1) and a printing unit (88, 89) with a thermal head (89) as claimed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOBEEN AHMED whose telephone number is (571) 272-0356. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F (8:30 am to 5 pm).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anna Kinsaul can be reached on 571-270-1926. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M. A./
Examiner, Art Unit 3731
/VERONICA MARTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3731
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