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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 11-14 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 08/26/2026.
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, 2, and 7-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPub 2020/0255278 (O’NAN) in view of US Patent 3,838,805 (Amberg).
In Re claim 1 O’NAN discloses a method for automatically dispensing a beverage into a cup (12) being transported by a conveyor (18) along a conveyor route, the method comprising: cooperatively engaging at least one cup holder (filter 36) assembly with a conveyor such that the cup holder assembly is vertically slidable relative to the conveyor (through location feature 62 as shown in Figure 8); ejecting a cup from a cup stack (cup stack shown in figure 1) into the cup holder of the cup holder assembly; adding ice to the cup; dispensing a first beverage into the cup (ice and liquid dispensing described in Paragraph 54); and moving the cup to a staging area (portion of conveyor with lowered lip shown in Figure 15).
O’NAN fails to disclose the step of lifting the cup, sealing the cup, and returning the cup to the conveyor.
Amberg discloses a method of processing a beverage including the steps of lifting a beverage container (43) to a sealing apparatus (83) and sealing the beverage container (Shown in Figure 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to modify the O’NAN method by adding a steps of lifting the cup after filling, sealing the cup, and returning the cup to the conveyor for delivery to the staging area, in order to provide a user with a sealed cup containing a beverage.
In Re claim 2 O’NAN discloses a step of engaging a cup holder substrate (container holder 21) with the conveyor and wherein the cup holder substrate (36) is adapted to removably couple to the cup holder (cup holder 36 is not fixed to container holder 21 as shown in Figure 8).
In Re claim 7 O’NAN in view of Amberg discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose the step of cleaning or servicing the conveyor.
The act of cleaning or servicing components of an apparatus was old and well known in the art at the effective filing date of the invention. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the O’NAN method by including the steps of cleaning and servicing the conveyor, in order to maintain the conveyor in condition to perform dispensing operations.
In Re claim 8 O’NAN discloses a conveyor (18) which extends laterally from beneath the functional stations (shown in Figure 1).
In Re claim 9 O’NAN discloses many limitations, including a display (shown in Figure 1), but fails to disclose the step of displaying a bird’s-eye view of the conveyor in operation.
It would have been an obvious matter of design choice to use the display of O’NAN to display any feature of the device or its operation, in order to inform a user of the status if a dispensing operation.
Claim(s) 5 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over O’NAN in view of Amberg and in further view of US PGPub 2014/0041748 (Angus).
In Re claim 5 O’NAN in view of Amberg discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose the step of weighing the cup holder assembly.
Angus discloses a beverage dispensing operation including a step of weighing a cup holder assembly to determine a fill status of a beverage container (Paragraph 49).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to modify the O’NAN filling method by adding a step of weighing a cup holder assembly, in order to determine a fill status of the beverage container.
In RE claim 10 O’NAN in view of Amberg discloses many limitations, but fails to disclose a step of topping off the cup after an initial dispensing step.
Angus discloses a topping off step to more accurately fille a beverage container to a desired fullness (Paragraph 55).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to modify the O’NAN apparatus by adding a topping off step, in order to more accurately fill a beverage to a desired level.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, and 6 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON KAROL NIESZ whose telephone number is (571)270-3920. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 EST.
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/JASON K NIESZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3753
