Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 18 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0262657 to Howell et al. in view of U.S. Pat. No. 7,321,811 to Rawls-Meehan.
Claim 18, Howel discloses an adjustable bed system comprising a first adjustable foundation; a second adjustable foundation configured to be positioned next to the first adjustable foundation and used in conjunction with the first adjustable foundation [0024][0025][0031][0032](fig. 3A,3B); a plurality of controllers including a first and second controllers (34l,34r,40) that comprise a plurality of processors, storage devices, and interfaces configured to transmit and receive communications wherein a second controller is capable of data communication with the first controller (102,104,302,304)[0069]-[0075]. Howell is silent to the controllers distributing and receiving software updates. Rawls-Meehan discloses a device using programmable logic circuits to store application programs for control of the adjustable bed facility components that provide an interface to permit software application downloads to update the memory (col. 21 lines 31-57)(col. 27 lines 35-61)(col. 42-43 lines 43-68 & 1-3). It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the interface disclosed in Rawls-Meehan with the adjustable bed of Howell with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have provided a system software application upgrades to the adjustable bed facility of Howell.
Claim 19 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0262657 to Howell et al. in view of U.S. Pat. No. 7,321,811 to Rawls-Meehan, and further in view of U.S. Pat. No. 2013/0289770 to Rawls-Meehan.
Claim 19, Howell, as modified, discloses the adjustable bed system wherein capable of determining the execution of a commands and capable of indicating success or failure [0037]. Howell is silent to a temperature controller. Rawls-Meehan ‘770 discloses a controller having temperature control [0375][0426][0457]. It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the temperature control in Rawls-Meehan with the adjustable bed of Howell with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have provided additional climate control services for the adjustable bed facility of Howell.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4-9, and 11-17 are allowed.
Claim 20 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0257571 to Chen et al. discloses an adjustable bed.
U.S. Pat. No. to Stusynski et al. discloses an adjustable bed having a first and second motor.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FREDRICK C CONLEY whose telephone number is (571)272-7040. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
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/FREDRICK C CONLEY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3679
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