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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8 & 10-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Neri (US 5,074,745).
With respect to claims 1 & 12, Neri discloses a method comprising:
positioning (C3/L57) a robotic arm 10, 12 on which a handling member is mounted, wherein a handling member comprises two prongs 18’, 18’ or tines and a presser element 20, e.g. gripping element, movable between gripping and disengagement positions (solid and dotted lines in FIG. 3; C3/L9-15);
with a gripping element 20 in a disengagement position, inserting prongs (C3/L65) between a stack of blanks 4 and a tray 7, e.g. interlayer, so that each prong engages a respective opening, e.g. channel, (space/channel is bounded by ridges 7a, 7a) of multiple channels in an interlayer;
moving gripping element 20 towards prongs until reaching a gripping position (C3/L15) to clamp (C4/L12) a stack of blanks 4 between a gripping element 20 and prongs 18’, 18’;
with stack of blanks clamped between a gripping element and prongs, lifting (C4/L15-17) a stack of blanks via a handling member to unload a stack of blanks from a support element; and
via a robotic arm, moving (indicated generally as direction ‘A’ in FIG. 1) a stack of blanks clamped between a gripping element and prongs in space.
With respect to claim 2, Neri discloses via robotic arm 10, 12 at least partially placing a stack of blanks on an unloading surface 3, 38’ (C4/L20) and subsequently moving a gripping element away from a one or more prongs until reaching a disengagement position to release a stack of blanks on an unloading surface.
With respect to claim 3, Neri discloses unloading from a supporting element 7 a plurality of stacks of blanks 4 by iterating for each stack inserting prongs, moving a gripping element towards, lifting a stack of blanks, and moving a stack of blanks in space. (Note that this step is repetitive of claim 1 shown to be disclosed in Neri above. Neri also discloses repetitive operation of the method of claim 1: “Removal from the pallet 5 and transfer to the feed hopper 3 of the other stacks 4 of cutouts which form the layer 6 are subsequently performed in a similar manner.”)
With respect to claim 4, Neri discloses stacks of blanks 4 are distributed in a plurality of overlapping layers 6 of stacks of blanks (e.g. palletized layers of stacks of blanks 4, where each layer 6 is separated by interlayer 7; FIG. 2), two adjacent layers 6 of a plurality of overlapping layers 6 being separated from each other by a respective interlayer 7, and wherein a method comprises, successively for each layer, unloading a layer of stacks of blanks 4 until releasing a respective underlying interlayer 7 from a layer, and removing (C4/L39-42) a respective interlayer 7 from a support element.
With respect to claim 5, Neri discloses that each interlayer 7 is a single rigid body, and wherein an interlayer has a corresponding recess 7b opposite each protrusion7a, a recess being counter-shaped to a protrusion.
With respect to claim 6, Neri discloses an interlayer 7 that comprises in correspondence of a stack of blanks, a plurality of protrusions 7a, 7a, 7a,…7a wherein a plurality of protrusions delimits a plurality of channels 7b (FIG. 3).
With respect to claim 8, Neri discloses an interlayer 7 that comprises a stack of blanks 4, only one protrusion 7a which delimits, on opposite sides, two channels 7b, 7b and wherein a handling member comprises two and only two prongs 18’, 18’.
With respect to claim 10, Neri discloses a handling member that comprises an actuation system 23, 24 to alternately move a gripping element 20 between a gripping and disengagement positions.
With respect to claim 11, Neri discloses wherein moving a gripping element 20 comprises rotating a gripping element about a rotation axis (axis is generally indicated as ref. char. #24 in FIG. 3).
With respect to claim 13, Neri discloses a method for feeding a stack of blanks to a packaging machine, comprising a method for unloading a stack of blanks from a support element according to any one of the preceding claims and, after releasing a stack of blanks, feeding a stack of blanks to a packaging machine (C2/L1-2).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 7 & 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Neri in view of Xiao (CN 108839862) (English translation attached to copy of reference).
Neri discloses that an interlayer comprises a stack of blanks 4, two protrusions 7a, 7a (FIG. 3) which delimit a single channel 7b interposed between two protrusions and does not disclose a handling member that comprises one and only one prong having a flat plate-shaped configuration. Xiao discloses robotic arm (attachable at 10) on which a handling member 3 is mounted, wherein a handling member comprises a flat plate-shaped prong 31. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Neri to include a prong that is flat plate-shaped configuration, as taught by Xiao, which can accommodate stacks of blanks of varying size.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY W ADAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-8101. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri, 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Saul Rodriguez can be reached at (571)272-7097. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREGORY W ADAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3652
