DETAILED ACTION
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
(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 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jeong et al. (US 2018/0040187) (hereinafter referred to as ‘Jeong’).
Jeong teaches
Regarding claim 1,
a method for controlling a banknote processing device, comprising:
in dispensing transaction, feeding out, by a storage, banknotes used for the dispensing transaction;
recognizing, by a recognition circuit, the banknotes fed out from the storage;
transporting, by a conveyor, banknotes recognized as non-rejected banknotes by the
recognition circuit to an outlet, and transporting banknotes recognized as rejected banknotes by the recognition circuit to a temporary storage (abnormal bill storage cassette 230);
storing, by the temporary storage, the rejected banknotes;
in a case where the temporary storage stores the rejected banknotes, in the dispensing
transaction, feeding out, by the temporary storage, the rejected banknotes as banknotes used for the dispensing transaction (see paragraph 0027); and
transporting, by the conveyor, the banknotes fed out from the temporary storage to the outlet (first bill dispensing port 140);
regarding claim 14,
a banknote processing device, comprising:
a conveyor transporting banknotes along a transport path;
a storage connected to the transport path and feeding out banknotes stored therein in dispensing transaction to the transport path as the banknotes used for the dispensing transaction;
a recognition circuit connected to the transport path and recognizing the banknotes fed out from the storage; and
a temporary storage (abnormal bill storage cassette 230) connected to the transport path and storing and feeding out the banknotes, wherein
in the dispensing transaction, the conveyor transports banknotes recognized as non- rejected banknotes by the recognition circuit to an outlet, and transports banknotes recognized as rejected banknotes by the recognition circuit to the temporary storage,
the temporary storage stores the rejected banknotes,
in a case where the temporary storage stores the rejected banknotes, in the dispensing transaction, the temporary storage feeds out the rejected banknotes to the transport path as banknotes used for the dispensing transaction (see paragraph 0027), and
the conveyor transports the banknotes fed out from the temporary storage to the outlet (first bill dispensing port 140).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 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: the prior art of record fails to teach or fairly suggest either alone or in combination thereof:
regarding claim 2, the method of claim 1, wherein
in a case where an amount of the rejected banknotes stored is included in an amount of banknotes to be dispensed, the temporary storage feeds out the rejected banknotes as banknotes used for the dispensing transaction;
regarding claim 3, the method of claim 1, wherein
in a case where a denomination and number of the rejected banknotes stored are included in a denomination and number of the banknotes to be dispensed, the temporary storage feeds out the rejected banknotes as banknotes used for the dispensing transaction.
regarding claim 6, the method of claim 1, wherein the temporary storage distinguishes and stores the rejected banknotes for each dispensing transaction and feeds out the rejected banknotes for each dispensing transaction.
Regarding claim 9, the method of claim 1, further comprising:
storing, by a memory, identification numbers of the banknotes stored in the storage;
in a case where a rejected banknote occurs, after the dispensing transaction, feeding out, by the storage, part of the banknotes;
reading, by the recognition circuit, the identification numbers of the banknotes fed out from the storage;
confirming, by a controller, an inventory amount of the storage based on the denomination and number of the banknotes by matching the identification numbers read by the recognition circuit with the identification numbers stored in the memory; and
confirming, by the controller, the number of the rejected banknotes stored in the temporary storage in the dispensing transaction based on the number of banknotes transferred to the outlet in the dispensing transaction and the inventory amount of the storage confirmed after the dispensing transaction;
regarding claim 10, the method of claim 1, further comprising:
storing, by a memory, identification numbers of the banknotes stored in the storage;
in the dispensing transaction, reading, by the recognition circuit, the identification numbers of the banknotes fed out from the storage and used for the dispensing transaction;
in a case where a rejected banknote occurs, confirming, by a controller, an inventory amount of the storage based on the number of the banknotes after the dispensing transaction by matching the identification number of the banknote fed out last from the storage in the dispensing transaction with the identification number stored in the memory; and
confirming, by a controller, the number of the rejected banknotes stored in the temporary storage in the dispensing transaction based on the number of banknotes transferred to the outlet in the dispensing transaction and the inventory amount of the storage confirmed after the dispensing transaction.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMARA ALZAIDA FRANKLIN whose telephone number is (571)272-2389. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
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January 09, 2026
/JAMARA A FRANKLIN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876