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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on December 23, 2025 has been entered.
Claim 32 has been canceled without prejudice. Claims 16-19, 21-31 and 33 are pending and an action on the merits is as follows.
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims have been considered and are addressed below.
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.
Claims 16-19, 21-24 and 26-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Dijk et al. (US 10,676,314 B2) in view of Garfinkel et al. (US 10,046,948 B2).
Claims 16 and 31: Van Dijk et al. discloses a method for controlling an elevator group having a plurality of elevators on the basis of destination calls sent by users to the elevator group, comprising receiving a user generated destination call via destination operating panel (10) that contains at least information regarding a destination floor to which the user should be transported (column 4 lines 55-56), and a waiting floor on which a user sending the destination call is waiting (column 5 lines 49-52). Based on the season and/or a time of day, the elevator group is operated in a second operating mode (column 4 lines 38-42). In the second operating mode, a delay time period is required for every received destination call before allocating an elevator to a destination call (column 3 lines 23-27). A minimum traveling time required for a selected elevator to reach the waiting floor in the destination call information is calculated, and displayed on a common information panel as an expected arrival time, as shown in Fig. 1 (column 5 lines 1-3). In response to receiving the destination call, a duration of the delay time period is chosen in dependence/based on the calculated minimum traveling time of the selected elevator to reach the waiting floor so that an elevator is allocated within a few seconds before the elevator arrives at the landing, and the delay time period is waited to expire before assigning one of the elevators of the elevator group as a service elevator after the delay time period has expired (column 3 lines 23-32). The service elevator is then controlled to pick up the user via arriving at the waiting floor (column 2 lines 16-19), and transport the user to the destination floor as is recognized in the art. The service elevator is further assigned with consideration of information contained in destination calls that are received during the delay time period (column 5 lines 49-55). This reference fails to disclose a most suitable one of the elevators to be selected that is either located closest to the waiting floor when the destination call is received or requires a least modification of a previously planned travel schedule in comparison with other elevators of the elevator group in order to travel to the waiting floor
However Garfinkel et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group having a plurality of elevators, where a most suitable one (first elevator 103) of a plurality of elevators that is located closest to a waiting floor (user’s floor) when a call (elevator request) is received is selected for initial assignment (column 6 lines 30-44).
Given the teachings of Garfinkel et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. with providing a most suitable one of the elevators that is located closest to the waiting floor when the destination call is received to be selected for initial assignment. Doing so would simplify computation and processing for elevator assignment by initially assigning a most convenient elevator for a user, and only changing the initial assignment if another elevator is found that is more convenient for a user, as taught in Garfinkel et al. (column 5 line 66 through column 6 line 8).
Claim 17: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where one of the elevators of the elevator group is assigned as the service elevator based on whether it optimizes a waiting time for users of the elevator group (arrives at the user’s location first), as shown in Garfinkel et al. (column 5 lines 11-15).
Claim 18: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where a duration of the delay time period is disclosed in Van Dijk et al. to be longer than a calculation time required for calculating the assignment of the service elevator (column 5 lines 49-55).
Claim 19: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, but fails to disclose a duration of the delay time period to be longer than 2 seconds.
However it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide a duration of the delay time period to be longer than 2 seconds since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or working ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233. Doing so would “give the control unit additional time to consider time after the issuing of the [destination] call to find and/or allocate the best suited elevator to serve the [destination] call” as shown in Van Dijk et al. (column 5 lines 52-55).
Claim 21: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where the duration of the delay time period is disclosed in Van Dijk et al. to be chosen to provide a sufficient residual duration of the minimum traveling time to enable the user to reach an elevator door of the assigned service elevator after an expiration of the delay time period (column 2 lines 10-19).
Claim 22: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where Van Dijk et al. discloses the user to be informed of an identity of the assigned service elevator via a common information panel after an expiration of the delay time period (column 2 lines 1-9).
Claim 23: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, but fails to disclose the identity of the assigned service elevator to be transmitted to a personal mobile data processing device of the user, and the data processing device to be adapted to inform the user of the identity of the assigned service elevator.
However Garfinkel et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group, where an identity of an assigned service elevator is transmitted to a personal mobile data processing device (cell phone) of a user (column 7 lines 6-8). The data processing device then would be adapted to inform the user of the identity of the assigned service elevator, as is recognized in the art.
Given the teachings of Garfinkel et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. with providing the identity of the assigned service elevator to be transmitted to a personal mobile data processing device of the user, and the data processing device to be adapted to inform the user of the identity of the assigned service elevator. Doing so would prevent the need for the user to locate and move within visual range of the common information panel in order to see the identity of the assigned elevator.
Claim 24: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, but fails to disclose the destination call to be generated and sent with a personal mobile data processing device of the user.
However Garfinkel et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group, where a destination call is generated and sent with a portable communication device (106) (column 2 line 66 through column 3 line 2). The portable communication device is further described as a personal mobile data processing device (cellular phone) of the user (column 3 lines 29-31).
Given the teachings of Garfinkel et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. with providing the destination call to be generated and sent with a personal mobile data processing device of the user. Doing so would allow interaction from the user via “a device that the user can readily carry while in transit … [and] can operate from any location with range of a connected wireless network, and which the user can operate while moving” as taught in Garfinkel et al. (column 3 lines 29-35).
Claim 26: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where an elevator controller is disclosed in Van Dijk et al. to control an elevator group having a plurality of elevators, and performs said method (column 6 lines 24-26).
Claim 27: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where an elevator group is disclosed in Van Dijk et al. to include a plurality of elevators, and an elevator controller to control the elevators (column 6 lines 23-26).
Claims 28-30: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, where a computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in a storage unit and retrieved from the storage unit by a programmable elevator controller via a network contains machine-readable instructions, and the programmable elevator controller executes the instructions which are in executable form and stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium to prompt the programmable elevator controller to perform said method, as is recognized in the art.
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Dijk et al. (US 10,676,314 B2) modified by Garfinkel et al. (US 10,046,948 B2) as applied to claims above, further in view of Zaharia et al. (US 2006/0065491 A1).
Claim 25: Van Dijk et al. modified by Garfinkel et al. discloses a method as stated above, but fails to disclose a personal mobile data processing device of the user to be configured for carrying out at least one of: confirming a receipt of the destination call by outputting a signal via the data processing device; informing the user of a remaining waiting time until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device; and informing the user of an assigned waiting area for waiting until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device.
However Garfinkel et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group, where a portable communication device (106) is configured to carry out actions a (column 2 line 66 through column 3 line 2). The portable communication device is further described as a personal mobile data processing device (cellular phone) of the user (column 3 lines 29-31).
Given the teachings of Garfinkel et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. with providing the destination call to be generated and sent with a personal mobile data processing device of the user. Doing so would allow interaction from the user via “a device that the user can readily carry while in transit … [and] can operate from any location with range of a connected wireless network, and which the user can operate while moving” as taught in Garfinkel et al. (column 3 lines 29-35). These references fail to disclose the personal mobile data processing device to be configured for carrying out at least one of: confirming a receipt of the destination call by outputting a signal via the data processing device; informing the user of a remaining waiting time until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device; and informing the user of an assigned waiting area for waiting until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device.
However Zaharia et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group, where a communication device is configured to inform a user of an assigned waiting area corresponding to an elevator group for waiting until a service elevator arrives on a waiting floor by outputting a signal via a data processing device (page 1 paragraph [0009]).
Given the teachings of Zaharia et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. as modified by Garfinkel et al. with providing the action to include informing the user of a remaining waiting time until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device; and informing the user of an assigned waiting area for waiting until the service elevator arrives on the waiting floor by outputting a signal via the data processing device. Doing so would “allow an individual to place a destination request well in advance of arriving in the vicinity of the actual elevator car that will carry them to their intended destination” as taught in Zaharia et al. (page 1 paragraph [0010]).
Claim 33 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Dijk et al. (US 10,676,314 B2) in view of Garfinkel et al. (US 10,046,948 B2), further in view of Wedzikowski et al. (US 11,926,504 B2).
Claim 33: Van Dijk et al. discloses a method for controlling an elevator group having a plurality of elevators on the basis of destination calls sent by users to the elevator group, comprising generating a destination call from a user via destination operating panel (10) that contains information regarding a destination floor to which the user should be transported (column 4 lines 55-56), and a waiting floor on which a user sending the destination call is waiting (column 5 lines 49-52). Based on the season and/or a time of day, the elevator group is operated in a second operating mode (column 4 lines 38-42). In the second operating mode, a delay time period is required for every received destination call before allocating an elevator to a destination call (column 3 lines 23-27). The delay time period is waited after reception of the destination call before assigning one of the elevators to the user as a service elevator, a duration of which is selected based on a traveling time, displayed on a common information panel as an expected arrival time as shown in Fig. 1 (column 5 lines 1-3), of the selected elevator to reach the waiting floor so that an elevator is allocated within a few seconds before the elevator arrives at the landing after the delay time period has expired (column 3 lines 23-32). The service elevator is then controlled to pick up the user via arriving at the waiting floor (column 2 lines 16-19), and transport the user to the destination floor as is recognized in the art. The service elevator is further assigned with consideration of information contained in destination calls that are received during the delay time period (column 5 lines 49-55). This reference fails to disclose the destination call to be generated from a user’s mobile deice, the destination call to be received by near-field communication between the mobile device and a destination call terminal at the waiting floor, and a most suitable one of the elevators to be selected that is either located closest to the waiting floor when the destination call is received or requires a least modification of a previously planned travel schedule in comparison with other elevators of the elevator group in order to travel to the waiting floor. This reference further fails to disclose the mobile device to receive the waiting floor information from the user or from the destination call terminal.
However Garfinkel et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group having a plurality of elevators, where a destination call is generated via a user entering a destination into a portable communications device (106) and the destination call is received (column 3 lines 56-66). The portable communications device is described as a user’s mobile device (mobile communication device 106) (column 5 lines 32-33). The destination call is received by near-field communication (short-range wireless communication system) between the mobile device and a destination call terminal (local computer 108) at the waiting floor (column 4 lines 31-35). A most suitable one (first elevator 103) of a plurality of elevators that is located closest to a waiting floor (user’s floor) when a call (elevator request) is received is selected for initial assignment (column 6 lines 30-44).
Given the teachings of Garfinkel et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. with providing the destination call to be generated from a user’s mobile deice, the destination call to be received by near-field communication between the mobile device and a destination call terminal at the waiting floor, and a most suitable one of the elevators that is located closest to the waiting floor when the destination call is received to be selected for initial assignment. Doing so would allow interaction from the user via “a device that the user can readily carry while in transit … [and] can operate from any location with range of a connected wireless network, and which the user can operate while moving” as taught in Garfinkel et al. (column 3 lines 29-35), and would further simplify computation and processing for elevator assignment by initially assigning a most convenient elevator for a user, and only changing the initial assignment if another elevator is found that is more convenient for a user, as taught in Garfinkel et al. (column 5 line 66 through column 6 line 8). These references fail to disclose the mobile device to receive the waiting floor information from the user or from the destination call terminal.
However Wedzikowski et al. teaches a method for controlling an elevator group, where an elevator call (preset elevator call) is user generated (set) (column 5 lines 58-59) and includes programmed conditions corresponding to a destination floor to which a user should be transported (column 1 lines 49-51) and therefore is considered a destination call. The destination call contains information regarding a starting floor (column 2 lines 60-63), and upon detecting a triggering condition such as a shake or tap on a mobile device (column 2 lines 51-55) after a user arrives near an elevator lobby, the destination call is retrieved and received by an elevator system (column 14 lines 9-13). The destination call then is received after the user arrives near an elevator lobby. The starting floor contained in the destination call then is a waiting floor on which a user sending the destination call is waiting, and is received (set) from the user (column 5 lines 58-59).
Given the teachings of Wedzikowski et al., it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed in Van Dijk et al. as modified by Garfinkel et al. with providing the mobile device to receive the waiting floor information from the user or from the destination call terminal. Doing so would “provide a convenient method of call entry for users with their hands full as well” as taught in Wedzikowski et al. (column 14 lines 13-15).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed August 18 5, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant states on page 10 of the response that “Van Dijk does not require a delay time period for every received destination call”. However Van Dijk et al. discloses that when operating in the second operating mode, “the elevator is allocated to a landing call, preferably in a certain time span, before the arrival of the allocated elevator to the landing from where the landing call has been issued” (column 3 lines 23-27). Operating in the second operating mode is “time controlled, e.g. via the seasons and/or day-time” (column 4 lines 38-41). Therefore depending on either the time of day, or which season it is, the second operating mode is continually operated, and therefore every destination call received in that time frame would experience a delay time period before assigning an elevator car.
Applicant further states that “Van Dijk describes the time span as being from 1 to 30 seconds …. Thus, the time span is fixed and not dependent upon the minimum traveling time of one of the elevators of the elevator group”. However applicant’s claimed delay time period is not the same as the “certain time space” described in Van Dijk et al. The “certain time span” disclosed in Van Dijk et al. is an amount of time before the arrival of an elevator at a landing from where the destination call was issued (column 3 lines 23-37), while applicant’s claimed delay time period is an amount of time after receiving the destination call. In the figure below, Box A represents a time at which a destination call is received and Box C represents a time at which an elevator car arrives at the landing from which the destination call was made. The shaded region between Box B and Box C represents the “certain time span” described in Van Dijk et al., while the unshaded region between Box A and Box B represents applicant’s claimed delay time period. Although the “certain time span” described in Van Dijk et al. may be
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a fixed amount of time before the elevator arrives at the landing, e.g. between 3 and 15 seconds (column 2 lines 19-22), an amount delay time period (between Box A and Box B) would vary based on how far away the elevator is from the landing when the destination call is received, and therefore how much time is needed for the elevator to arrive at the landing. An elevator positioned farther away from a landing would require more time to arrive at the landing than an elevator positioned closer to the landing traveling at the same speed. The delay time period then would be chosen in dependence on the calculated travel time needed for the elevator to arrive at the landing based on its distance away from the landing in order for the assignment to take place a “certain time span” (between Box B and Box C) before arriving at the landing. Van Dijk et al. then properly discloses applicant’s delay time period as required by the claims.
Conclusion
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/Christopher Uhlir/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619 March 21, 2026