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
2. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant's arguments received 06/03/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Detailed response is given in sections 4-5 as set forth below in this Office Action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. 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; or
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
5. Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by UCHIDA et al. (US 20180179021 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 7-8, UCHIDA discloses an elevator control unit (e.g., 1b of Fig. 1; see also Figs. 2 and 3; para. 0045) and a computer program implemented method for practicing the control unit (see Figs. 6-11 and related text), the control unit comprising: at least one processor (51), and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor (para. 0045-0050; see also Fig. 4 and related text), cause the elevator control unit at least to perform:
triggering an emergency stopping event of an elevator car of an elevator system in response to a speed of the elevator car exceeding a first value (para. 0029, 0037: “The safety control device 6, on the other hand, is configured to perform control related to the safety of the car 5 based on information that is received from the communication controller 1a about various pieces of elevator equipment. Examples of the control that is related to the safety of the car 5 and performed by the safety control device 6 include excessive-speed monitoring …”; see also para. 0094-0097, 0130-0131, 0136);
braking of the elevator car in response to the triggering of the emergency stopping event of the elevator car (para. 0036: “The safety control device 6 and the control device 7 control the movement of the car 5 by driving the hoisting machine 8 and the brake 9”; para. 0037: “When determining that the car 5 is in an abnormal state, the safety control device 6 cuts off power to at least one of the hoisting machine 8 and the brake 9 in order to bring the car 5 to a stop at the nearest floor, or to an emergency stop”, by inherency, when the safety control device 6 cuts off power to the brake, the brake will be actuated to perform “braking of the elevator car” to bring the car 5 to a stop at the nearest floor, or to an emergency stop; see also para. 0029, 0037, 0096: note, when determining that the car 5 is in an abnormal state such as running at excessive-speed, the “safety control signal” encompasses an emergency stopping event);
recording data about the emergency stopping event (with the BRI to the claim, the NEXT safety message 71 about various pieces of elevator equipment and the associated safety control signal read on “data about the emergency stopping event”; see also Fig. 4 and related discussion) after the triggering (e.g., via the safety communication unit 35) of the emergency stopping event (para. 0094-0096: “In Step S806, the safety communication unit 35 outputs the received safety control signal … via the safety control signal I/F 36. The processing then returns to Step S801 to receive the next message”);
transmitting via a communication link (e.g., 1a and/or 1b) the data about the emergency stopping event to a processing unit (e.g., 4 in Fig. 1) external to the elevator control unit (para. 0037, 0045);
receiving, from the processing unit via the communication link, information related to performance of the emergency stopping event (para. 0133: under the BRI, “whether or not the error ratio is equal to or more than a low speed running determination value” reads on the claimed “information related to performance of the emergency stopping event …”) responsive to the transmitted data about the emergency stopping event; and
adjusting at least one parameter (e.g., nearest floor stop, speed restriction, normal operation, or recovering the error ratio to a value less than the low speed running determination value, etc.) related to the emergency stopping event based on the information related to the performance of the emergency stopping event (see Fig. 10 and related text; para. 0130-0136; see also Abstract: “each of the plurality of communication controllers includes an error ratio measurement instrument configured to measure an error ratio of the network, based on a bit error of data that is received over the network, and in which the control device is configured to execute the operation control by switching the operation state of the elevator in accordance with the error ratio measured by the error ratio measurement instrument that is included in the first communication controller”).
Regarding claim 2, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the elevator control unit to perform: transmitting, via the communication link, data about at least two consecutive emergency stopping events of the elevator car to the processing unit (para. 0151-0152).
Regarding claim 3, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the information related to the performance of the emergency stopping event comprises an instruction to adjust the at least one parameter related to the emergency stopping event (para. 0130-0136).
Regarding claim 4, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the data about the emergency stopping event comprises at least an elevator system state (e.g., the error ratio measurement data) associated with the emergency stopping event (para. 0044, 0054-0055, 0130-0131).
Regarding claim 5, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one parameter related to the emergency stopping event comprises a triggering limit of the emergency stopping event (para. 0130-0131).
Regarding claim 6, UCHIDA discloses: an elevator system comprising the elevator control unit according to claim 1 (para. 0009, 0025, 0032).
Regarding claims 9 and 16-17, UCHIDA discloses a processing unit (Fig. 3) and a computer program implemented method for practicing the control unit (see Figs. 6-11 and related text), the control unit, the processing unit comprising: at least one processor (51), and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor (para. 0045-0050; see also discussion of Fig. 4), cause the processing unit at least to perform: receiving, from an elevator control unit (Fig. 1) via a communication link (e.g., 1a and/or 1b; see also Figs. 2 and para. 0054-0056), data about an emergency stopping event of an elevator car of an elevator system (the safety message 71 about various pieces of elevator equipment and the associated safety control signal read on “data about the emergency stopping event”; see also Fig. 4 and related discussion), the emergency stopping event being triggered in response to a speed of the elevator car exceeding a first value and the data being recorded after the triggering of the emergency stopping event of the elevator car (para. 0029, 0037: “The safety control device 6, on the other hand, is configured to perform control related to the safety of the car 5 based on information that is received from the communication controller 1a about various pieces of elevator equipment. Examples of the control that is related to the safety of the car 5 and performed by the safety control device 6 include excessive-speed monitoring …”; see also para. 0094-0097, 0130-0131, 0136); processing the data about the emergency stopping event, and generating information related to a performance of the emergency stopping event based on a result of the processing of the data about the emergency stopping event (para. 0133: under the BRI, “whether or not the error ratio is equal to or more than a low speed running determination value” reads on the claimed “information related to performance of the emergency stopping event …”; see also para. 0130-0132 and 0134-0136).
Regarding claim 10, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the processing unit to perform: receiving, from the elevator control unit via the communication link, data about at least two consecutive emergency stopping events of the elevator car (para. 0151-0152); processing the data about the at least two consecutive emergency stopping events, and generating the information related to a performance of the emergency stopping event based on a result of the processing of the received recorded data about the at least two consecutive emergency stopping events (para. 0130-0136, 0153-0158).
Regarding claim 11, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the processing unit to perform: transmitting, via the communication link, the information related to the performance of the emergency stopping event to the elevator control unit (para. 0151-0152).
Regarding claim 12, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the information related to the performance of the emergency stopping event comprises an instruction to adjust at least one parameter related to the emergency stopping event (para. 0135-0136).
Regarding claim 13, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one parameter related to the emergency stopping event comprises at least: a triggering limit of the emergency stopping event (para. 0130-0131).
Regarding claim 14, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the processing unit to perform: generating a service request for the elevator system based on the information related to the performance of the emergency stopping event (para. 0088).
Regarding claim 15, UCHIDA discloses: wherein the received recorded data about the emergency stopping event comprises an elevator system state associated with the emergency stopping event (para. 0044, 0054-0055, 0130-0131).
Contact Information
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANCHUN QIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5981. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM EST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dedei Hammond can be reached on (571)270-7938. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JIANCHUN QIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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