DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending in the present application. Claims 1-16 were amended, and new claims 17-20 were added in the response filed 10 December 2025.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10 December 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 10 December 2025. These drawings are approved.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over - Guttman US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0154273 A1. In view of Guttman US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0294986 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Guttman teaches the following:.
A system for inferring knowledge about a manufacturing process using manufacturing equipment, [note: Abstract, “methods for inference models are provided.”; Figure 1A Apparatus 200a, 200b, PC (113), Tablet (112); Figure 2A memory, processor; Figure 2B sensor] comprising:
one or more sensors configured to determine one or more metrics …… a computing device … communication … [note: Figure 1A, Figure 2A and 2B; paragraphs 0060-0062, sensors and measurements or metrics];
(a) receiving, from one or more sensors, the one or more metrics associated with the manufacturing process [note: paragraph 0106, receiving first and second input data];
(b) generating, using one or more individual models stored at the memory, one or more outputs corresponding to the manufacturing process based on the one or more metrics, and
(c) using one or more ensemble models stored at the memory to generate one or more inferences about the manufacturing process based on a combination or an aggregation of the one or more outputs generated by the one or more individual models [note: paragraph 0109, first inference model, training, means for labeling; “a plurality of inference models may have a hierarchy of inference models”; paragraph 0111, inference model may include one or more other models such as regression model and segment model; also see paragraphs 0006, 0088; 0089; paragraph 0027 rules. and paragraph 0132, data requests may specify a rule for input data and how it should be applied to model.].
Although Guttman 2017/0154273 A1 teach the invention, they do not explicitly disclose step c. However, Guttman 2019/0294986 A1 teach step c as follows with respect to one or more ensemble modes [see: paragraph 0136, a list of alternative inference models; paragraph 0138-0139, a particular personalized device may be configured to replace the inference model currently used such as an additional inference model in ensemble model]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of the effective filing date to have combined the cited reference since they are both directed to the same field of invention and both references teach variation in models may be used so as to enhance and/or customize the results.
The limitations of claim 20 parallels claim 1; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-19 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
ARGUMENT: Claims 1-16 were rejected under 35 USC 112(b) or USC 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph. The claims have been amended to overcome rejection.
RESPONSE: The rejection has been withdrawn.
ARGUMENT: Claims 1-16 were rejected under 35 USC 101, the claims have been amended to overcome the rejection.
RESPONSE: The amendment overcomes the rejection.
ARGUMENT: Claim 1 was rejected under 35 USC 102(a)(2) over Guttman US Publication No. 2017/0154273 A1. The claim has been amended to overcome the rejection. Guttman does not teach using one or more ensemble models to generate one or more inferences about the manufacturing process.
RESPONSE: Note newly cited reference Guttman US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0294986 A1 combined with Guttman US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0154273 A1 teach the cited feature above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GRETA ROBINSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4118. The examiner can normally be reached Mon.-Fri. 9:30AM-6:00PM.
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/GRETA L ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163