DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant's Response filed 10/10/2025 for 17749011. Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are pending.
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 .
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 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.
Response to Amendment
While Applicant's newly added claims 13 and 15-20 have been acknowledged, "[a]ll of the claims presented in a claim listing shall be presented in ascending numerical order" [see MPEP 714(II)(B)C)]. Specifically, Examiner notes that the amended claim listing filed 10/10/2025 does not include claim 14. Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the limitations "when the display screen is shrunk with a cursor in a GUI corresponding to the display screen, the video is automatically cropped, without requiring any user input, so as to show a center field-of-view of the camera on the display screen" (claim 1), "switching between displaying a location address of the asset and displaying latitude and longitude of the asset as the geolocation of the asset" (claim 19) must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Response to Arguments
In view of Applicant's amendments, the 35 USC 103 rejection of claims 1 and 6 under Yang and Wei has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of 35 USC 112.
Dependent claims 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 remain rejected at least based on their dependence from independent claims 1 and 6.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 6 recite the newly amended limitation wherein "when the display screen is shrunk with a cursor in a GUI corresponding to the display screen, the video is automatically cropped, without requiring any user input, so as to show a center field-of-view of the camera on the display screen". While the specification as originally filed discloses "the video is automatically cropped to show the center field-of-view of the UAV camera" with an example of "when the video screen is shrunk with the cursor in the GUI" [Specification, para 0054], it does not appear to describe in sufficient detail that one skilled in the art can reasonably conclude that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention of restricting reception of user input as recited in the newly amended limitation "the video is automatically cropped, without requiring any user input, so as to show a center field-of-view of the camera on the display screen".
Dependent claims 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are rejected as failing to comply with the written description requirement for failing to remedy the deficiencies of parent claims 1 and 6.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 6 recite the newly amended limitation "without requiring any user input" which is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term "without requiring" is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. The specification recites "in the proposed method, since the GUI streams the real-time video directly from the UAV camera when the video screen is shrunk with the cursor in the GUI, the video is automatically cropped to show the center field-of-view of the UAV camera, which usually shows the most crucial happenings on the ground through video" [para 0054]. It appears unclear how Applicant is defining "without requiring," given that cropping the video occurs when shrinking the display screen with a user interface element of a cursor in the graphical user interface.
Claim 20 recites "wherein the display parameters further comprises height, width, scaling ratio of the at least one of the plurality of sections" which lacks antecedent basis and is unclear if the "display parameters" refer to the "at least one display parameter" as recited in parent claim 1 or other display parameters and has been interpreted as "wherein [[the]] display parameters further comprises height, width, scaling ratio of the at least one of the plurality of sections".
Dependent claims 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are rejected as being indefinite for failing to remedy the deficiencies of parent claims 1 and 6.
Appropriate correction is required.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 20140164990 A1) generally discloses associating sections with elements upon splitting a display screen.
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 LINDA HUYNH whose telephone number is (571)272-5240. The examiner can normally be reached M-F between 9am-5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Adam Queler can be reached at (571) 272-4140. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LINDA HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2172