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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s “Response to Amendment and Reconsideration” filed on 7/17/2026 has been considered.
Claims 1-6, 8-9, 11-12, 14, 19-27 are pending in this application and an action on the merits follows.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-6, 8-9, 11-12, 14, 19-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 19 recite “determine if the first Berth plan satisfies at least one first criteria to a greater extent than relative to other Berth plans in a Berth plan set, and (ii) satisfies any other first criteria to a same extent as other Berth plans in the Berth plan set”. It is unclear whether these comparisons must be satisfied relative to every other plan in the set or at least one other plan and whether both comparisons use the same comparator plans. These interpretations impose materially different conditions for updating the berth plan set. The specification discloses Pareto analysis and plan set updating in [112-117] but does not clearly resolve this unclarity. A candidate that dominates one existing plan does not need to dominate every plan in the set so the required relationship between the first berth plan and the existing plans is unclear.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments, with respect to USC 101 rejection have been fully considered. Claims 19-27 as amended integrate the recited berth plan optimization into a practical application under Step 2A pong two because the generated berth plan set is provided to te terminal control system and a carrier control system configured to use the same plan to control movement of cranes and transport equipment and movement of vessels. Considered as a whole, these limitations link the optimization results to coordinated physical operations in the terminal. The specification supports this operational integration in [144-145, 149-151].
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 MILENA RACIC whose telephone number is (571)270-5933. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30am-4pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Florian (Ryan) Zeender can be reached at (571)272-6790. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MILENA RACIC/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627
/FLORIAN M ZEENDER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627
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