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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-4, 6-10, 13-20 are presented for examination.
This action is in response to amendment filed on 10/10/25.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 10/10/25, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In that remarks, applicant argues in substance:
That: Borrelli do not teach components that have data recorded by a sensor. Instead, Borrelli only teaches modelling such components. (emphasis added)(See [0111] of Borrelli]. The cited portions of Bartfai fail to remedy the deficiencies of Borrelli. As such, the references have not been shown, alone or in combination to teach each and every aspect of claims 1, 8 and 15.
In response to applicant’s argument, Bartfai discloses the data is recorded by a sensor (sensor 621) associated to a component (EMC 622) of an industrial environment (page 21 [0135], figure 6, sensor 621 is associated to component/EMC 622, where the EMC could be component of an industrial environment such as one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components). Although Bartfai discloses multiple examples for the component of an industrial environment, Bartfai does not explicitly mention the use of the claimed “a gas turbine, a heat exchanger, a centrifugal pump, a centrifugal compressor, a fan, a reciprocating compressor, a steam turbine, a wind turbine, piping, or any combination thereof”. Borrelli discloses sensors are associated with EMC/HVAC components to collect/record data (page 9 [0111], figure 1, [0036] sensors associated with EMC to collect data). Although applicant argues Borrelli only teaches modelling such components, it does not change the fact that Borrelli disclose the use of sensor associated with EMC to collect/record/measure monitored data. The sole purpose of Borrelli is to provide the teaching that the claimed components such as a gas turbine, a heat exchanger, a centrifugal pump, a centrifugal compressor, a fan, a reciprocating compressor, a steam turbine, a wind turbine, or piping, can also be the industrial components of associated with sensor of Bartfai because they are known industrial components to be monitored to provide monitored data for Bartfai’s system. The motivation is to allow Bartfai to include a wider range of electro-mechanical components to be utilized as suggested by Borrelli.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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 1-4, 6-10, 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bartfai-Walcott et al., US Patent Publication Number 2019/0044949, hereinafter Bartfai, in views of Borrelli et al., US Patent Number 2015/0178421, hereinafter Borrelli.
Referring to claim 1, Bartfai discloses a system (abstract, figures 1-3, 6) comprising: at least one processor (processor 602); and at least one memory (memory 604) comprising computer executable instructions (instructions 682), which when executed by the at least one processor causes operations comprising:
receiving a query requiring an access to data (abstract, page 24 [0161], devices to request or provide information to other device and request clearance), wherein the data is recorded by a sensor (sensor 621) associated to a component (EMC 622) of an industrial environment (page 21 [0135], figure 6, sensor 621 is associated to component/EMC 622, where the EMC could be component of an industrial environment such as one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components).
classifying the data to determine restrictions based on a level of risk related to the access to the data (page 4 [0035], risk level, page 14 [0096], assign the observed resource to a trust zone based on the situation information and the context information, where the trust zone indicates the level of risk related to the access to the data; page 14 [0098][0099], operation 410 assign trust zone based on restriction);
determining data access constraints (trust zone) based on the restrictions of the data (figure 3 operation 315 and figure 4, page 14 [0096][0098][0099], trust zone determined);
generating data access clearance (trust level) based on the data access constraints (page 14 [0097], at operation 320, the evaluator 209 determines a trust level for the observed resource 104/230 based on the assigned trust zone. In some embodiments, there may be a one-to-one correspondence between trust levels and trust zones wherein a first trust zone corresponds to a first trust level, a second trust zone corresponds to a second trust level, and so forth. In other embodiments, in addition to the assigned trust zone, the evaluator 209 may consider other factors and/or criteria, which may be based on empirical data, when determining the trust level; claim 1, a trust level evaluator arranged to assign the observed device to a trust zone based on the situation information and the context information, and determine a trust level of the observed device based on the determined trust zone), wherein the data access clearance (trust level) is generated using an attribute based access control (claim 1, trust level is determined based on the situation information and context information (attribute based on access control), wherein information required to grant or deny access is included directly on the data being queried (claim 1, a trust level evaluator assigns a trust zone based on the situation information and the context information, and determine a trust level of the observed device based on the determined trust zone, wherein the situation information is generated based on sensor data from the observed resource (information required to determine trust level is directly from the resource); page 11 [0073], granting access to the subject resource based on the trust level); and
providing a data access control result based on the data access clearance (page 14 [0098], At operation 325, the trust manager 202 may determine one or more actions to be performed based on the determined trust level. In some embodiments, the trust manager 202 may refer to one or more policies 226 stored by the policy manager 206 to identify the relevant actions to be performed based on the trust level).
Bartfai does not explicitly teach wherein the wherein the component comprises a gas turbine, a heat exchanger, a centrifugal pump, a centrifugal compressor, a fan, a reciprocating compressor, a steam turbine, a wind turbine, piping, or any combination thereof.
Borrelli discloses that an electro-mechanical component could also HVAC components which include fans, pumps and hear exchanger (page 9 [0111], it will be appreciated that any type of electro-mechanical component is able to be modeled, including, but not limited to, other HVAC components such as sensors (e.g., temperature, flow, pressure, humidity, etc), actuators, variable speed drives for motor speed control (also called variable frequency drives), fans, dampers, air-side economizers, pumps, valves, reheat valves, pre-heat valves, heating valves, chilled water valves, automatic isolation valves, automatic shut-off valves, chillers, air-cooled chillers, water-cooled chillers, cooling towers, fluid coolers, dry coolers, water-side economizers, hot-water boilers, steam boilers, furnaces, humidifiers, desiccant dehumidifiers, evaporative coolers, direct evaporative coolers, indirect evaporative coolers, heating coils, cooling coils, pre-heat coils, air-to-water heat exchangers, water-to-water heat exchangers, radiant heating equipment, radiant cooling equipment, underfloor air-distribution equipment, baseboard heaters (convectors) baseboard radiators, unitary air-conditioning equipment (packaged units), heat pumps, air-source heat pumps, water-source heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps, water-cooled AC units, self-contained water-cooled DX units, variable air volume (VAV) cooling-only terminal units, variable air volume (VAV) reheat terminal units (with either electric heat or hot-water heating coil), dual-duct variable air volume (DDVAV) terminal units, fan-powered VAV terminal units, series fan-powered VAV terminal units (with and without heating coil) for electric or hot-water heating, and parallel fan-powered VAV terminal units (with and without heating coil) for electric or hot-water heating).
It would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the EMC components such as fans, pumps and heat exchangers of Borrelli into Bartfai because both Bartfai and Borrelli discloses the use of EMC components for performance monitoring.
A person with ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make the modification to Bartfai to include a wider range of electro-mechanical components to be utilized as suggested by Borrelli.
Referring to claim 2, Bartfai in view of Borrelli discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the data refers to an entity (observed resource 104/230), wherein the level of risk indicates a potential risk data access poses to the entity indicate by data or data publisher or data owner (page 3 [0027], page 4 [0035], page 5 [0037], amount of threat increases as data shown the observed resource is approaching)
Referring to claim 3, Bartfai in view of Borrelli discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the data comprises object restriction as a limitation placed on a data object that defines conditions of the access (page 3 [0027], page 14 [0096][0098], different trust level is assigned to the observed resource based on the situational and contextual information based on the gathered policy) .
Referring to claim 4, Bartfai in view of Borrelli discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises temperature sensors, current sensors, voltage sensors, pressure sensors, displacement sensors, velocity sensors, acceleration sensors, flow sensors, or any combination thereof (page 4 [0036], page 8 [0056], contextual data received from the observed resource are data collected from various types of sensors including at least temperature sensor).
Referring to claim 6, Bartfai in view of Borrelli discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: applying the restrictions to the data based on data access level and access limitations (page 3 [0027], the outermost TZs are less restrictive than inner TZs. For example, TZ1 is less restrictive than TZ2, and TZ2 is less restrictive than TZ3; page 14 [0098], At operation 325, the trust manager 202 may determine one or more actions to be performed based on the determined trust level.)
Referring to claim 7, Bartfai in view of Borrelli discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the data access clearance is also generated using an access-control list, or a role-based access control (page 5 [0039],page 9 [0062], the trust management technology 150 may utilize various types of information, in addition to situation information, to authenticate an observed resource 104. Examples of such information may include identification information (e.g., device identifier (ID), service provider ID, user ID, device serial number, etc.) and security information (e.g., digital certificates, etc.), wherein the use of device and user ID for authentication for granting access is viewed as role-based access control).
Referring to claims 8- 10, 13-20, the claims encompass the same scope of the invention as that of the claims 1-4, 6-8. Therefore, claims 8-10, 13-20 are rejected on the same ground as the claims 1-4, 6-8.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 extension fee 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 LIANGCHE A WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3992. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am to 6:30pm.
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Liang-che Alex Wang
November 4, 2025
/LIANG CHE A WANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447