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 .
In view of the appeal brief filed on 12/15/2025, PROSECUTION IS HEREBY REOPENED. A new ground of rejection is set forth below.
To avoid abandonment of the application, appellant must exercise one of the following two options:
(1) file a reply under 37 CFR 1.111 (if this Office action is non-final) or a reply under 37 CFR 1.113 (if this Office action is final); or,
(2) initiate a new appeal by filing a notice of appeal under 37 CFR 41.31 followed by an appeal brief under 37 CFR 41.37. The previously paid notice of appeal fee and appeal brief fee can be applied to the new appeal. If, however, the appeal fees set forth in 37 CFR 41.20 have been increased since they were previously paid, then appellant must pay the difference between the increased fees and the amount previously paid.
A Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) has approved of reopening prosecution by signing below:
Specification
The specification is objected to because:
The title of the invention is not descriptive.
A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-4 and 6-19 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1 and 10 are not properly formed to separate a preamble and a body of claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 4, and 16 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.
The term “capable of” in claims 1, 4, and 16 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “capable of” 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 term “among others” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “among others” 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.
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, 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ail et al. (hereinafter Ail)(US 2018/0196490) in view of Ivanov et al. (hereinafter Ivanov)(US 2019/0250689).
Regarding claim 1, Ail teaches as follows:
A display unit (interpreted as the user interface 700 in figure 7) of a management system (interpreted as the power management device 100 in figure 1) that manages energy (the power management device 100 may control the state of the electronic devices 102 to maintain the power consumption of the system 103 within a predetermined range, see, ¶ [0045] and figure 1),
wherein the management system has a plurality of setting patterns (interpreted as different schedule information because the schedule information sets operation patterns for multiple devices), and displays a setting screen that switches between the plurality of the setting patterns for each pattern and is capable of displaying a setting pattern of the setting patterns (the power management device 100 may determine schedule information for changing a state of the electronic devices 102 corresponding to the icons 711 to 714 in response to a user input to the icons 711 to 714. For example, when a user input to the icon 711 of the display is received, the power management device 100 may determine schedule information for activating a state of the display, see, ¶ [0131] and figure 7)(the method of operating the power management device for controlling the state of the plurality of electronic devices included in the system may further include: monitoring a variation of the current power consumption of the system when the at least one electronic device is activated; comparing the variation with the predicted power consumption; and determining whether to update the schedule information according to a result of the comparing, see, ¶ [0023])(the power management device determines a schedule information based on various factors. Therefore, there are a plurality of different schedule information to be selected by the power management device), and
wherein the setting patterns include, among others, load setting patterns (interpreted as operation pattern of activation and inactivation) which are related to a load, and a screen of the load setting patterns is switched between the load setting patterns for a power load; and displays for each setting pattern a set value for a predetermined time (the power management device 100 may provide a schedule information window 810 of the electronic devices 102 included in the system 103 through a mobile device 800. For example, the power management device 100 may transmit schedule information to the mobile device 800 to allow the mobile device 800 to provide a schedule information window 801 including the schedule information. The schedule information window 810 may include at least one of an identification value 811, a priority 815, an operation 812, an operation order 813, and operation time 814 of an electronic device… The schedule information window 810 in FIG. 8 may be a text, an image, or animation provided on a screen converted by the user input to the ‘schedule information’ button image 702 in FIG. 7, see, ¶ [0138]-[0144] and figure 8).
Ail does not teach of displaying a set value for operation time instead displaying operating state of activation and inactivation.
User interface 400 may enable a user to input a power limit that may be referenced by dynamic power allocator 204 in the event of the power delivery capability of an external power provider is not operating as expected or desired. The power limit may be, for instance, a minimum threshold value below dynamic power allocator 204 may determine to reduce the power allocated to one or more internal or external power consumers of computing device 102 below an associated power consumption demand (see, ¶ [0125] and figure 4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail with Ivanov to include setting a minimum threshold value of power limit as taught by Ivanov in order to efficiently control or distribute limited power among multiple devices.
Claims 2, 4, and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ail et al. (hereinafter Ail)(US 2018/0196490) in view of Ivanov et al. (hereinafter Ivanov)(US 2019/0250689), and further in view of Dharwada et al. (hereinafter Dharwada)(US 2012/0296488).
Regarding claim 2, Ail in view of Ivanov teaches all limitations as presented above except for displaying a calendar screen to be applied on a predetermined day.
Dharwada teaches as follows:
An energy management calendar 110 may be represented in a grid structure on a device touch screen 100 with columns representing the days, and rows representing times at a predefined interval resolution, such as 2-hour intervals (see, ¶ [0017] and figures 1-2); and
the user may remain on the calendar screen to establish multiple periods of time, drag the period of time across the energy management calendar 110, and resize the periods of time within the calendar as appropriate (for example, to move the "Wake" period to 10 AM on Fridays). The calendar days selected and modified within the selected calendar entry 123 may correspond to specific days (e.g., June 8-12) or all days generally (e.g., every Monday-Friday year round)(see, ¶ [0019] and figure 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Ivanov with Dharwada to include using the well-known calendar screen as taught by Dharwada in order to conveniently schedule an automatic operation.
Regarding claim 4, Ail in view of Ivanov teaches all limitations as presented above except for setting fee.
Dharwada teaches as follows:
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the baseline for the schedule 320 may be dependent on concepts such as whether the user is at home, away, or asleep during the schedule (depicted in schedule section 331), and whether peak or non-peak pricing (equivalent to applicant’s fee setting) is in effect for particular appliances or systems during the schedule (depicted in schedule section 332). For example, tiers of energy pricing may take effect throughout the day, such as medium pricing between 8 AM-10:45 AM; low pricing between 10:45 AM-1:20 PM; and high pricing between 1:20 PM and 4:00 PM (see, ¶ [0025]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Ivanov with Dharwada to include peak or non-peak pricing setting as taught by Dharwada in order to economically schedule appliances based on price setting varying through a day.
Regarding claims 6-7, Dharwada teaches peak or non-peak pricing during a day as presented above.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Ivanov with Dharwada to include modifying the fee setting based on the selected season in order to display a correct seasonal rate.
Regarding claim 8, Ail teaches the manual entry as follows:
The power management device 100 may update, change, and delete the schedule information in response to a user input through the user interface (see, ¶ [0076]).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ail et al. (hereinafter Ail)(US 2018/0196490) in view of Ivanov et al. (hereinafter Ivanov)(US 2019/0250689), and further in view of Cardozo et al. (hereinafter Cardozo)(US 2016/0073351).
Regarding claim 3, Ail in view of Ivanov teaches all limitations as presented above except for estimating the setting patterns.
Cardozo teaches as follows:
The learning module may transition to an ‘on-demand’ mode of operation. During an ‘on-demand’ mode of operation, the learning module may utilize patterns ‘learned’ from previous learning periods (see, ¶ [0259]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Ivanov with Cardozo to include the learning module utilizing patterns learned from previous learning periods as taught by Cardozo in order to efficiently estimate patterns for later application.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ail et al. (hereinafter Ail)(US 2018/0196490) in view of Ivanov et al. (hereinafter Ivanov)(US 2019/0250689) and Dharwada et al. (hereinafter Dharwada)(US 2012/0296488), and further in view of Rodgers et al. (hereinafter Rodgers)(US 2015/0089466).
Regarding claim 9, Ail in view of Ivanov and Dharwada teaches all limitations as presented above except for the well-known batch process.
Rodgers teaches as follows:
implementing an action command engine that simplifies and improves an end user's experience in executing processes in an enterprise application and implementing in different modes of operations, such as manual mode, auto-entry mode, or batch fill mode (see, ¶ [0008]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Ivanov and Dharwada with Rodgers to include the batch fill mode as taught by Rodgers in order to automatically apply same data entry for the plurality of the setting patterns (multiple schedules).
Claims 10-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ail et al. (hereinafter Ail)(US 2018/0196490) in view of Dharwada et al. (hereinafter Dharwada)(US 2012/0296488).
Regarding claim 10, Ail teaches similar limitation as presented above in the rejection for claim 1.
Ail does not teach the schedule setting screen that enables a setting of an operation schedule for each device of the management system.
Dharwada teaches as follows:
An energy management device comprises a touch screen display, and a processor executing programming logic for interfacing with the touch screen display and receiving user gestures with the touch screen display, with the programming logic configured to provide a user interface and process user interface commands received with the touch screen display. The programming logic may be further configured to establish a programming schedule for control of energy consuming systems, display a visualization of the programming schedule on the touch screen, and enable user selection and changes to periods of interest within the programming schedule (see, ¶ [0003]); and
in the scheduling embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, an energy management calendar 110 may be represented in a grid structure on a device touch screen 100 with columns representing the days, and rows representing times at a predefined interval resolution, such as 2-hour intervals (see, ¶ [0017]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail with Dharwada to include the programming logic of establishing a programming schedule for control of energy consuming systems as taught by Dharwada in order to efficiently control or distribute limited power among multiple devices.
Regarding claims 11 and 19, Dharwada teaches as follows:
The user may also customize a manual home/away schedule within the scheduling interface 310 or provide exceptions to general scheduling rules (see, ¶ [0027] and figure 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Dharwada to include a switching tab or button in order to conveniently select between a manual operation and a scheduled operation.
Regarding claims 12 and 13, Dharwada teaches as follows:
To control a series of appliances, the appliances may be represented as appliance icons 323, 324 on the display next to the schedule section 332 indicating the electricity pricing relative to the time-of-use. The appliance icons 323, 324 may be individually selected by a simple touch gesture. Each appliance icon 323, 324 can then be dragged and dropped to the time when the user wants to schedule it. The user can use natural drag and drop single-touch gestures to indicate occupancy status and desired appliance operation times (see, ¶ [0028] and figure 3); and
the energy management device 300 or a larger energy management system may process the user input to propose a more optimal or money-saving schedule. Most importantly however, it enables a user to easily move icons or status bars to change settings, and create easy settings of Home vs. Away or other occupancy statuses relative to a plurality of appliances and systems (see, ¶ [0029] and figure 3).
Therefore, Dharwada teaches the screen for switching between enabling and disabling of a control method by moving appliance icon into desired appliance operation times for desired operation.
Regarding claim 14, Dharwada teaches as follows:
The display unit displays a calendar screen that is so provided as to allow for a setting that corresponds to a setting executed on the schedule setting screen (the user may remain on the calendar screen to establish multiple periods of time, drag the period of time across the energy management calendar 110, and resize the periods of time within the calendar as appropriate (for example, to move the "Wake" period to 10 AM on Fridays). The calendar days selected and modified within the selected calendar entry 123 may correspond to specific days (e.g., June 8-12) or all days generally (e.g., every Monday-Friday year round), see, ¶ [0019] and figure 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail with Dharwada to include using the well-known calendar screen as taught by Dharwada in order to conveniently schedule an automatic operation.
Regarding claim 15, Dharwada teaches as follows:
Wherein the schedule setting screen is so provided as to be displayable by being switched for each type of day, and when the schedule setting screen is displayed, a screen of a type of day same as a type of day set on the calendar screen is displayed as priority (weekly scheduling on Monday through Friday, see, ¶ [0019]-[0021] and figures 1-2).
Therefore, it is rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claim 16, Ail teaches as follows:
Wherein the display unit is so provided as to be capable of displaying a device management screen that displays a control state of each device, and the device management screen makes a displaying that reflects a setting of the schedule setting screen (the power management device 100 may update the schedule information each time a new activation request is obtained. For example, the power management device 100 may obtain an activation request for a display having a higher priority than that of the dishwasher when an activation request for the dishwasher is pending according to the schedule information. The power management device 100 may update the schedule information to determine schedule information to activate the display first, see, ¶ [0093]).
Regarding claim 17, Ail teaches as follows:
Wherein an item settable on the schedule setting screen includes a type of the device (the user interface 700 may include icons 711 to 714 that intuitively indicate the electronic devices 102, respectively. The power management device 100 may determine schedule information for changing a state of the electronic devices 102 corresponding to the icons 711 to 714 in response to a user input to the icons 711 to 714, see, ¶ [0131] and figure 7).
Regarding claim 18, Dharwada teaches as follows:
A switching area that allows for a switching between enabling and disabling of setting content for each device (upon establishing a selected calendar entry 123 across the energy management calendar 110, an on-screen keyboard 130 or similar interface may appear to allow the user to write a custom label or user-inputted description (such as "Wake")(equivalent to applicant’s setting content), see, ¶ [0019] and figure 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ail in view of Dharwada to include a switching tab or button in order to conveniently select between enabling and disabling operations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Glenton B Burgess can be reached on 571-272-3949. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
April 12, 2026
/GLENTON B BURGESS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2454
Prosecution Insights