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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1 – 6, 13 – 15, 35, 38 – 43 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on January 6, 2026.
Claim Objections
Claim 17 is objected to because of the following informalities: Please insert the word “and” after “inclusive,” in line 3. Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 21 is objected to because of the following informalities: Lines 3 – 4 claim the following: “the second satellite constellation relays the satellite information in a manner such that communication satellite groups”. This is incomplete, such that the communication satellite groups do what? This particular sentence is not grammatically correct. Appropriate correction is required.
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(s) 16, 20, 22, 24, 25, 36, 44 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LaPrade (US 2002/0077099) in view of Chong et al. (US 2017/0070939).
Regarding Claim 16, LaPrade teaches a monitoring system comprising: a first satellite constellation to monitor the Earth, a flying object, and a space object by satellite groups including composed of three or more satellites working together (Figure 2, Section 0027, first satellite constellation in a higher orbit communicates with a network controller on the earth therefore there would need to be an observation of earth, said first satellite constellation also communicates with the second satellite constellation in the lower orbit so therefore there would need to be observation of the second satellite constellation which consists of a plurality of satellites which are also flying objects and space objects, satellite constellations exist in a variety of sizes thus rendering a scenario of a satellite constellation composed of three or more satellites working together); ground equipment to exchange information with a satellite constituting the first satellite constellation (Figure 2, Section 0027, network controller (14) is the ground equipment); and wherein a satellite constituting the first satellite constellation exchanges information with the ground equipment via the second satellite constellation (Figure 2, renders a scenario of the second satellite constellation relaying information to the ground from the first satellite constellation).
LaPrade does not teach a second satellite constellation to relay satellite information by communication satellite groups, the communication satellite groups including being composed of six or more communication satellites that fly in a sun-synchronous orbit with an orbital altitude of 800 km or higher in a uniform arrangement and communicate with satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane, working together.
Chong, which also teaches satellite constellations, teaches a second satellite constellation to relay satellite information by communication satellite groups, the communication satellite groups including being composed of six or more communication satellites that fly in a sun-synchronous orbit with an orbital altitude of 800 km or higher in a uniform arrangement and communicate with satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane, working together (Section 0048, sun-synchronous orbits, satellite constellation of 10 satellites, sun-synchronous orbit is a LEO between orbital altitudes of 100 – 2000 km (Section 0048), inter-satellite links (ISL) (Section 0075) enable a satellite to communicate with satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
Regarding Claim 20, LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 16. LaPrade further teaches the second satellite constellation includes a first satellite to communicate with the ground equipment, a second satellite to communicate with a satellite constituting the first satellite constellation (Figure 2).
LaPrade does not teach a third satellite to perform only communication with satellites flying in front and behind.
Chong, which also teaches satellite constellations, teaches a third satellite to perform only communication with satellites flying in front and behind (Section 0075, inter-satellite links (ISL) enable communication with satellites flying in front and behind).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
Regarding Claim 22, LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 16. LaPrade further teaches wherein the ground equipment is a movable body (Section 0040, mobile user).
Regarding Claim 24, LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 16. LaPrade further teaches constituent satellite that constitutes the second satellite constellation used for the monitoring system according to claim 16 constellation (Figure 2, renders a scenario of the second satellite constellation relaying information to the ground from the first satellite constellation thus said second satellite constellation monitors the earth or ground).
Regarding Claim 25, LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 16. LaPrade further teaches ground equipment that is used for the monitoring system according to claim 16 (Figure 2, Section 0027, network controller (14) is the ground equipment).
Regarding Claim 36, LaPrade teaches a communication satellite constellation that flies in a sun-synchronous orbit at LST (Local Sun Time) 06:00 or LST18:00, the communication satellite constellation comprising: a communication satellite including a communication device for communicating with a ground (Figure 2, Section 0027, network controller (14) is the ground equipment).
LaPrade does not teach wherein a communication device that allows communication between communication satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane is provided to form an annular communication network.
Chong, which also teaches satellite constellations, teaches wherein a communication device that allows communication between communication satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane is provided to form an annular communication network (inter-satellite links (ISL) (Section 0075) enable a satellite to communicate with satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
Regarding Claim 44, The LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 36. LaPrade further teaches a satellite that constitutes a satellite constellation according to Claim 36 (Section 0027).
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LaPrade (US 2002/0077099) in view of Chong et al. (US 2017/0070939), as applied to Claim 16 set forth above, and further in view of Grant et al. (US 2019/0353799)
Regarding Claim 21, LaPrade combination teaches all of the claimed limitations recited in Claim 16. LaPrade further teaches the second satellite constellation relays the satellite information (Figure 2, renders a scenario of the second satellite constellation relaying information to the ground from the first satellite constellation).
LaPrade does not teach the communication satellite groups includes being composed of six or more communication satellites flying in a sun-synchronous orbit and in each orbital plane at LST (Local Sun Time) 09:00 and LST15:00, work together.
Chong, which also teaches satellite constellations, teaches the communication satellite groups includes six or more communication satellites flying in a sun-synchronous orbit (Section 0048, sun-synchronous orbits, satellite constellation of 10 satellites).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
LaPrade combination does not teach wherein satellites in each orbital plane at LST 9:00 and LST 15:00, work together.
Grant, which also teaches the use of satellites, teaches wherein satellites in each orbital plane at LST 9:00 and LST 15:00, work together (Section 0011, renders a scenario of a constellation of satellites where said satellites pass over the equator at different LSTs thus rendering a scenario of an LST of 9:00 and a LST of 15:00).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade combination with the above features of Grant for the purpose of generating extended satellite ephemeris data to allow terminal devices to store or generate ephemeris data for months or longer before it needs to be updated as taught by Grant.
Claim(s) 37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LaPrade (US 2002/0077099) in view of Chong et al. (US 2017/0070939) in view of Lucia et al. (US 2021/0314058) and in further Gernert (US 2016/0128227)
Regarding Claim 37, LaPrade teaches a satellite constellation that flies in a sun-synchronous orbit at LST (Local Sun Time) 06:00 or LST18:00, the satellite constellation comprising: a satellite including a communication device to communicate with a ground (Figure 2, Section 0027, network controller (14) is the ground equipment).
LaPrade does not teach a satellite including at least one of a computing machine or a super computer, the computing machine or the super computer having AI (Artificial Intelligence), and a cloud server or an edge server, as an information processing device, in which a solar cell is oriented to a sunlight incident side and a heat dissipation surface of the information processing device is provided on an opposite side of sunlight incidence and a communication device that allows communication between satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane is provided to form an annular communication network.
Chong, which also teaches satellite constellations, teaches a satellite including at least one of a computing machine or a super computer (Section 0095, processor subsystem), solar cell is oriented to a sunlight incident side (Section 0095, the solar panel will be oriented to a sunlight incident side in order to receive the sunlight) and a communication device that allows communication between satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane is provided to form an annular communication network (Section 0075) enable a satellite to communicate with satellites flying in front and behind in a same orbital plane).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade with the above features of Chong for the purpose of enabling continuous communication services as taught Chong.
LaPrade combination does not teach the computing machine or the super computer having AI (Artificial Intelligence), and a cloud server or an edge server, as an information processing device, a heat dissipation surface of the information processing device is provided on an opposite side of sunlight incidence.
Lucia, which also teaches the use of satellites, teaches the computing machine or the super computer having AI (Artificial Intelligence) (Section 0056), and a cloud server or an edge server, as an information processing device (Section 0006).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LaPrade combination with the above features of Lucia for the purpose of providing a system architecture that permits large constellations of satellites with less reliance on communication with ground stations as taught by Lucia.
LaPrade combination does not teach a heat dissipation surface of the information processing device is provided on an opposite side of sunlight incidence.
Gernert, which also teaches use of satellites, teaches a heat dissipation surface of the information processing device is provided on an opposite side of sunlight incidence (Section 0082, in order for heat dissipation of the heat caused by the sunlight incidence at the solar panel to occur the heat dissipation panels would need on the opposite side of the solar panels).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of the LaPrade combination with the above features of Gernert for the purpose of mitigating the heat onboard the satellite as taught by Gernert.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17 – 19, 23 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record fails to teach or render obvious the following features:
wherein the first satellite constellation orbits a plurality of times per day in an inclined circular orbit with an orbital altitude between 1000 km and 6000 km inclusive, in a plurality of orbital planes that are formed by a plurality of satellites included in the first satellite constellation, normal lines are shifted from each other by equal angles in an azimuth direction and flying positions of each orbital plane are synchronously controlled.
wherein the first satellite constellation flies in a sun-synchronous non-frozen elliptical orbit with perigee altitude of 300 km or more and apogee altitude of 6000 km or less, and in a plurality of orbital planes that are formed by a plurality of satellites included in the first satellite constellation, azimuth direction components of respective major diameters are shifted from each other by equal angles.
the first satellite constellation orbits a plurality of times per day in an equatorial orbit, where azimuth direction components are shifted from each other by equal angles and flight positions are synchronously controlled
Conclusion
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/RAYMOND S DEAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645 Raymond S. Dean
March 6, 2026