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 .
Claims 1-57 have been presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6, 9-16, 19-21, 25, 28-35, 38-40, 44, 47-54 and 57 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Whitcher et al [Whitcher] PGPUB 2018/0014485.
Referring to claim 1, Whitcher teaches the invention comprising:
one or more processors [0009].
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations [0009] comprising:
receiving status data from a plurality of apparatuses associated with hydroponic cultivation [0029].
applying the status data to a machine learning model to determine one or more hydroponic cultivation parameters [0009, 0020, 0029].
transmitting, to one or more apparatuses in the plurality of apparatuses, one or more instructions to modify a hydroponic cultivation process according to the one or more hydroponic cultivation parameters [0029].
Referring to claim 2, Whitcher teaches the apparatuses are hydroponic cultivation apparatuses [0029]. Specifically, temperature, humidity, gas content, airflow, water flow, flow of nutrients, light is both monitored via sensors and controlled on an as-needed basis. It is interpreted that the control of the actual temperature, humidity, etc… are performed by respective apparatuses.
Referring to claim 6, Whitcher teaches that the flow of nutrients can be controlled [0029].
Referring to claims 9-10, Whitcher teaches controlling lighting which includes a plurality of lights [108 Fig. 4 and 0029].
Referring to claim 11, Whitcher teaches controlling temperature and humidity [0029].
Referring to claim 12, Whitcher teaches a plurality of hydroponic cultivation apparatuses and a plurality of lighting apparatuses [108 Figs, 2-4, 7A and 0029].
Referring to claim 13, Whitcher teaches adjusting the growing conditions as-needed [0029].
Referring to claim 14, Whitcher teaches the system including a processor and memory and receives sensor data which is fed into a machine learning engine for optimizing environmental operation [0020, 0029, 0108].
Referring to claim 15, Whitcher teaches the system including a display [0085].
Referring to claim 16, Whitcher teaches the system can be a smart phone which would then provide the display [0083, 0085].
Referring to claim 19, Whitcher teaches including a camera to analyze image data indicative of plant characteristics [0107].
Referring to claims 20-21, 25, 28-35, 38-40, 44, 47-54 and 57, these are rejected on the same basis as set forth hereinabove. Whitcher teaches the system and therefore teaches the program and method performing the same.
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) 3-5, 22-24 and 41-43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whitcher as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 9-16, 19-21, 25, 28-35, 38-40, 44, 47-54 and 57 above.
Referring to claim 3, while Whitcher teaches the invention substantially as claimed above, it is not taught to modify operation of a water pump. Instead, Whitcher teaches a pump is used to pump the water and nutrients (i.e., solution) to the top of the growth columns and then the solution is provided via gravity-feed [0018]. It would have been obvious to try modifying Whitcher to provide the solution via pump instead of the gravity-feed arrangement because both provide the same functionality which is to deliver the solution from a source to a destination and a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp.
Referring to claims 4-5, Whitcher further teaches a pan (330) and reservoir (310) which collects residual water/nutrient solution after it has percolated through the hydroponic towers [Fig. 19, 0138, 0189]. Whitcher also further teaches monitoring the nutrient concentration and making adjustments thereto if needed [0009, 0111, 0120]. Because the nutrient concentrations are realized as an aqueous solution, the concentration of the solution would naturally be altered by either increasing the concentration by adding additional nutrients or through diluting the solution by adding water. Furthermore, plants are well known to absorb water via their root system. One of ordinary skill would understand that due to this condition, the water/solution level would be reduced over time. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to both control nutrient concentration as well as the solution amount by adding additional water into the collection pan or reservoir as needed as Whitcher requires both for growing the plants in the hydroponic system. Using a pump for these tasks would be an obvious choice since they are a well-known tool for moving fluids and a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp.
Referring to claims 22 and 41, these are rejected on the same basis as set forth hereinabove.
Claim(s) 7-8, 26-27 and 45-46 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whitcher as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 9-16, 19-21, 25, 28-35, 38-40, 44, 47-54 and 57 above and further in view of Greenberg et al [Greenberg] PGPUB 2016/0219794.
Referring to claims 7-8, while Whitcher teaches adjusting/modifying temperature, humidity, gas content, airflow, water flow, lighting, etc… to optimize growing conditions [0020], it is not explicitly taught to further modify a timing and amounts of nutrient deposits. Greenberg teaches a hydroponic system which allows for adjusting a nutrient feeding schedule (i.e., timing) and a nutrient feeding composition (i.e., amounts of deposits) [0098]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to include the teachings of Greenberg into Whitcher because doing so would allow for control of further variables for optimizing growing conditions [0009].
Referring to claims 26-27 and 45-46, these are rejected on the same basis as set forth hereinabove.
Claim(s) 17, 36 and 55 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Whitcher as applied to claims 1-2, 6, 9-16, 19-21, 25, 28-35, 38-40, 44, 47-54 and 57 above and further in view of Bongartz et al1 [Bongartz] PGPUB 2020/0184153.
Referring to claim 17, while Whitcher teaches controlling and modifying lighting, it is not explicitly taught to modify a recipe. Whitcher does teach controlling a lighting [0008-0009]. Bongartz teaches that light and growth recipes can be modified over time in a hydroponic system based on detected conditions such as deviations in growth, disease and pest detection, etc… [0118, 1588, 1976, 2891]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to include the teachings of Bongartz into Whitcher because doing so would help adapt lighting to the specific growth states of the plants as well as combat against pests and diseases [0124, 1709].
Referring to claims 36 and 55, these are rejected on the same basis as set forth hereinabove.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18, 37 and 56 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.
REASONS FOR ALLOWANCE
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art of record does not teach or suggest either individually or in combination, initiating an anti-blinding protocol in response to detecting an object.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK A CONNOLLY whose telephone number is (571)272-3666. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 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, Thomas Lee can be reached at 571-272-3667. 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.
/MARK A CONNOLLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115 10/12/25
1 Cited in the previous office action.