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
The instant application having Application No. 18/048,294 filed on 10/20/2022 is presented for examination.
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Authorization for Internet Communications
The examiner encourages Applicant to submit an authorization to communicate with the examiner via the Internet by making the following statement (from MPEP 502.03):
“Recognizing that Internet communications are not secure, I hereby authorize the USPTO to communicate with the undersigned and practitioners in accordance with 37 CFR 1.33 and 37 CFR 1.34 concerning any subject matter of this application by video conferencing, instant messaging, or electronic mail. I understand that a copy of these communications will be made of record in the application file.”
Please note that the above statement can only be submitted via Central Fax, Regular postal mail, or EFS Web.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609, the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statement dated 10/20/2022 is acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Volkerink (US 2020/0265288).
As per claim 1, Volkerink discloses a computer implemented method for managing nonintelligent items, the computer implemented method comprising:
identifying, by a computer system, a workflow to be performed (Paragraph 31 “a wireless infrastructure deployment and management system for intuitively guiding a person through a process of deploying, operating, and maintaining wireless tags (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy tags) that are associated with infrastructure and movable items and persons within an environment (e.g., an office building, manufacturing plant, storage facility, a parking lot, a construction site, or other indoor or outdoor locations) to enable a variety of different applications, including asset and person tracking, navigation, and workflow automation.”);
identifying, by the computer system, a group of the nonintelligent items involved in actions for the workflow (Paragraph 33 “In some examples, the adhesive tape platforms are used in various aspects of logistics management, including sealing parcels, transporting parcels, tracking parcels, monitoring the conditions of parcels, inventorying parcels, and verifying package security.”);
attaching, by the computer system, a set of computing devices to the group of the nonintelligent items to convert the group of the nonintelligent items into a group of converted nonintelligent items (Paragraph 34 “a wireless tag includes a plurality of segments that can be separated from one another (e.g., by cutting, tearing, peeling, or the like) and adhesively attached to a variety of different surfaces to inconspicuously implement any of a wide variety of different wireless communications based network communications and transducing (e.g., sensing, actuating, etc.) applications. Once deployed, each wireless tag can function, for example, as an adhesive tape, label, sticker, decal, or the like, and as a wireless communications device.”); and
performing, by the computer system, the actions in the workflow using the group of converted nonintelligent items (Paragraph 43).
As per claim 2, Volkerink further disclose wherein identifying, by the computer system, the workflow to be performed comprises:
determining, by the computer system, available nonintelligent items that are available for use in workflows (Fig. 18, 182); and
selecting, by the computer system, the workflow from the workflows based on the available nonintelligent items (Fig. 18, 184).
As per claim 3, Volkerink further discloses further comprising:
selecting, by the computer system, a type of computing device for the set of computing devices for a nonintelligent item in the group of the nonintelligent items based on an action in the workflow in which the nonintelligent item will be involved in performing (Fig. 18, steps 188, 190).
As per claim 4, Volkerink further discloses wherein attaching, by the computer system, the set of computing devices to the group of the nonintelligent items to convert the group of the nonintelligent items into the group of converted nonintelligent items comprises:
selecting, by the computer system, the group of the nonintelligent items for a conversion to a group of converted nonintelligent items based on a sequence of the actions in the workflow (Paragraph 34); and
attaching, by the computer system, the set of computing devices to the group of the nonintelligent items selected for the conversion (Paragraph 34 “a wireless tag includes a plurality of segments that can be separated from one another (e.g., by cutting, tearing, peeling, or the like) and adhesively attached to a variety of different surfaces to inconspicuously implement any of a wide variety of different wireless communications based network communications and transducing (e.g., sensing, actuating, etc.) applications. Once deployed, each wireless tag can function, for example, as an adhesive tape, label, sticker, decal, or the like, and as a wireless communications device.”);
As per claim 5, Volkerink further discloses further comprising:
transferring, by the computer system, a number of computing devices in the set of computing devices from a number of the converted nonintelligent items in the group of converted nonintelligent items to a number of the nonintelligent items without computing devices based on a sequence of the actions to be performed in the workflow (Fig. 18, 190).
As per claim 6, Volkerink further discloses wherein transferring, by the computer system, the number of computing devices in the set of computing devices from the number of the converted nonintelligent items in the group of converted nonintelligent items to the number of the nonintelligent items without computing devices based on the sequence of the actions to be performed in the workflow comprises:
selecting, by the computer system, a selected converted nonintelligent item and a new nonintelligent item for a conversion based the actions that have been performed and the actions that have not been performed in the sequence of the actions in the workflow (Fig. 18, step 192); and
moving, by the computer system, a computing device from the selected converted nonintelligent item to the new nonintelligent item (Fig. 18, step 192).
As per claim 7, Volkerink further discloses wherein the selected converted nonintelligent item no longer needs the computing device for an upcoming action in the actions that has not been performed in the sequence of the actions in the workflow and the new nonintelligent item needs the computing device for an upcoming action in the actions that have not been performed in the sequence of the actions in the workflow (Paragraph 54).
As per claim 8, Volkerink further discloses wherein attaching, by the computer system, the set of computing devices to the set of the nonintelligent items comprises:
attaching, by the computer system, a set of computing devices to the group of the nonintelligent items using a robotic system (Paragraph 34).
As per claim 9, Volkerink further discloses wherein performing, by the computer system, the actions in the workflow using the group of converted nonintelligent items comprises:
performing, by the computer system, the actions in the workflow using the group of converted nonintelligent items and a group of intelligent items, wherein the group of converted nonintelligent items and the group of intelligent items communicate with each other in performing the actions in the workflow (Paragraph 44).
As per claims 10-18, they are system claims having similar limitations as cited in claims 1-9 and are rejected under the same rationale.
As per claims 19 and 20, they are product claims having similar limitations as cited in claims 1 and 2 and are rejected under the same rationale.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY A MUDRICK whose telephone number is (571)270-3374. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm Central Time.
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, Pierre Vital can be reached at (571)272-4215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TIMOTHY A MUDRICK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2198 11/17/2025
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