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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the communication(s) filed on 12 December 2025.
Claim(s) 1-23 is/are cancelled.
Claim(s) 24, 26-27, 29, 31, 33-34, 36, 38, 40-41 and 43 is/are amended.
Claim(s) 24-43 is/are currently pending and have been examined.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12 December 2025 has been entered.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 02 May 2025 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of US 11,526,946 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12 December 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections under 35 U.S.C. §103
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent claims 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 Interpretation
Examiner notes that a size and/or condition of an insurable area are inherently associated with and/or indicate a cost of the insurable area when taken in a context of insurance. As such, the phrase “the user-provided information being associated with a cost of the insurable area” and “user-provided value information indicating a cost of the insurable area” recited in the independent claims is inherently fulfilled by the user-provided value information including a size and/or condition of the insurable area as is already claimed in the same limitation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 24, 26-31, 33-38 and 40-43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Trandal et al. (US 7,962,485 B1 hereinafter Trandal) in view of Foster (US 9,014,726 B1 hereinafter Foster) further in view of Limas et al. (US 9,792,654 B1 hereinafter Limas).
Claim 24
A method for a virtual inspection of an insurable area, the method comprising
associating a user of a user mobile device with a user account, wherein the user account is associated with an insurable area; (Trandal discloses signing up with account and mobile device. See at least Figs. 4 and 5 and column 16, lines 49-62. Trandal discloses record for an insured home. See at least column 7, lines 41-50. Trandal discloses system including collection of locations. See at least column 6, lines 8-16.)
sending, from the user account to a remote server, a request to perform the virtual inspection of the insurable area and a description of the insurable area, the description including a location of the insurable area and user-provided value information including a size and/or a condition of the insurable area, the user-provided value information being associated with a cost of the insurable area; (Trandal discloses user requesting account for inspection. See at least column 16, lines 49-67. Trandal discloses user inputting size information and location information of rooms. See at least column 12, lines 1-53.)
initiating, via a wireless connection between a computing device associated with a live agent and the user mobile device, a control of the user mobile device for capturing respective images to validate the description of the insurable area; (Trandal discloses instructions for the user. See at least column 8, line 45 – column 9, line 12. Trandal discloses capturing images in response to instructions. See at least column 5, lines 23-58. Trandal discloses using a combination of user selected locations (i.e. user-provided location information) together with downloaded GPS coordinates (i.e. device-provided location information) to create a rendition of a user’s residence including various rooms and room sizes (i.e. validating the user-provided information). See at least column 12, lines 1-53. Trandal discloses virtual connection with a live operator over wireless connection. See at least column 4, line 64 – column 5, line 13 and column 11, lines 27-41. Although Trandal does disclose capturing images in response to instructions, they might not explicitly disclose initiating control of the user mobile device with a live agent and the live agent capturing images. Limas teaches a live agent remote controlling a user’s video feed, capturing images, and annotating data to said images. See at least column 6, line 54 – column 7, line 15, column 8, lines 28-45, and column 10, line 58 – column 11, line 10.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to initiate control of the user’s mobile device to enable a live agent to control a user’s camera as taught by Limas in the System of Trandal because Limas additionally teaches the motivation that it lets an agent obtain damage information quickly and efficiently, without the need for a personal visit from an insurance company adjuster to the insured property. See at least column 10, line 58 – column 11, line 10.
Also, initiating control of the user’s mobile device to enable a live agent to control a user’s camera as taught by Limas in the System of Trandal is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.)
capturing, by the live agent and using the user mobile device, the respective images; (Trandal discloses capturing images in response to instructions. See at least column 5, lines 23-58. Examiner incorporates the combination shown above with Limas herein to teach the live agent capturing the images.)
analyzing, by the remote server, the respective images to determine respective locations of the user mobile device when capturing the respective images and encoding location information with the respective images; and (Trandal discloses using a combination of user selected locations (i.e. user-provided location information) together with downloaded GPS coordinates (i.e. device-provided location information) to create a rendition of a user’s residence including various rooms and room sizes (i.e. validating the user-provided information). See at least column 12, lines 1-53. Although Trandal does disclose validating location information using GPS coordinates and user data, they might not explicitly disclose analyzing the taken images to determine locations and perform said validation. Foster teaches using visual feature matching of geotagged photographs of a location to confirm said geotags. See at least column 6, lines 42-51.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to validate the photograph locations of Trandal using feature matching as taught by Foster because Foster additionally teaches the motivation that such feature matching can be used to confirm otherwise ambiguous geotagged photographs. See at least column 6, lines 42-51.)
validating, by the remote server, the respective images by comparing the respective locations of the user mobile device to the location of the insurable area, wherein the validating includes determining whether the respective locations of the user mobile device correspond to the location of the insurable area; and (Trandal discloses using a combination of user selected locations (i.e. user-provided location information) together with downloaded GPS coordinates (i.e. device-provided location information) to create a rendition of a user’s residence including various rooms and room sizes (i.e. validating the user-provided information). See at least column 12, lines 1-53. Examiner further incorporates the above combination with Foster herein using the same rationale for usage of image analysis for geotag validation.)
uploading, to the remote server and based on the validated respective images, the respective images together with the encoded location information. (Trandal discloses uploading images and user entered data. See at least column 5, lines 23-58.)
Claim 26
The method of claim 24, wherein the request to perform the virtual inspection includes a request to establish a virtual connection with a live agent via the wireless connection. (Trandal discloses virtual connection with a live operator over wireless connection. See at least column 4, line 64 – column 5, line 13 and column 11, lines 27-41.)
Claim 27
The method of claim 26, further comprising providing a set of instructions to the user account using the live agent and the live agent is simulated by a computer. (Trandal discloses user initiating an interactive voice response session (i.e. simulated agent providing instructions) using automatic speech recognition for data entry. See at least column 15, lines 9-28.)
Claim 28
The method of claim 24, wherein the location information includes one or more geotags that indicate locations where one or more of the respective images were captured and the respective images include one or more videos or still images. (Trandal discloses GPS coordinates (i.e. geotags) that indicate location of inventory. See at least column 17, lines 36-45. Trandal discloses images including scanned images, camera images, or other optical image capture. See at least column 4, lines 3-9.)
Claim 29
The method 24, wherein the capturing of the respective images comprises capturing one or more portions of the insurable area. (The combination with Limas above shows the capturing including capturing one or more portions of the insurable area which Examiner incorporates herein.)
Claim 30
The method of claim 24, wherein the user-provided value information is generated from a set of user inputs describing the insurable area. (Trandal at Fig. 19.)
Claim 31
A system, comprising:
at least one data processor; (Trandal discloses a processor. See at least column 4, lines 18-27.)
a user mobile device, wherein the user mobile device is associated with a user and a user account, and the user account is associated with an insurable area; (Trandal discloses signing up with account and mobile device. See at least Figs. 4 and 5 and column 16, lines 49-62.)
a remote server; and (Trandal discloses a remote server. See at least column 4, line 64 – column 5, line 12.)
at least one memory storing instructions, which when executed by the at least one data processor, result in operations comprising: (Trandal discloses memory storing instructions. See at least column 5, lines 14-22.)
…
The remainder of Claim 31 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 24 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 33
Claim 33 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 26 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 34
Claim 34 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 27 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 35
Claim 35 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 28 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 36
Claim 36 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 29 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 37
Claim 37 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 30 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 38
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer- executable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for virtual inspection, the method including: (Trandal discloses non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by computer terminals. See at least column 5, lines 14-22.)
…
The remainder of Claim 37 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 30 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 40
Claim 40 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 26 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 41
Claim 41 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 27 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 42
Claim 42 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 28 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 43
Claim 43 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 29 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim(s) 25, 32 and 39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Trandal et al. (US 7,962,485 B1 hereinafter Trandal) in view of Foster (US 9,014,726 B1 hereinafter Foster) further in view of Limas et al. (US 9,792,654 B1 hereinafter Limas) further in view of Stender et al. (US 2010/0174564 A1 hereinafter Stender).
Claim 25
The method of claim 24, further comprising:
receiving an insurance rate based on the respective images. (Although Trandal does disclose insuring the items captured, they might not explicitly disclose receiving an insurance rate based on the respective images. Stender teaches using a mobile device to provide insurance services including providing quotes for insuring a property by a mobile device sending photos of the property (see enable an insured to access services and information spanning the entire insurance relationship including: policy quotes; policy formation; asset, policy and insurance information; policy coverage and limit information; payment, billing and accounting information; and claim status information. Para 16, and para 22 “digital photographs, digital video recordings, and GPS information’)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to include in the inventory management system of Trandal the ability to provide an insurance quote based on a received set of image items as taught by Stender since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable. A person of ordinary skill would have understood prior art teachings, or what a person of ordinary skill would have known or could have done. Connecting insurers to potential insured by mobile device and images significantly reduces the amount of resources expended by the insureds and insurers to interact with one another see Stender at paragraph 5; Trandal for facilitating the insurance claims process and reducing the cost to the insurance industry of claims management see column 1, lines 57 to 61 “reducing the cost to the insurance industry”).
Claim 32
Claim 32 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 25 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Claim 39
Claim 39 is substantially similar to or broader than the corresponding elements in Claim 25 and is therefore rejected using similar reasoning.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADAM J HILMANTEL whose telephone number is (571)272-8984. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30AM-5:00PM.
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, Abhishek Vyas can be reached at (571) 270-1836. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ADAM HILMANTEL/Examiner, Art Unit 3691