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
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1, 15, and 20 are amended. No claims are cancelled or added. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 USC 103.
Response to Amendment
The amendments to claims 1, 15, and 20 are addressed in the new grounds of rejection.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 with respect to 35 USC 102 and 103 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. The arguments are directed at the amended limitations which are addressed in the new grounds of rejection.
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.
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) 1-10, 12-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 2020/0142365 A1) in view of Park et al. (US 219/0158309 A1) in view of Cella (US 20210272394 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Sharma discloses a building system of a building, the building system comprising (Abstract “A building management system includes one or more processing circuits.”) one or more memory devices storing instructions thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: (Fig. 11B “Processor” “Memory”)
receive an indication to generate a digital twin ([0169] “The twin manager 1176 can be configured to manage the digital twin model 1174 and/or any other digital twin models. The twin manager 1176 can be configured to receive the current environmental inputs 1168 from the physical device 1166.” The parent digital twin may represent the overall building environment.);
identify one or more lower level digital twins that depend from the digital twin based on a hierarchy of digital twins ([0132] “In some embodiments, the virtual building representation 802 can include various digital twins. The digital twins may be digital representations of physical equipment in the building 10.” The building digital twin has lower-level equipment digital twins representing specific equipment.), wherein the digital twin includes one or more first operational capabilities ([0132] “In some embodiments, the virtual building representation 802 can include various digital twins. The digital twins may be digital representations of physical equipment in the building 10.” [0059] “A BAS can include, for example, a HVAC system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alarming system, any other system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof.” The BAS digital twin capabilities include managing various systems. ) and the one or more lower level digital twins include one or more second operational capabilities ([0132] “In some embodiments, the virtual building representation 802 can include various digital twins. The digital twins may be digital representations of physical equipment in the building 10.“ [0061] “HVAC system 100 is shown to include a chiller 102, a boiler 104, and a rooftop air handling unit (AHU) 106.” The HVAC digital twin is associated with HVAC operational capabilities.);
cause, based on the one or more relationships, the digital twin to inherit the one or more second operational capabilities from the one or more lower level digital twins ([0059] “A BAS can include, for example, a HVAC system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alarming system, any other system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof.” Because the Building Automation System (BAS) manages various systems, it inherits the capabilities of those systems. The high level BAS represents the building control system as a whole which is a digital twin of the physical controls. The relationship between an individual system such as HVAC and the higher-level BAS is a lower-level vs higher-level relationship. The building functions are controlled based on the hierarchy. Fig. 5 shows the building) by adding the one or more second operational capabilities of the one or more lower level digital twins to the digital twin ([0059] “A BAS can include, for example, a HVAC system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alarming system, any other system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof.” Because the Building Automation System (BAS) manages various systems, it inherits the capabilities of those systems. The high-level BAS represents the building control system as a whole which is a digital twin of the physical controls. The relationship between an individual system such as HVAC and the higher-level BAS is a lower-level vs higher-level relationship. The building functions are controlled based on the hierarchy.); and
execute the digital twin causing the one or more first operational capabilities and the one or more second operational capabilities to be performed ([0002] “A building management system (BMS) is, in general, a system of devices configured to control, monitor, and manage equipment in or around a building or building area. A BMS can include, for example, a HVAC system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alerting system, any other system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof.” [0133] “For example, utilizing digital twin for the building 10 improves the maintenance, performance, and/or design and development the physical devices of the building 10.”).
Sharma does not disclose [determining] one or more relationships between the digital twin and the one or more lower level digital twins; and cause, based on the one or more relationships, the digital twin to inherit the one or more second operational capabilities from the one or more lower level digital twins by adding the one or more second operational capabilities of the one or more lower level digital twins to the digital twin.
Park teaches disclose [determining] one or more relationships between the digital twin and the one or more lower level digital twins (Abstract “generate relationships between entities based on the building data, wherein the relationships comprises a pair of relationships between a first entity and a second entity of the entities representing two different types of relationships” [0197] “Building management platform 102 can create a sensor object smart entity for each sensor that communicates with Building management platform 102. Each sensor object smart entity may include one or more static attributes that describe the corresponding sensor, one or more dynamic attributes that indicate the most recent values collected by the sensor, and/or one or more relational attributes that relate sensors object smart entities to each other and/or to other types of smart entities ( e.g., space entities, system entities, data entities, etc.).”, Fig. 13-14 For example, the Space 1314 has the “contains” relationship with the Smart TV 1302.);
Sharma and Park are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” building management.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma and Park before him or her, to modify Sharma to include determining relationships as taught by Park.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Park [0330] “These applications may require, or benefit from information modeling including interconnected entities.”
Sharma and Park do not disclose cause, based on the one or more relationships, the digital twin to inherit the one or more second operational capabilities from the one or more lower level digital twins by adding the one or more second operational capabilities of the one or more lower level digital twins to the digital twin.
Cella teaches cause, based on the one or more relationships, the digital twin to inherit the one or more second operational capabilities from the one or more lower level digital twins by adding the one or more second operational capabilities of the one or more lower level digital twins to the digital twin. ([0502] “In embodiments, digital twin 60136 encompasses hierarchies and functional relationship between the vehicle and various components and subsystem and may be represented as a system of systems. Thus, the digital twin 60136 of the vehicle 60104 may be seen to encompass the digital twins of the vehicle subsystems like vehicle interior layout, electrical and fuel subsystems as well as digital twins of components like engine, brake, fuel pump, alternator, etc.”)
Sharma, Park, and Cella are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” digital twin modelling.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma, Park, and Cella before him or her, to modify Sharma and Park to include inheriting capabilities as taught by Cella.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Cella [0502] “In embodiments, digital twin 60136 of the vehicle 60104 is a virtual replication of hardware, software, and processes in the vehicle 60104 that combines real-time and historical operational data and includes structural models, mathematical models, physical process models, software process models etc.”
Regarding claim 2, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, and Sharma discloses wherein the digital twin includes first attributes, wherein the first attributes include first points of the digital twin ([0096] “For example, the demand response policy definitions can specify which equipment can be turned on or off in response to particular demand inputs, how long a system or piece of equipment should be turned off, what setpoints can be changed, what the allowable set point adjustment range is, how long to hold a high demand setpoint before returning to a normally scheduled setpoint, how close to approach capacity limits, which equipment modes to utilize, the energy transfer rates (e.g., the maximum rate, an alarm rate, other rate boundary information, etc.) into and out of energy storage devices (e.g., thermal storage tanks, battery banks, etc.), and when to dispatch on-site generation of energy (e.g., via fuel cells, a motor generator set, etc.).” The demand response unit is part of the BAS (Fig. 4). The BAS digital twin may include system-level attribute points such as energy transfer rates, capacity limits, etc. [0132] “In some embodiments, the virtual building representation 802 can include various digital twins. The digital twins may be digital representations of physical equipment in the building 10.”);
wherein the one or more lower level digital twins include second attributes, wherein the second attributes include second points of the one or more lower level digital twins ([0063] “AHU 106 can receive input from sensors located within AHU 106 and/or within the building zone and can adjust the flow rate, temperature, or other attributes of the supply airflow through AHU 106 to achieve setpoint conditions for the building zone.” [0132] “In some embodiments, the virtual building representation 802 can include various digital twins. The digital twins may be digital representations of physical equipment in the building 10.“ The HVAC digital twin can include a AHU digital twin with flow rate setpoint attributes.).
Regarding claim 3, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 2, and Sharma discloses wherein the one or more first operational capabilities operate on the first attributes (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0132], [0059], [0096] The BAS operates based on the demand response policies.);
wherein the one or more second operational capabilities operate on the second attributes (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0132], [0063] The HVAC system including the AHU operates based on the HVAC/AHU setpoints.).
Regarding claim 4, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, but Sharma does not disclose wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to store a building graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges, the plurality of nodes representing entities of the building and the plurality of edges representing relationships between the entities of the building; wherein the building graph indicates the hierarchy of digital twins based on the plurality of nodes and the plurality of edges.
Park teaches wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to store a building graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges (Fig. 13 The Space 1314 includes smart TV 1302. The nodes and edges create a graph.), the plurality of nodes representing entities of the building and the plurality of edges representing relationships between the entities of the building (Fig. 13 The Space 1314 includes smart TV 1302. The nodes and edges create a graph.); wherein the building graph indicates the hierarchy of digital twins based on the plurality of nodes and the plurality of edges (Fig. 13 The edge between the TV and the Space includes the term “contains”. This shows that the space is above the TV in the hierarchy because the space contains the tv, but the tv does not contain the space.).
Sharma and Park are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” building modelling.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma and Park before him or her, to modify Sharma to include a graph as taught by Park.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Park [0330] “The space graph is configured to enable flexible data modeling for advanced analytics, control, and/or artificial intelligence applications, in some embodiments. These applications may require, or benefit from information modeling including interconnected entities.
Regarding claim 5, Sharma in view of Park and Cella teaches the building system of claim 4, and Sharma discloses wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to execute the digital twin causing the one or more first operational capabilities and the one or more second operational capabilities to be performed based on information of the building graph (Although Sharma does not disclose the building graph, the information of the claimed graph is the hierarchy information. Sharma does teach the hierarchy information, which is the same information as the information of the building graph. [0132], [0059], [0096] The BAS operates based on the demand response policies and information from the lower subsystems. [0063] The HVAC system including the AHU operates based on the HVAC/AHU setpoints and may send the information up the hierarchy to the BAS.).
Regarding claim 6, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, and Sharma discloses wherein the indication to generate the digital twin is a particular indication to generate the digital twin to perform one or more actions to meet an objective for a building solution (Fig. 9, Fig. 13 The parent digital twin including the subsystem digital twins are used for controlling the building subsystems.);
wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to identify the one or more lower level digital twins based on whether the one or more second operational capabilities are required for performing the objective for the building solution (Fig. 13, [0085] “Interface 407 can facilitate communications between BAS controller 366 and external applications ( e.g., monitoring and reporting applications 422, enterprise control applications 426, remote systems and applications 444, applications residing on client devices 448, etc.) for allowing user control, monitoring, and adjustment to BAS controller 366 and/or subsystems 428.” The subsystems are monitored and controlled by the BAS controller to meet the BAS controller objectives for the respective subsystems. The controlling is based on and including the digital twins as in Fig. 13.).
Regarding claim 7, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 6, and Sharma discloses wherein the one or more lower level digital twins each operate to meet a second objective for a second building solution ([0084] “Lighting subsystem 442 can include any number of light fixtures, ballasts, lighting sensors, dimmers, or other devices configured to controllably adjust the amount of light provided to a building space.” There are other subsystems besides the HVAC subsystem such as the lighting subsystem. The subsystem is controlled based on the digital twins (Fig. 13) and is controlled to meet a lighting objective for the space.).
Regarding claim 8, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, and Sharma discloses wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to: ([0087] Still referring to FIG. 4, BAS controller 366 is shown to include a processing circuit 404 including a processor 406 and memory 408.), but Sharma does not explicitly disclose receive, from a user device, a first user input identifying a first lower level digital twin and a second lower level digital twin of the one or more lower level digital twins and
receive, from the user device, a second user input connecting the first lower level digital twin and the second lower level digital twin in a particular order.
Park teaches receive, from a user device, a first user input identifying a first lower level digital twin and a second lower level digital twin of the one or more lower level digital twins (Fig. 15 The Space 1314 has a Door Lock 1322 which has a Card Reader 1324. The Door lock is a first lower level digital twin, and the card reader is a second lower level digital twin. [0068] “In some embodiments, the instructions cause the one or more processors to receiving, by the processing circuit, a request input from a user device in a natural language, generating, by the processing circuit via a chatbot system, the query by performing natural language processing on the request input, and providing, by the processing circuit, the information to the user device.”), and
receive, from the user device, a second user input connecting the first lower level digital twin and the second lower level digital twin in a particular order (Fig. 15 The Space 1314 has a Door Lock 1322 which has a Card Reader 1324. The Door lock is a first lower level digital twin, and the card reader is a second lower level digital twin. [0068] “In some embodiments, the instructions cause the one or more processors to receiving, by the processing circuit, a request input from a user device in a natural language, generating, by the processing circuit via a chatbot system, the query by performing natural language processing on the request input, and providing, by the processing circuit, the information to the user device.” The Door Lock and Card Reader are in a particular position or order in the graph based on their position in the hierarchy.),.
Sharma and Park are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” building modelling.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma and Park before him or her, to modify Sharma to include a graph as taught by Park.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Park [0330] “The space graph is configured to enable flexible data modeling for advanced analytics, control, and/or artificial intelligence applications, in some embodiments. These applications may require, or benefit from information modeling including interconnected entities.
Regarding claim 9, Sharma in view of Park and Cella teaches the building system of claim 8, and Sharma discloses wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to: ([0087] Still referring to FIG. 4, BAS controller 366 is shown to include a processing circuit 404 including a processor 406 and memory 408.), but Sharma does not explicitly disclose receive, from the user device, a third user input identifying operational capabilities of the first lower level digital twin and the second lower level digital twin.
Park teaches receive, from the user device, a third user input identifying operational capabilities of the first lower level digital twin and the second lower level digital twin ([0273] “The behavioral attribute may define a function of the object entity, for example, based on inputs, capabilities, and/or permissions. For example, behavioral attributes may define the types of inputs that the object entity is configured to accept, how the object entity is expected to respond under certain conditions, the types of functions that the object entity is capable of performing, and the like.”, [0068] ).
Sharma and Park are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” building modelling.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma and Park before him or her, to modify Sharma to include a graph as taught by Park.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Park [0330] “The space graph is configured to enable flexible data modeling for advanced analytics, control, and/or artificial intelligence applications, in some embodiments. These applications may require, or benefit from information modeling including interconnected entities.
Regarding claim 10, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, but Sharma does not disclose wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to identify the one or more lower level digital twins that depend from the digital twin based on the hierarchy of digital twins by: analyzing a data structure including indications of a plurality of entities of the building associated with the one or more lower level digital twins and the digital twin and relationships between the plurality of entities of the building, wherein the relationships between the plurality of entities of the building indicate that the one or more lower level digital twins depend from the digital twin.
Park teaches analyzing a data structure including indications of a plurality of entities of the building associated with the one or more lower level digital twins and the digital twin and relationships between the plurality of entities of the building ([0463] “In step 1804, the space graph learning service 1104 can determine based on the new building data of the step 1802 one or more new relationships for the space graph, the space graph including one or more relationships between one or more entities, and data for the one or more entities. In some embodiments, the space graph learning service 1104 analyzes the newly ingested building data of the space graph database 1120 utilizing various relationship event rules ( e.g., the rules as described with reference to FIG. 14) and/or machine learning models to generate the new relationships.”), wherein the relationships between the plurality of entities of the building indicate that the one or more lower level digital twins depend from the digital twin (Fig. 16 “controls” The edge description “controls” indicates that the controller is higher on the hierarchy than the node being controlled. [0463] New relationships are generated based on the data.).
Sharma and Park are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” building modelling.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma and Park before him or her, to modify Sharma to include a graph as taught by Park.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Park [0330] “The space graph is configured to enable flexible data modeling for advanced analytics, control, and/or artificial intelligence applications, in some embodiments. These applications may require, or benefit from information modeling including interconnected entities.
Regarding claim 12, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 1, and Sharma discloses wherein the one or more first operational capabilities include one or more first action rules and one or more first trigger rules that when triggered, cause the one or more first action rules to be performed ([0095]-[0096] The demand response layer at the BAS level includes demand response policies and control actions. The control actions are initiated based on the policies.);
wherein the one or more second operational capabilities include one or more second action rules and one or more second trigger rules that when triggered, cause the one or more second action rules to be performed ([0063] “AHU 106 can receive input from sensors located within AHU 106 and/or within the building zone and can adjust the flow rate, temperature, or other attributes of the supply airflow through AHU 106 to achieve setpoint conditions for the building zone.” If the sensor input meets the rule conditions, the AHU performs a capability action.).
Regarding claim 13, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 12, and Sharma discloses at least one of the one or more second trigger rules, when triggered, cause at least one of the one or more first action rules to be performed (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0063], [0093]-[0095] The AHU rule causes the AHU to take an action such as adjusting the flow rate. Because of the AHU rule and action, the demand response unit reacts to the change in conditions.).
Regarding claim 14, Sharma in view of Park and Cella discloses the building system of claim 12, and Sharma discloses wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to: ([0087] Still referring to FIG. 4, BAS controller 366 is shown to include a processing circuit 404 including a processor 406 and memory 408.)
store a data structure including information describing a plurality of entities of the building, the plurality of entities including equipment (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0103] FDD layer 416 can be configured to store or access a variety of different system data stores ( or data points for live data). FDD layer 416 can use some content of the data stores to identify faults at the equipment level (e.g., specific chiller, specific AHU, specific terminal unit, etc.) and other content to identify faults at component or subsystem levels.” [0145] “The cloud platform 502 is shown to include a data lake 1018. The data lake 1018 can be a storage repository that holds a large amount of raw data of the sensors 1010 and/or the actuators 1012.);
determine that the one or more first trigger rules are triggered by comparing at least some of the information of the data structure against one or more conditions of the one or more first trigger rules (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0095]-[0096] The demand response layer at the BAS level includes demand response policies and control actions. The control actions are initiated based on the policies. The demand response actions are based on the sensor data.);
determine an action of the one or more first action rules responsive to determining that the one or more first trigger rules are triggered by executing the one or more first action rules (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0095]-[0096] The demand response layer at the BAS level includes demand response policies and control actions. The control actions are initiated based on the policies. ); and
cause one or more devices to operate based on the action determined by the one or more first action rules (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, only one of the listed alternatives must be taught. [0095]-[0096] The demand response layer at the BAS level includes demand response policies and control actions. The control actions are initiated based on the policies. One action that could be taken is dispatching on-site generation of energy as in [0096].).
Regarding claim 15, Sharma discloses a method for a building, comprising: ([0014] Another implementation of the present disclosure is a method. The method includes receiving, from a physical building device of a building, environmental inputs and environmental outputs of the physical building device;). The remainder of the claim is rejected in the same way as claim 1.
Claim 16 is rejected in the same way as claim 4.
Claim 17 is rejected in the same way as claim 6.
Claim 18 is rejected in the same way as claim 10.
Regarding claim 20, Sharma discloses a digital twin system (Abstract “A building management system includes one or more processing circuits.” ‘’generate a building device digital twin’), comprising: one or more memory devices storing instructions thereon; and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions, causing the one or more processors to: (Fig. 11B “Processor” “Memory”). The remainder of the claim is rejected in the same way as claim 1.
Claim(s) 11 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 2020/0142365 A1) in view of Park et al. (US 219/0158309 A1) in view of Cella (US 20210272394 A1) in view of Cella et al. (US 2023/0058169 A1), herein referred to as Cella2.
Regarding claim 11, Sharma in view of Park and Cella teaches the building system of claim 10, but Sharma, Park, and Cella do not teach wherein the one or more lower level digital twins include a peer group digital twin;
wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to: identify a first entity of an entity type and a second entity of the entity type in the data structure;
generate the peer group digital twin for the first entity and the second entity, the peer group digital twin including one or more operational capabilities associated with the first entity and the second entity; and cause the digital twin to inherit the one or more operational capabilities.
Cella2 teaches wherein the one or more lower level digital twins include a peer group digital twin ([0588] “The default data types, entities, features and granularities may be determined based on a model of an organization, which may, in tum, be based on an industry-specific or domain-specific model or template, such as one that is based on a typical organizational structure for an industry”. The digital twins may be based on a common template.);
wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to:
identify a first entity of an entity type and a second entity of the entity type in the data structure ([0588] Multiple digital twins may be based on the same template.);
generate the peer group digital twin for the first entity and the second entity ([0588] “In some of these embodiments, the respective configuration of each type of executive digital twin may be predefined with default digital twin data types, default relationships among entities, default features, and default granularities, among other elements.” The template for the digital twins is defined.), the peer group digital twin including one or more operational capabilities associated with the first entity and the second entity ([0588] The template may include features of the digital twin.); and cause the digital twin to inherit the one or more operational capabilities ([0588] “The defaults can then be reconfigured in a user interface of an authorized user to reflect company-specific variations from the industry-specific or domain-specific defaults.” Each instance of the template originates with the same features/capabilities and may be updated if needed.).
Sharma, Park, Cella, and Cella2 are analogous because they are from the “same field of endeavor” digital twins.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Sharma, Park, Cella, and Cella2 before him or her, to modify Sharma, Park, and Cella to include templates as taught by Cella2.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been Cella2 [0588] “Features may include what data is permitted to be accessed, what views are represented, levels of granularity of views, what analytic models and results can be accessed, what simulations can be undertaken, what changes can be made (including changes relevant to permissions of other users), communication and collaboration features (including receipt of alerts and the capacity to communicate directly to digital twins of other roles and users), control features, and many others”.
Claim 19 is rejected in the same way as claim 11.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cella et al. (US 20210133670 A1) discloses [1160] “As such, different digital twins may share the same data and different digital twin perspectives can be the results of a set of metadata built on top of a digital twin data model or data environment. In embodiments, the digital twin data model provides the details of the information to be stored and it is used to build a layered system where the final computer software code is able to represent the information in the lower levels in a form that is appropriate for the digital twin perspective being used.”.
Cella et al. (WO 2021/222384 A1) discloses [0732] “In embodiments, digital twin 60136 encompasses hierarchies and functional relationships between the vehicle and various components and subsystems and may be represented as a system of systems.”.
Roemerman et al. (US 20200394351 A1) discloses [0110] “From this one can see how using a hierarchy among the digital twins to automatically configure and provision the twins, lessens the impact of complexity and diversity, lowers the cost of digital twin deployment, and improves the fidelity of both individual digital twins, and of the plurality of digital twins acting in concert as a system.”.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TROY A MAUST whose telephone number is (571)272-1931. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8AM to 4PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rehana Perveen, can be reached at telephone number (571) 272-3676. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/T.A.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2189
/REHANA PERVEEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2189
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